Is using company "letterhead" in email smart or dumb? I know some of the email vendors are pushing it hard because they want to sell you on the capability. Some marketers like it because it "feels" professional. But I'm highly, highly skeptical of this tactic for 2002 anyway.



Today I got two notes from marketers using "letterhead;" one had their logo at the top of the email, the other used a vertical logo. Both were in HTML (of course) which meant they also dictated what typeface their letters appeared in. In both cases, I very nearly hit "delete" when I saw the graphic come up in my Outlook preview box. It looked like marketing email. Not a personal letter.



For now I'd reserve use of "letterhead" style email for stuff that's obviously a mass communication (one to many) and not one-to-one. I'd also test it against a control non-letterhead group before blindly using it, no matter how pretty, neat, or professional you think it looks.