Email Etiquettes for Professionals, Make a Lasting Impression with These Must Know Tips

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It takes us just a few seconds to gauge and draw conclusions about someone standing in front of us and like the saying goes, first impression is the last impression, the first impression is usually the one that stays with us for a long time. Making a good impression is no longer limited to face to face interaction, people will try to size you up based on the way you communicate via your letters and emails. And emails being the most common mode of written communication in the corporate world today, it become imperative that we take care that what we write follows the written and at times the unwritten guidelines that are the basis for effective communication today. So here are a few things that should be kept in mind while writing an official email.

When people are busy and don’t have the time to read those hundreds of emails pouring into their inbox each day, the best way they scan for the important ones is to read the subject line. It gives the person a fair idea about the content of the email, hence making it essential that the subject line is clear and crisp and to the point.

It is mandatory to make sure no grammatical or spelling errors are made in the subject field as it will leave a poor impression on the reader.

As a part of any organisation you will be assigned an email address, it’s of utmost importance that you use it for all formal communication within the organisations or clients. If you are self-employed, then also the email address you use should be a professional one, where your name is a part of it (for example sundeep.singh@xyz.com) making it easy for the person to identify who sent the email. It is strictly advised to avoid using email address those are inappropriate (for example crazyboy@xyz.com)

If your email is being sent to several people, it’s good to use the BCC field to put the recipients email addresses. This will be helpful in two ways – Firstly, the recipients will not have to waste time scrolling down the list of email addresses before reaching the actual content of the email, which can be rather annoying when you are using a smartphone and secondly, people might not want to disclose their email address to strangers on the list.

Prior preparation is the trade secret of all successful people.

Emoticons and Abbreviations are to be used only with friends and family. When it comes to formal communication the language used in the emails should be formal. Use black text, standard font and font size and write complete words and sentences. Anything else would only undermine your image and your company’s image in front of the reader, and they will most likely not take you seriously. Make sure no grammatical or spelling errors are made in the email.

Avoid using formatting; keep it simple, else the chances are that your email might end up in ‘Spam’.

Also be careful in using humour. What you meant to be funny might be offensive to the reader or might be misinterpreted by them.

Writing in all capital letters is interpreted as shouting at the reader, and the recipient might not take it well and you don’t want that to happen. It also shows that you are a novice in the world of technology or just plain lazy. Use of capitalisation in the correct places is very important and so is correct punctuation.

At the end of the email make sure to add information about yourself. Your basic information should be given which would include your full name, your title in the organisation, company’s name, and your contact address and phone number. You can also add the link to your website. Make sure your information isn’t too long or fancy; it should be in the same tone as the rest of the email.

Reply all is one option that should be used only when the reply to an email has to be sent to everyone on the list, else reply to the specific individual you want to communicate with. It can be a cause of annoyance for people who are not directly involved in the conversation.

If you have to send an attachment along with the email, and if it happens to be a large file, it’s best to take the recipient’s permission first. The large file might take up a lot of space and cause unnecessary trouble to the recipient.

Formally addressing the recipient as Hello, Mr. Singh or Dear Mrs. Aggarwal is the best way to go. In a global environment like today, it is safest to use formal way of addressing, unless the recipient asks you to address them by their first name.

Always include salutation, like, Hello, Hi, in the beginning and always end the email with a proper sign-off (like, Sincerely, Best Regards)