Writing Effective E-Mail

The team that developed Writing Effective E-Mail polled businesspeople about their experience with email. Here are some of their responses:

• "We came to realize that our company's image rests with every employee who writes or answers email."
• "We spend a lot of time opening and reading email. If the message is clear, this is time well spent. But when the messages require further emails to explain the original email, time is wasted."
• "I often wonder, Should I use a greeting? If so, what kind of greeting? I usually use Sincerely for my closing, but I notice that most of the international emails close with Regards. Should I use Regards?"
• "If I'm sending an email to Sweden, do I write dates like we do here in the United States, or should I write them like they do in Sweden?"
• "Right now our biggest need is to learn how to use email to better manage our teams of workers. Our second challenge is to implement an email policy."

Everyone agrees email has the power to change a business quickly—for better or for worse. One of the biggest challenges most businesses face is to help every employee learn to write clear, professional emails that uphold the company's image and produce the desired results.