by Mandy Green, SFC Team Development Specialist 

How to communicate powerfully by email
Email is a great tool to use for communicating regularly with recruits.  In addition, if you reach a prospect's voicemail or home answering machine, email can be part of an effective one-two punch after leaving a message for them. 

I wanted to pass along a few simple rules to ensure that your recruiting emails are read in the first place and stay useful to the recruit you are communicating with during the recruiting process.
 
Subject Lines are Headlines
The headline in a newspaper does two things: It grabs your attention and informs you what the article is about so you can decide whether you want to read further. Email subject lines need to do the same thing.

Use the subject line to inform the receiver of EXACTLY what the email is about in a few well-chosen words. You might include a call to action such as "Please respond by November 7th", and if your message is one of a regular series of recruiting mails, such as a weekly message, you might want to think about including the date in the subject line too.
 
Because everyone gets emails they do not want, appropriate use of the subject line increases the chances your email will be read and not deleted without so much as a glance from your teenage prospect.
 
Of course, just as it would be ridiculous to publish a newspaper without headlines, never leave the subject line blank.
 
Make One Point per Email
The beauty of email, compared with letters, is that it doesn't cost any more to send several mails than it does to send one. So, if you need to communicate with someone about several matters, write a separate email on each subject.

That is a core principle that we try to adhere to when we are producing our TRS Plans for college coach clients.  Why?  It works!  It allows your prospect to take in one idea at a time, and gives you the opportunity to have a conversation about it in an email reply.

Specify the Response You Want
Make sure to include any call to action you desire, such as a phone call or follow-up email reply. Then, make sure you include your contact information, including your name, email address, Twitter account (if applicable), and phone numbers. Do this even with internal messages within your athletic department: The easier you make it for someone else to respond, the more likely they are to do so.
 
Be a Good Correspondent
If you regularly correspond using email, make sure to clean out your email inbox at least once each day. This is a simple act of courtesy o your prospects and will also serve to encourage senders to return your emails in a timely manner.
 
If a lengthy response is required to an email, but you don't have the time to pull together the information required now, send a holding reply saying that you have received the message, and indicating when you will respond fully once you have more free time.  DO NOT just put of a reply.  Your prospects are judging your interest level, and we don't want them to wonder if your delayed response means you are not interested.
 
Always set your Out of Office agent when you are going to be away from your email for a day or more, whether on leave or because you're at meetings.  And it's O.K. to be creative with those automated replies...show some personality and originality when you reply? 

There are more email and Twitter communication tips that we will be reviewing with coaches who attend the 2009 Recruiting Kick-Off Conference.  YOU need to be there, Coach!  Click here to get the details.