By Ann Marie Sabath, author of Business Etiquette.

The marketing professional has to not only market their services or products, but they must also market themselves. And that includes being professional at all times when communicating with clients or customers.

Take this 10 question quiz and see how you score. Check the items that, much as you might hate to admit it, you are guilty of doing:

___   Not labeling the subject of your message to reflect the message content.

___   Not checking your e-mail with the same regularity that you do your voice-mail messages.

___   Not responding to e-mail messages in the same prompt manner that you do other forms of  communication.

___   Not proofing an electronic message with the same attention that you give to a document in hard copy form.

___   Being verbose in your e-mail communication rather than being succinct.

___   Sending out unsolicited mass-mailings that could be considered junk mail to recipients.

___   Labeling a message as “Urgent” so that the receiver will give it priority unnecessarily.

___   Not listing a phone number and fax in your message so that the recipient has this information at       hand.

___   Trying to be humorous in your messages when it could be misinterpreted as sarcasm.

___   Sending copies of e-mail to people in address groups rather than being more selective about who received messages.

How many items did you check?

1-3 Not bad. Your emails probably are professional and appropriate for your audience.

4-7 A little worrisome. Check your emails before you hit “Send,” and be sure you are avoiding these              mistakes.

8-10 Yikes. Your emails need some overhauling. Check each email before you send it, get someone to             read over them, and run the emails through this checklist before you hit “Send.”

Remember, each email you send is a reflection of your professionalism as a marketer. Don’t let a poorly chosen email make your customer question your abilities.

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Ann Marie Sabath is the founder of At Ease Inc., the 23-year old business protocol and development training firm. Her latest book is Business Etiquette, 101 Ways to Conduct Business With Charm and Savvy. Her other business development programs are a regular part of many organization’s Business Development programs.  Sabath also is the author of eight books on domestic and international etiquette.

Do you have an etiquette question? E-mail it to Sabath at sabath@ateaseinc.com or call her at 212-956-1807.

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Monday, March 22nd, 2010, 7:15 am   |   Email marketing, General Business, General Marketing  |  RSS feed |  Respond  |  Trackback