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We recently enhanced our email newsletter distribution system in an attempt to further focus the value we provide to our broad base of constituents based on their individual and often unique preferences. 

Many Fortune 500 companies can’t get this right, so I was amazed at some of our findings:

1. On the positive side, many of the 40,000+ recipients not only opened our newsletter, but read the content, found it of interest and value, and even forwarded a number of items to others – see article on the value of social networking at work
2. Why do I need to know you’re out of the office and won’t be back until next Tuesday at 12:28 AM?!?  We all get way too many emails, and I’m convinced this is one we can do without.
3. The referral to others while you’re out was interesting, if not amusing – “here are 28 different names and numbers for you to contact if you want any of these 117 items on the menu of what I do each day.  By the way, I’ve stepped away for a bio break for 00:02 minutes.”

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There are three types of relationships:

• Personal – These are your friends (golf buddies, neighbors, parents at kid’s school, etc.); they like your warts and all and you choose them, making them rather safe.
• Functional – These are people you work with to perform your job or realm of responsibilities.  You build relationships with them, often because you have to (colleagues, customers, suppliers, etc.). You don’t necessarily choose all of them, but because of the context of your relationship, likewise they feel fairly safe.

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Increasingly, I find myself working on various speaking, training and consulting engagements in Canada. During a recent dialogue with some colleagues and clients there, I asked about the health of their economy. One of the most interesting responses I heard was, “Unlike in the U.S., our media is not trying to drive us into a recession.”

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By Neal Gorenflo & David Nour

Many B2B sales organizations create separate roles for winning new accounts (hunting) and winning additional business from existing accounts (farming).  This can lead to little to no coordination between sales people.  This is a colossal blunder.  Why?

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I spend a couple of hours each day following hyperlinks from various posts on Twitter, and a dozen or so interesting blogs I keep up with.  With the absolute information overload and 200+ emails / day that I receive, it really has become a “pruning” job – don’t keep up with it and whether in the inbox or on the Blackberry, it gets overwhelming quickly.

As such, a couple of years ago, I immersed myself into Macros and Rules in MSFT Outlook – this subject line, goes into that folder; emails from this address go into here; any of these words in the subject or body of the email, DELETE!

So, when I came across this article on Best Practices in Writing Email Subject Lines, I couldn’t help but to not only be intrigued, but wanted to share it as well.

Three tips for you on your Digital Etiquette:

1. Let’s use email for facts, not opinions!
2. If I have to scroll your email, please pick up the phone and call me!
3. Let’s stop cc’ing 15 people and then reply with “Thanks!”; no, “Thank You”; no, I insist “Thank You!”

What have you found to be effective in your email communication?

There is no question that many people are very good at staying heads-down and engaged on critical projects, strategic initiatives, and overall tasks at hand. But I can’t help but wonder, how many of this same group really know how to vacation.

Do you really know how to take a break from your company? When was the last time you got lost on purpose? I am not talking about moving your office outdoors, masked as a vacation where you spend most of the time working, but those getaways specially for Baby Boomers that really make you consider a permanent change in lifestyle.

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