75% of Adults Use Email Every Day … 25.2 billion business emails are exchanged daily. It could be the most powerful method of communicating and building relationships on the phone.

It has the immediacy of a conversation, but totally lacks body language. Therein lies the potential for major misunderstandings and damage. Here are 20 tips for using email as a way to develop or maintain relationships when you want to persuade or influence someone.

1. Always start emails with “Hello”, “Hello”, whatever works for you, followed by a sentence or two of chatter. Exactly how you make a phone call.
2. Correct. Bad writing is equivalent to someone speaking with spinach between their teeth. Listeners get distracted by spinach … readers get distracted by your typos.
3. Never write everything in capital letters. This is considered YELLING! or SCREAMING!
4. Always use a Subject line and make it meaningful. So stay on topic. If you need to change the subject, please send a separate message.
5. Always use uppercase sentences and use punctuation with your business acquaintances to build your relationship and credibility. (Family and friends are different; they won’t be so insulted because you didn’t take the time to communicate properly with them.)
6. When replying, include only the bare minimum you need from the original message. Don’t just hit ANSWER, especially when it comes to an ongoing conversation and you have copies of the last 3-6 emails going back and forth.
7. Send plain text – Forget flashy or pretty colors unless you’re familiar with the recipient’s technology. Older email systems can’t read them and you’ll look tacky.
8. Never send unsolicited emails to anyone, for any reason.
9. Particularly in an influencing situation, always end emails with “Thank you,” “Sincerely,” “Regards,” whatever works for you. Write to those how you would like them to write to you.
10. When sending the same email to a group, list the email addresses of all recipients in the Bcc field if you do not want other recipients to have the addresses. Email addresses are like phone numbers – you must have permission to post them.
11. Don’t forward jokes (only newbies do this). Delete.
12. Before sending large files (anything over 100,000 bytes), always zip / zip first and ask for permission to send. Depending on your connection speed, some systems may take 30 minutes or more to open large files.
13. Do not forward virus warnings. Newbies again. They are almost always hoaxes. Delete. Nevertheless, DO Warn recipients if you know you have a virus that you may have transmitted.
14. Never send emails with language that could be construed as rude, abusive, threatening, or offensive comments based on race, religion, or sexual orientation. Due to the lack of non-verbal clues, the recipient will take the words you write verbatim. Use emoticons if you are joking (there are websites on the internet where you can find lists of these) so that you can communicate your emotions without being insulting or obnoxious.
15. Don’t be fooled by the “trolls”. Trollers send obviously offensive comments just to instigate a fight. Delete. If you are harassed or threatened, feel free to send a copy of the offending email to the sender’s ISP.
16. Don’t be fooled by the “flamethrowers”. Treat them like you would road rage. Otherwise, mild-mannered drivers will swear or make obscene gestures when something goes wrong in traffic. Similarly, some people who wouldn’t dream of being rude to others at work don’t think about lighting a “flame” through email. If you respond with another flame, you could get caught up in a flame war. If you must respond, fight the flames courteously. Never send anything that you would not like to appear on the front page of the largest newspaper in your city.
17. Always use a “signature” if possible (a small block of text attached to the end of your messages, containing your contact information). Keep it short, 4-7 lines.
18. Avoid asking for delivery receipts. This almost always annoys the recipient before they even read the message. Also, it usually does not work due to lock functions. If you want to know, ask the recipient to let you know if they received it.
19. Be careful with your address book. It’s easy to accidentally send a message to the wrong person. It could be embarrassing.
20. Remember that all email can be archived and may not be secure under certain circumstances. All archived email can be subpoenaed and made public through a court order. E-mail sent to work belongs to the company (Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 1986) and 20% of US companies randomly check employee mail. Monitoring by the company is legal and you should have no expectations of privacy. If you have a private email address that is also used for business, don’t expect privacy there either.