Effective E-mail

[EDITOR'S NOTE: THIS ARTICLE IS IN PROGRESS AND INCOMPLETE. TO BE COMPLETED AT A LATER TIME]

Today's e-mail is about the only asset that increasingly loses value the longer you own it. A six-year-old e-mail address is practically useless because it is bombarded hourly by spammers and malicious coded messages.

Often, users will just give up and abandon their mailboxes for new ones all around the Web, leaving orphan files to fill up and eventually be deleted.

Some estimates indicate that as much as 80 percent of today's e-mail traffic is spam. Instead of being a help to productivity and communication, e-mail is a time sop where people are busy trying to implement spam and anti-virus strategies that are counter-productive to just getting the job done.

This article will help you cope with your e-mail issues and hopefullly provide some relief. It also will tell you about the future of e-mail and some of the marvelous new advances that will transform e-mail into something quite useful.

How to get control of your e-mail

1. The first thing you should do a little "action" template that will guide the recipient about what this message is all about. It might look like this:

This email is: [x] actionable [ ] fyi [ ] social

Response needed: [ ] yes [x] up to you [ ] no

Time-sensitive: [ ] immediate [x] soon [ ] none

If you have a Mac, you can download a great little program called TextExpander that will, using a shortcut, put that template text in there. If you don't, maybe your e-mail program supports the automatic insertion of a header at the top of your message.

Now that this template thingy is in place at the top of your message, you can grade your message so that your recipient will be better able to respond prior to reading. To me, this is just good manners and your readers should appreciate that you are trying to save them some time.

2. ALWAYS have a Subject for your e-mail. A meaningful subject line. If you are reply to a person about something that is not about the Subject line that automatically gets inserted, CHANGE IT. When a thread migrates from one topic to another, I try to leave the original Subject in there but let the recipient know that I am talking about something different. Like this: Tuesday Planning Meeting >> Need to select images.

3. Have you noticed that people only answer one or two items in an e-mail? If you want answers to several issues, send several messages, each with a good meaningful Subject line. I know its stupid, but don't fight Mother Nature. Just do it. If you insist on putting several issues into the same message (like any sane person would expect to do), NUMBER EACH ISSUE. This will call attention to each issue and you may get a better, more complete response.

4. Here's the rule on who has the action item in an e-mail message. If your name is in the TO field, you are responsible for the content. If your name is in the CC field, you are being send this message for information purposes. If you are BCC'd in the message, then you are being informed without the others having to deal with the fact that you are in the conversation. That could be good and that could be bad. It can't

[MORE TO COME]

E-mail tips from Jerz at Seton Hill

43 Folders is a terrific site for improving productivity, working smarter, and learning to be more creative.

Writing more sensible e-mails - this is an old post but a good one -- and one that has hardly been heeded.

Another five tips -- You know, you can never have enough.

This is lifted from the University of Nebraska Web site and used without permission but it was so good that I had to have it. Using forms is the best way to safely get data from users, but the mailto: is a tried-and-true method for short periods and quick fixes. After you learn how to do this, read the section on obfuscating your e-mail address so that it cannot be easily harvested by the Bad Guys.

It is recommended that you use a process other than MailTo handle the e-mail process from your web site.
If you do use MailTo, please encode the included e-mail address(s) to reduce the spam for that address.
One routine to assist encoding and e-mail address is available at: http://www.ianr.unl.edu/email/encode/

The MailTo command can do more than enter a single e-mail address in the "Send To" field while activating your e-mail program. It can also:

Feature		Syntax
Address message to multiple recipients		, (comma separating e-mail addresses)
Add entry in the "Subject" field		subject=Subject Field Text
Add entry in the "Copy To" or "CC" field		cc=id@internet.node
Add entry in the "Blind Copy To" or "BCC" field		bcc=id@internet.node
Add entry in the "Body" field		body=Your message here Within the body use "%0A" for a new line, use "%0A%0A" for a new line preceded by a blank line (paragraph), see example below.

Notes:

" " (beginning and ending double quotes) are necessary if any spaces are used

Mailto parameter should be preceded by "?" for the first or only parameter and "&" for second and subsequent parameter.

Some examples, with actual HTML Code included, follow:

Simple MailTo

MailTo with Multiple Recipients

MailTo with Subject

MailTo with a Copy

MailTo with a Blind Copy

MailTo with message already started in Body

MailTo with multiline message in Body

NOTE: Use "%0A" for a new line, use "%0A%0A" for a new line preceded by a blank line.

Features may be used in combination

MailTo with Subject, a Recipient, a Copy and a Blind Copy

Remember to use only one ? (question mark), when providing multiple entries beyond e-mail address

Resources for Creating Web Pages

How to keep spam harvesters from capturing e-mail addresses used in your Web pages

Not foolproof, but good enough for most e-mail harvesting engines, this link generates code that foils the bad guys.

Add an action link to your e-mail

I also got this from 43 Folders.

This email is: [ ] actionable [ ] fyi [ ] social Response needed: [ ] yes [ ] up to you [ ] no Time-sensitive: [ ] immediate [ ] soon [ ] none

Perhaps a bit geeky, but its a step in the right direction of trying to prioritize messaging and separate casual FYI messages from messages that need action.

This site is called "Get the most out of e-mail." About 50 things, including how to send e-mail with PHP.

And another. This one contains good advice about using the subject line to help users see your purpose for sending.