5 ms·

How to send a personal email

27 points by astrec 18y ago

noahlt 18y ago
Not necessarily on topic, but: when sending personal emails (not even business-personal emails, but actual personal emails between friends&family) do you include a salutation?
- kirubakaran 18y ago
  Dear Noah, No. Thanks, Kirubakaran. PS: Hope you had a merry Christmas or a happy New Year or both. If not, hang in there buddy!
  - deleted 18y ago
    [deleted]
- diN0bot 18y ago
  yes, but not always. usually it's something informal 'yo'. a good idea, regardless of salutations, is to gently focus your readers into your email. would you like it if someone immediately rushed into their idea? it'd be a little jarring. on the other hand, whatever. for short messages why clog the signal?
- pmjordan 18y ago
  I almost always include something very informal (Hi <name>,) in an initial email (or in my first reply of a thread) but often leave it out in later replies. I consider it friendly, but once you start taking the email to bits and reply to individual sentences or paragraphs, there really isn't much point. You're already mid-conversation, no need to say hi again.
  - jonny_noog 18y ago
    Ditto. I actually like it when people take an extra couple of seconds to write "Hi <name>," at the beginning of an email conversation. I like it better than when people start off with just "<name>," which I personally find slightly rude, it's like how a teacher or some other authority figure would start off a conversation where they expect they will be telling you off or something. "John, you didn't do your homework did you?" I don't find it so rude as to really be bothered by it or feel like I have to mention it, but rude enough that I never do it myself.
- Jebdm 18y ago
  Sometimes I'll use one if it's someone I don't talk to regularly, but if it's someone I know I don't. I have a similar policy with endings. If I'm asking for something, I'll use "thanks" because it seems polite. If I'm apologizing or being formal in some way, I'll often use "sincerely" or something similar. Otherwise, what I do depends on how often I email them and how well they know me. If they don't know me or I don't often email them, then I'll close with just a dash and my name, in order to make it clear who I am and build an association. If they already know me well and we email fairly regularly, I won't use my name ("Thanks-\nJeb" becomes "Thanks!"), because it just adds noise. (These aren't hard rules, of course.)
- ensignavenger 18y ago
  I tend to start with 'Howdy'. That is also how I usually answer the phone (Howdy, this is James...). Some times I insert the persons name afterwards, or some times I skip the Howdy and just put their name in. It just depends on who I am contacting and why.
diN0bot 18y ago
> "5. Don't send HTML or pictures. Personal email doesn't, why are you?" uh. shouldn't you just do what you normally do? just like the "keep your salutation normal and un-merged" rules? i personally prefer text only emails, though attachments are fine. i appreciate a client that permits me to "click on" htp://... to automatically see the page rather than copy paste (pine, gmail). when i set up meetings with people i've never met in person before i often include a picture of myself. i sprinkle that same picture around the internet. maybe interacting with strangers isn't personal, but then the whole point of the picture is to make things more open, friendly and personable.
alex_c 18y ago
I'm trying to figure out who the target audience is for this blog post. I get the feeling it's "people who email Seth Godin"...
- jonknee 18y ago
  Like almost all of his other posts, this is directed towards marketers.
daveyjohnson 18y ago
Did Seth just realize he wasn't the only one receiving all those personal emails directly from Barack Obama?
rokhayakebe 18y ago
Both business and personal emails are read by people, not machines, so write in the same style. Just keep LOL & C U L8r 4 SMS.
arnorhs 18y ago
i don't agree with him
ynd 18y ago
No smugness intended. This just has to be mentionned: My Seth Godin decline letter. Thoughts?, http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=398293 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=398293
- dpifke 18y ago
  Funny, that's exactly the article I was thinking about as I read this. The impersonal auto-response link above pretty badly contradicts the advice given here. I wonder if Seth Godin wrote the current post as "lessons learned" or just didn't feel like following his own best practices. (Physician, heal thyself.)

27 points by astrec 18y ago

Not necessarily on topic, but: when sending personal emails (not even business-personal emails, but actual personal emails between friends&family) do you include a salutation?

kirubakaran 18y ago
Dear Noah, No. Thanks, Kirubakaran. PS: Hope you had a merry Christmas or a happy New Year or both. If not, hang in there buddy!
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]
diN0bot 18y ago
yes, but not always. usually it's something informal 'yo'. a good idea, regardless of salutations, is to gently focus your readers into your email. would you like it if someone immediately rushed into their idea? it'd be a little jarring. on the other hand, whatever. for short messages why clog the signal?
pmjordan 18y ago
I almost always include something very informal (Hi <name>,) in an initial email (or in my first reply of a thread) but often leave it out in later replies. I consider it friendly, but once you start taking the email to bits and reply to individual sentences or paragraphs, there really isn't much point. You're already mid-conversation, no need to say hi again.
- jonny_noog 18y ago
  Ditto. I actually like it when people take an extra couple of seconds to write "Hi <name>," at the beginning of an email conversation. I like it better than when people start off with just "<name>," which I personally find slightly rude, it's like how a teacher or some other authority figure would start off a conversation where they expect they will be telling you off or something. "John, you didn't do your homework did you?" I don't find it so rude as to really be bothered by it or feel like I have to mention it, but rude enough that I never do it myself.
Jebdm 18y ago
Sometimes I'll use one if it's someone I don't talk to regularly, but if it's someone I know I don't. I have a similar policy with endings. If I'm asking for something, I'll use "thanks" because it seems polite. If I'm apologizing or being formal in some way, I'll often use "sincerely" or something similar. Otherwise, what I do depends on how often I email them and how well they know me. If they don't know me or I don't often email them, then I'll close with just a dash and my name, in order to make it clear who I am and build an association. If they already know me well and we email fairly regularly, I won't use my name ("Thanks-\nJeb" becomes "Thanks!"), because it just adds noise. (These aren't hard rules, of course.)
ensignavenger 18y ago
I tend to start with 'Howdy'. That is also how I usually answer the phone (Howdy, this is James...). Some times I insert the persons name afterwards, or some times I skip the Howdy and just put their name in. It just depends on who I am contacting and why.

diN0bot 18y ago

> "5. Don't send HTML or pictures. Personal email doesn't, why are you?" uh. shouldn't you just do what you normally do? just like the "keep your salutation normal and un-merged" rules? i personally prefer text only emails, though attachments are fine. i appreciate a client that permits me to "click on" htp://... to automatically see the page rather than copy paste (pine, gmail). when i set up meetings with people i've never met in person before i often include a picture of myself. i sprinkle that same picture around the internet. maybe interacting with strangers isn't personal, but then the whole point of the picture is to make things more open, friendly and personable.

alex_c 18y ago

I'm trying to figure out who the target audience is for this blog post. I get the feeling it's "people who email Seth Godin"...

jonknee 18y ago
Like almost all of his other posts, this is directed towards marketers.

daveyjohnson 18y ago

Did Seth just realize he wasn't the only one receiving all those personal emails directly from Barack Obama?

rokhayakebe 18y ago

Both business and personal emails are read by people, not machines, so write in the same style. Just keep LOL & C U L8r 4 SMS.

arnorhs 18y ago

i don't agree with him

ynd 18y ago

No smugness intended. This just has to be mentionned: My Seth Godin decline letter. Thoughts?, http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=398293 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=398293

dpifke 18y ago
Funny, that's exactly the article I was thinking about as I read this. The impersonal auto-response link above pretty badly contradicts the advice given here. I wonder if Seth Godin wrote the current post as "lessons learned" or just didn't feel like following his own best practices. (Physician, heal thyself.)