GAINING THE TRUST AND CONFIDENCE OF YOUR READERS

How do you ensure that customers will react well to an e-mail
sales letter? Similarly, what if you're soliciting a job via
e-mail, pitching a book idea or any of 100 other situations that
are increasingly handled by e-mail? How do you write e-mail that
will gain the trust and confidence of your readers?

Will your good looks help? Having lots of money? Being tall?

The answer to all these questions is, of course, no. While these
things can be a definite advantage in the real world, in e-mail,
these factors are invisible. No, when it comes to e-mail, YOU ARE
WHAT YOU WRITE. (A scary thought for some of us!)

In the everyday world, trust and confidence are influenced by
many things. These include your occupation, signs of affluence,
height, dress and looks. It may not be fair, but we *are*
judged by these criteria. Tall men *do* have an advantage.
Well-dressed people *are* treated better in shops.

In an e-mail message, though, these visual cues are not present,
so how do we earn trust and confidence? Here's a posting to a
newsgroup that I noticed many years ago. It's as true now as it
was then.

From: xxx xxx
Newsgroups: alt.culture.usenet
Subject: Re: Musings on readability (longish response)
Date: 12 Apr 93 04:53:35 GMT

xxxx xxxx writes:
> ...
> On the internet, "you are what you write" defines
> how people are perceived.
> ...

Electronic communications *does* become something of a
"you are what you write" situation. Someone who doesn't
have the ability to speak clearly will generally do only
slightly better when writing. Non-sequiters and poor
logical organization will make readers think less of the
author as a person to be respected.
...
Formatting is *not* wasted bandwidth. Without the
assistance of body language and other sideband
information available in visual contact communications,
other means are found to evaluate the sincerity and
intelligence of the person "speaking."

The use of a large vocabulary, attention to proper
punctuation and grammar, use of visually attractive
formatting, all serve to increase the value of a posting.

In short, style becomes an issue of more importance.
Style is certainly an influence in visual contact (why do
news anchors wear $500 suits and dresses? - style!) so it
should be no surprize that it is important in writing as
well.

These two writers have made an important point. How well you
write is a very significant influence in determining how your
e-mail will be regarded.

When all other visual cues are gone, almost all that you can
present to other people are your words. It's no surprise then
that those who do not write well will find this disability a far
greater handicap in the textual world of e-mail correspondence.

The message then is clear. If you are what you write, write well!

About the Author

You'll find over 200 tips like this in Tim North's much applauded
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