Sometimes, with the pressure to do a good job on the big things – close the sale, deliver the code, solve the problem – we overlook the little things along the way, and destroy the very brand we are trying to create.
I knew I had to write this blog thirty minutes ago when I received an email asking advice on a professional matter from bigbearsbooty@***. Come on! As a professional, would you open this email? Hell no! I only did ‘cause I’m a sick puppy who suffers from recurring Work Avoidance Syndrome on Friday mornings.
Impressions are everywhere
Written communication leaves an indelible impression that you can’t edit once the email leaves your desktop; and email has turned all of us – every professional in the world – into a writer. Problem is, a majority of professionals are damaging the validity of their overall brand by making one or more of these really embarrassing communication mistakes.
- Your email address is the first and, if it’s unprofessional, most memorable symbol of your personal brand: aphrodites_myth@, shrooms@ or pookietush@, and no I didn’t make them up, may have been funny or apposite back in the day, but you cannot hope to be taken seriously if you don’t take yourself seriously.
- Your subject line must be relevant and concise. As the default mode of business communication, email records must be filed for future reference. Your subject line impacts the reception, storage and retrieval of your email. If you don’t think about this when you send an email, you will be seen as inconsiderate, sloppy and, because you obviously don’t have an organized archival system, probably incompetent.
- Your greeting (or lack thereof) determines if your message will be read with attention. You must start with a personalized greeting: Hello Jack, Hi Jane, Good morning Ms. Foley. No greeting, or a non-specific one, “Greetings” says you don’t know, or can’t be bothered to use, the person’s name.
- Your structure. There are these things called paragraphs, which contain a logically connected sequence of thoughts. New thoughts get their own paragraph. Blocks of type longer than 5 lines are hard to read, as are lines longer than 6 inches. Your message needs to be accessible to tired and distracted eyes in order to communicate. Ignore at your peril.
Your spelling. Email comes with spell and grammar checks that can be set to check every email before it is sent. There is no excuse, especially with spelling someone’s name.- Your sign-off. Lack of an appropriate sign-off gives the impression that you don’t care, are sloppy and/or don’t understand professional niceties. “Yours sincerely,” “With thanks,” “Regards.” A sign-off is the work of a moment, yet no amount of time can make up for negligence of this simple convention.
You cannot establish a brand that reflects a professional with substance and determination if you are seen as someone who can’t be bothered with the little things. The more important the recipient, the less tolerant s/he will be: the devil is in the details, but hey, it’s your brand.
Author:
Martin Yate (CPC) is the author of Knock em Dead The Ultimate Job Search Guide, a NY Times bestseller updated annually for 24 years. He’s been in career management for 34 years: Silicon Valley Headhunter and VP with the seminal and feared Executek, Director of HR for Bell Industries Computer Memory Division, Director of Training and Development for Dunhill . Martin believes that change is your future, branding is critical, but no one has ever taught you how to navigate this stuff.
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[...] Five Email Oversights That Kill Your Brand (personalbrandingblog.com) [...]
In term of emails, i think structure is worst. I am guilty of this. Sometime we want to reply fast and we do not take time to read through or use spell check. Unfortunately, when the send button is clicked, that is it?
being detailed is necessary to create right impression. Thanks martins
Hi Yinka,
Too true my friend. a writer for 25 years I capture the message and then “have people who do that “( a string of editors who lose their hair and die young begging for release).
It makes me sloppy and something i constantly have to work at. I have found that choosing “spell check before sending” in my email preferences menu really helpful. Best, Martin
Hi Yinka, Martin,
Completely agree. Personally I’ve worked hard at this and the best tool I’ve found is… proofreading. I find it is easier to review an email’s structure and organize the content after you’ve written down your main thoughts.
Also, these tips apply to every aspect of our lives — not just professional. A lot of people forget that written communication is permanent and that everything is interconnected. It’s all about consistency: the best presentation email for a prospect job won’t cut it if the employer checks in on your FB page and finds out its the email they received that’s the exception. You don’t want to make it look like you’ve been helped out
All the best,
Catherine
Martin,
I agree on all points…. And wish to add one thing to your list – TXT msg style emails.
Too many times I receive emails that are so hideous that I often wonder if the person had their teenage child write it for them. I don’t mind smiley faces and other emoticons
, I use them myself every once in a while, but come on, I received a job application that featured “ROFL” and “OMG” in the same sentence. Would I want that person sending out a proposal to a client with that in it?
I somehow don’t believe my customers want to see, “Yo, Dude! PSE find attached da quote you asked 4. SRY itz L8, drank 2 much last nite ROFLOLOLOL =D =D =D”
Thank you, have a great weekend!
John
Martin,
From my experience, these are virtually perfect.
(But, um, if I may tease you a bit, this post *should* have been titled “*SIX* Email Oversights That Kill Your Brand”!
Indeed, each of the six items you list are important to professional email campaigns:
Your email address
Your subject line
Your greeting (or lack thereof)
Your structure
Your spelling
Your sign-off)
Keep STRONG, Martin!
+Vincent Wright
[...] Five Email Oversights That Kill Your Brand – [Personal Branding [...]
I could not have said it better. The spellings and grammar mistakes are dead give away that the person is not very educated. How you express your words is another way whether you come across well or poorly..The email address says a lot, too, about a person. For example, when you receive an email from someone who has Juno, AOL or Hotmail sender, what comes to your mind instantly: (1)The person is not a professional, (2) The sender is either an older person or the time has left him behind? With a personalized email address you create a brand identity in the email recipient’s mind. After a while, they start to see you as such. For example, if your recipients always see your email with your address Pat@Wealth-Planner.com , John@Math-Tutor.com or Kathy@BestPieBaker.com, after a while, they will start to see you as an expert in these areas. It is with this in mind why I recently launch the website PerfectAddress.com. Some time ago, I was trying to create a brand for myself. But, I found that most web sites made this process very unnecessarily complcated. Therefore, I decided to create a website which would make the process easy for anyone in the world.