Replies and attachments

If you want to give the perception of lazy, find a previous e-mail from the party you want to communicate with, hit reply and start typing about something completely irrelevant to the old e-mail’s subject.

Always start a new e-mail and add your contacts to your address book so you can add them to a new e-mail with one click.

Do not hesitate to change the subject field to reflect a different topic when an ongoing conversation takes a new direction.

Attachments

How do you think your relationship with a potential new customer/contact is enhanced when you send them that 10mb PowerPoint presentation they didn’t request and you fill up their inbox causing subsequent business correspondence to bounce as undeliverable? And, if they do not have PowerPoint, they wouldn’t be able open the file anyway!

Never assume your potential customers have the software you do to open any file you may arbitrarily send.

If you need to send a file (or combination of files) over 25mb in size, business courtesy dictates you ask the recipient first if it is okay to send a large file. Next, confirm they have the same software and version you do and what is the best time of day to send it to them to ensure they are available to download the large file and keep their e-mail flowing. Beware you may need to zip the file and never, ever shar epersonal information without protecting the file with a password and sending the password to the recipient separately.

Never send large attachments without warning, on weekends or after business hours when the recipient may not be there to keep their inbox clear.