Four bad email manners

Whether it’s the neighbour who mows the lawn at 7am on a Saturday or the woman who cuts in front of you in the elementary school drop-off line, bad manners are everywhere. The online world is no exception. Here are a few email faux pas. 

1. Huge attachments.

Knowing that people often have size limitations on their in-boxes or that several corporate email systems bounce unfamiliar emails sent with attachments, why would anyone send an unsolicited, huge attachment?

Further, why would anyone send an unsolicited, huge attachment to a cold prospect? If you want someone to see a publication or a spreadsheet or a presentation, send it as a link instead. 

2. Assigned urgency

Just because a project is urgent to you doesn’t mean it’s urgent to me. Unless you’re that person’s boss or their project lead or the CEO, it’s inappropriate to flag an email as high priority.

If you need help on a project, use the subject line to ask for it. Subject lines such as “Please review: I need to send this today” or “Help: we’re about to lose this account” will be more effective than the urgency flag.

You could also precede the email with a phone call or personal visit (if possible) explaining the urgency of the project.

3. Solicitation emails that tell you what a bad job you’re doing

This email was sent to the CEO of a company:

I work for a company that manages AdWords campaigns as well as other digital channels like Google organic search. I’ve been tracking the success of your website and I see that you’re spending significantly on Adwords, but your site doesn’t appear to be ranking for the organic keywords it should be.

I’ve run a report on what your business would look like if you ranked at the top of Google’s first page – the results are pretty amazing.

First of all, my company’s site does rank on the first page of Google search results for pertinent key words. Second, we do not spend “significantly on AdWords.”

If you’re going to send something like this, at least get your facts straight.

4. Strangers asking favours

I have no idea who you are, so why would I help you get a job at my company or help you promote your company?

If you’ve met the person before or if you’re connected with the person on LinkedIn, it’s appropriate to ask for help or for a favour via email. Just don’t ask a stranger, and don’t insinuate in the email that you’ve met before when you haven’t.

People can see straight through something like: “When we talked at that networking event, you mentioned your company was hiring so I wanted to follow up.”

If you need help on a project, use the subject line to ask for it. Subject lines such as “Please review: I need to send this today” or “Help: we’re about to lose this account” will be more effective than the urgency flag.

You could also precede the email with a phone call or personal visit (if possible) explaining the urgency of the project.