Attachment Gripes

In public relations, we’re constantly sharing information with reporters, clients, vendors, employees, and so on. As computer viruses increase as well as the use of mobile devices such as Blackberries and iPhones, it’s important to consider the types of attachments you’re sending to the recipient.

For example, anytime we’re working with a reporter, we always copy our news release into the body of the email. This allows us to send a smaller-sized email and makes things as easy as possible for our contacts.

This idea applies to others, beyond our media contacts, too. If we are sending a small document for approval by a client, we’ll copy it in the email so they can quickly examine it. However, if it’s a number of documents, or something that is just too long to read on a mobile device, we’ll of course send as attachments.

Job hunters should take note, too. When you send me your cover letter and resume as an attachment, I’m probably not going to open both. It requires too much time and do you really need to have a cover letter for your email?  Consider making the body of your email as the cover letter. Customize it to my business (you can easily find out anything you need from our Web site) and attach your resume so I can file it away.

It’s all about thinking about what you’re sending and what will be the most convenient for the person on the receiving end.