The Art

1
The Art Science of Effective E-mail

• Adeo Communications Corporation
• www.adeo.com

2
Adeo Briefer

• Web development firm since 1995
• Offices HQ Toronto, Ottawa
• eBusiness focused
• Build bilingual Web sites (B2C), intranets (B2E)
  extranets (B2B)
• Recognized authority on user-centric design

• Top 4 Services
• Strategic Planning
• Site Design Development
• Application Development
• Internet Marketing
• Supporting Services
• Web Email Writing
• Usability Assessment Testing
• Seminars Training
• Site Reviews
• Metrics

3
Agenda

• E-mail Today
• Creating Sending E-mail
• Deep Dive on E-mail Content
• Receiving Responding
• RBC Policies Procedures
• Security Concerns Technical Issues
• Tips for Improving Productivity
• Examples

4
E-mail Today

• Today
• 980 million active e-mail accounts
• 40 are corporate
• 80 of e-mail is SPAM
• E-mail delivered over a variety of devices
• E-mail competing with instant messaging and
  collaborative environments

• What everyone knows and every study shows
• We get too much email
• Its clogging enterprise networks
• Its mostly junk
• But when its not, its important
• It takes too long to deal with
• Everyone is looking for answers

5
Challenge Opportunity

• Communication between humans is approximately
  90 body language, 8 tone of voice, and 2 what
  you say. With email, you remove the first 98.
• http//www.emailaddresses.com/guide_etiquette.htm

• Create efficiency with greater clarity
• Improve responsiveness through direct messages
• Achieve cost savings by reducing support and
  infrastructure requirements
• Achieve time savings through increased relevance
• Support a user/customer centric approach through
  message and tone

6
Creating Sending E-mail

• Components Best Practices

7
The components

• The components
• Recipients
• Subject line
• Message content
• Signature
• Options
• Priority
• Timing
• Formats

8
Looking at the components Subject line

• Subject line is key!
• Recipients scan subject lines
• They use them to determine if they will open the
  message
• The goal is to not just to encourage reading but
  prevent deleting

• Togetherness (Subject Lines and From Lines Must
  Work Together)
• Recipients increasingly look at a combination of
  the from and subject lines to determine whether
  it is from a trusted source.
• As a result, the job of a subject line now must
  not only entice someone to open an email, it must
  discourage the recipient from deleting it as an
  unwanted email.
• Loren, McDonald15 Tips for Improved Subject
  Lines. May 2004 Issue EmailLabs Newsletter.

9
Looking at the components Subject line

• Recommendations
• Try to encapsulate the message
• Keep it short
• Different approach when there is one subject per
  message instead of multi-subject messages

10
Looking at the components Message content

• Content
• Attachments
• Links
• Format

• Content in the message
• Short
• Synopsis
• Include subheads for clarity
• Include lead in for links or attachments
• Attachments
• Supporting documents
• Routing documents
• If the document is short, can you include the
  content in the message?
• Watch the file size format (Word, Excel, Visio,
  PDF)
• Links
• When is the content available elsewhere?
• What do you want to share?

11
Looking at the components Message content

• What do you need to communicate?
• What else do the recipients need for background
  or additional information?
• Are you addressing one subject per message or is
  it a multi-subject message (newsletter or
  update)?
• What message are you trying to get across? Is it
  clear?

• Have you written too much? Not enough?
• Is this better as a posting on the intranet or a
  web site? Should I use an online FAQ?
• Is the information better suited to a document?
• Should you phone instead? Call a meeting?

12
Adopt the appropriate writing style

• Style
• Use words that fit your audience and nature of
  message
• Conversational business tone
• Simple language, contractions
• Active vs. passive voice
• Use upper/lower case lettering
• Watch the acronyms
• Mix of headings, paragraphs, bulleted points
• Let your emails breathe

• Size guidelines
• Word length
• Bulleted point length
• Sentence length
• Paragraph length
• Message length

Best practices Spell check your work Read what
youve written Let it sit for a bit
13
Formats

• Lets look at the choices
• Plain text
• Rich text
• HTML

Tip You can set the default format in your
options. Then change the message format as needed.
14
Receiving Responding to E-mail
15
Receiving E-mail

• Read carefully
• Does this message need an immediate response?
• Should someone else see this e-mail?
• Flag for follow up?
• Keep or delete

Best practice Always reply, even if a brief
acknowledgment is all you can manage. This will
avoid doubt in the mind of the sender that you
have received the message. /www.its.qut.edu.au/ema
il/bestpractice/
16
Improving Productivity
17
Top Tips for Improving Productivity

• Top 8
• Add recipients carefully
• Say your subject in 10 words
• Consider your content message, attachment and
  links
• Make your message short, direct and easy to
  understand
• Use spell check
• As a rule, make it plain text with ample
  breathing space
• Add your signature
• Set a good example

18
Thank you!

• Adeo Communications
• www.adeo.com