How to Write Email That Gets Opened

In some of these tips, I disagree with traditional advice, and I'll tell you why.

1. Use a subject line that's descriptive. We are all deluged with email and wary of viruses. Help your reader out. Flag them as to subject matter.

2. Don't use all capital letters. It's not because they're "screaming," which is debatable by now, it's because it's much more work for your eyes to read words written in all caps. Psych 101. Use upper and lower case letters.

3. Take a tip from a marketing expert. Use a font people can read easily, i.e., serifed. Here I disagree with the current trend to use a font like Arial. A "serifed" font, such as Times New Roman or Calisto, has the lines at the bottoms and tops of the letters that are strong visual cues to the reader. Courier is the font to use when spacing matters; all letters and numbers take up the same space.

4. Don't spam.

5. Cut down on the graphics. Popular servers like hotmail.com don't have much storage space. Aol.com has trouble accepting graphics. Use links (or attachments) for charts and graphs, and make sure the links work before you send the email.

6. Make it easy for the reader to reach you. Initially, include contact information in your email--email address (some servers don't show this on the return and it takes a lot of time to retrieve it, trust me), website URL, phone number, name, title, street address, P.O. box, whatever it takes.

7. When in doubt, don't be cute.
That's what rules are for--to save you grief. Put a lid on your "personality" until you know the person and know what you're doing. Remain professional and go by the book. Use a salutation ("Dear") and a closing ("Sincerely"), paragraphs, proper punctuation and standard business format.

8. Spell correctly! If you can't spell, hire a secretary who can edit, and let her. Write it out in Word, use spell check, then cut and paste to email. Buy an email that has spell check. It's worth it. Learn or avoid the words everyone misspells: commitment, committing, affect, temperament, manageable, etc. [Check out this link: http://cctc2.commnet.edu/grammar/misspelled_words.htm]

9. Say what you need to say--short or long. I don't agree that emails must be short, though they should be to the point. Some emails need to be long. No email needs to ramble. If "Confirming our meeting at 4 p.m. tomorrow" will do it, stop there. Email can be a blackhole of miscommunication. Adding "please" and "I'd appreciate" and other amenities such as "when you have the time," is a good idea. I'd rather read a long polite email than a short one that's rude. Make your emails stand out by using good manners.

10. Make your emails work for you.
Your signature line(s) can contain all sorts of things that can help your business. Include your
title, the name of your business, your URL, a tagline, maybe a special.