Attachments Alert

 "Oh I never open attachments." I was so overwhelmed when I saw that email with all those attachments I just skipped over it."

You may have heard these statements from some of your members or they may not want to admit the truth to you. Why? One thing we find is that people are afraid to open an attachment because they don't know what it contains or they have gotten a message that the attachment has not been scanned for viruses. We all are inundated with spam and are very careful about what we do and don't open. 

Members may also feel like the second person--they get an email full of attachments and they are overwhelmed when they see the email and engage in avoidance. Perhaps they are not interested in some of the information in the attachments.

Think twice before you send attachments. Yes, there will be times when you have to do so because that may be the only way to send your newsletter. If you find yourself in that situation, then be sure to give a summary of what is in the attachment so readers have a brief overview and then know whether they want to download the attachment or attachments.

Some people have limited email capacity and if you send multiple attachments or an attachment that has a lot of graphics, their email system can't take it. Some individuals have limited storage capacity on their computer itself so if you expect them to download multiple attachments, they may get a message that their storage capacity is full. 

It may be preferable to put as much of the message in the body of the email as possible. If you want to give people forms that they may or may not want, then consider giving them a link to the form or consider putting the form in a file on Facebook or on your website and then refer them to where the file is. You can give them a link or you can tell them where the form can be found. Some members are also afraid to click on a link so if that is the case, tell them where to find the forms.

We hope our members trust that we are being careful about what we send but we have to be cognizant of their needs and provide information through as many channels as possible. Make reading your messages as easy and painless as possible.