Communication is the key to creating connections in any relationship.  And let’s face it, email is one of the most widely used forms of communication and sending emails several times a day is common for almost anyone.  For many, it may even be your only form of communication with clients and contacts and, at times, can seem rather impersonal.  You definitely don’t want to leave the recipient of your email with a negative impression of you or your business by sending canned emails. 

Over at the Buzzoodle Blog, I found some pointers about building better, more personalized relationships with email content in a post written by Ron McDaniel, Author and Employee Evangelist Trainer, titled “Does Your Email Message Stink?“  Ron makes several informative suggestions, but one that stood out to me regarded message length.  You may be thinking, “Tell me something I don’t already know.”  But the importance of this is often overlooked.  The length of an email is worthy of additional focus, mainly for two reasons:   

1.)  Because a very brief email can suggest that you can’t be bothered with the recipient long enough to spend a few minutes composing the communication and you could be missing an opportunity to establish a more productive relationship.  

2.)  Because you can end up providing so much information that you overwhelm the recipient, somehow get off topic and your true message gets lost somewhere in all the verbiage. 

Take the opportunity to expand relationships by focusing more on the overall message your attempting to send.  Keep it brief, stick to the point, save the additional thoughts for future communications and add personal touches.  Focusing on simply getting across the message itself and adding a bit of personalization can go a long way because you don’t want your email to come off looking like spam.  And be sure to include links to any additional ways to communicate with you such as Twitter, FaceBook, AIM and LinkedIn to encourage future communications. 

It isn’t necessary to spend excess time composing emails.  When doing so, simply focus on the message itself, add a bit of personalization and provide additional ways to contact you.  It will make a world of difference in strengthening your relationships and contacts.