Written by: Andre' Hammett

As more companies begin to utilize email marketing campaigns to boost sales and stay connected, it is important to remember to protect your integrity and your client's email addresses. First of all let me say that no email communication is 100% secure.  Email servers that transfer information can be hacked, but for the most part, your service provider has security measures in place to combat that issue.  Most of the email security issues occur because of what we do unknowingly to let hackers in.   So here's five email rules you should know when sending or receiving emails. 

Do not forget to fill in the subject of your emails.  Do you know that most emails sent today are rejected or considered spam if it doesn’t have a subject?  Let your recipient know what your email is regarding, and it will have a better chance of being read and not forwarded to the junk pile.

Do not send mass emails using  "To" and “Cc” (carbon copy) sections.  With identity theft and phishing schemes on the rise, it is extremely unprofessional to send out emails to all of your clients with other clients email addresses listed.  Just think about it for a moment.  When you receive an email with three hundred others listed, those people who you do not know now have access to your email address as you to theirs.  Those other recipients may not have any intent to do harm, but emails do get forwarded and email accounts do get hijacked.  This practice may lead to your clients receiving emails from your hijacked email account selling discounted bottles of Viagra.

Use caution when forwarding emails.  Don’t forward chain letters to everyone on your list so you can receive that 32” high definition television or that Dell XPS laptop for free.  It’s just another way for someone to obtain mass amounts of email addresses so they can begin soliciting to you and everyone who followed the chain.  If the person who you are forwarding to does not know the person who you received the email from, copy the body and paste the text into a newly composed email.  This way the chain is broken and email addresses stay protected.

Do not open email attachments from people who you do not know.  Opening an attachment from an unknown sender may have detrimental consequences.  Viruses can be inserted into your computer to transmit your personal information back to the sender.  The attachment could be a script to disable your computer.  Attachments could also be a phishing scheme or a way to hijack your email account.  Unless you know the sender, it is not wise to open the email and its attachments.

Do not use your birthday or other known information as your email account password.  For most businesses, it is a requirement to submit your email address in order to do business with them.  From online banking to online shopping, email addresses are usually the username to access your accounts.  It is imperative that you use a password that is extremely difficult for anyone including a computer to detect.  Twelve to sixteen characters consisting of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols, in a random fashion is the ideal way to compose a strong password.

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