1. Include a clear, direct subject line.
People often decide whether to open an email based on the subject line. Choose one that lets readers know you are addressing their concerns or workplace issues. Examples of a good subject line include, “Meeting date changed,” “Quick question about your presentation,” or “Suggestions for the proposal.”
2. Use a professional email address.
You should use your company email address. But if you use a personal email account occasionally for work-related correspondences, you should be careful when choosing that address. Ensure in house data protection, customer service and privacy policies permit this. You should always have an email address that conveys your name so that the recipient knows exactly who is sending the email.
3. Think twice before hitting “Reply all.”
No one wants to read emails from 20 people that have nothing to do with them. Ignoring the emails can be difficult, with many people getting notifications of new messages on their smartphones or distracting pop-up messages on their computer screens. Refrain from hitting “Reply All” unless you really think everyone on the list needs to receive the email.
4. Include a signature block.
Provideyour reader with some information about you. Generally, this would state your full name, title, the company name, and your contact information, including a phone number. You also can add a little publicity for yourself, but don’t go overboard with any sayings or artwork. Use the same font, type size, and colour as the rest of the email.
5. Use professional salutations.
Don’t use laid-back, colloquial expressions like, “Hey you guys,” The relaxed nature of our writings should not affect the salutation in an email, “Hey”is a very informal salutation and generally it should not be used in the workplace. AndYois not okay. Use“Hi”or“Hello”instead.
Avoid shortening anyone’s name. Say, “Hi Michael,” unless you’re certain he prefers to be called “Mike.”
6. Use exclamation points sparingly.
If you choose to use an exclamation point, use only one to convey excitement. People sometimes get carried awayand put a number of exclamation points at the end of their sentences. The result can appear too emotional or immature. Exclamation points should be used sparingly in writing.
7. Be very cautious with humour.
Humour can easily get lost in translation without the right tone or facial expressions. In a professional exchange, it’s better to leave humour out of emails unless you know the recipient well. Also, something that you think is funny might not be funny to someone else. Something perceived as funny when spoken may come across very differently when written. When in doubt, leave it out
8. People from different cultures speak and write differently.
Miscommunication can easily occur because ofcultural differences, especially in the writing form when we can’t see one another’s body language. Tailor your message to the receiver’s cultural background or how well you know them. A good rule to keep in mind, is that high-context cultures (Japanese, Arab and Chinese) want to get to know you before doing business with you. Therefore, it may be common for business associates from these countries to be more personal in their writings. People fromlow-context cultures (German, American, or Scandinavian) prefer to get to the point very quickly.
9. Reply to your emails – even if the email wasn’t intended for you.
It’s difficult to reply to every genuine email message ever sent to you, but you should try to. This includes when the email was accidentally sent to you,especially if the sender is expecting a reply. A reply isn’t necessary but serves as good email etiquette, especially if this person works in the same company or industry as you. Here’s an example reply: “I know you’re verybusy, but I don’t think you meant to send this email to me. And Iwanted to let you know so you can send it to the correct person.”
Note: you are advised NOT to reply to emails that may not have originated from “non-genuine” sources. These may appear as sales and marketing type emails or emails that are very short in nature and invite you to follow a hyperlink. Opening and/or replying to marketing type emails confirms to the sender that your email address is active and may lead to an increase in the number of “non-genuine” emails you receive. Emails from people and organisations that you do not have a relationship with, especially when they contain very little text and encourage you to follow a hyperlink, may contain links to web pages that are designed to trick you into giving personal information and/or installing dangerous software.
10. Proof Read every message.
Your mistakes won’t go unnoticed by the recipients of your email. And, depending upon the recipient, you may be judged for making them. Don’t rely on spell-checkers. Read and reread your email a few times, preferably aloud, before sending it off. “One supervisor intended to write, ‘Sorry for the inconvenience,’ “But he relied on his spell-check and ended up writing, ‘Sorry for the incontinence.'”
11. Add the email address last.
“You don’t want to send an email accidentally before you have finished writing and proofing the message. Even when you are replying to a message, it’s a good precaution to delete the recipient’s address and insert it only when you are sure the message is ready to be sent.”
12. Double-check that you’ve selected the correct recipient.
Pay careful attention when typing a name from your address book on the email’s “to”line. It’s easy to select the wrong name, which can be embarrassing to you and to the person who receives the email by mistake.
13. Keep your fonts classic.
Purple Comic Sans has a time and a place (maybe?). But for workplace correspondence, keep your fonts, colours, and sizes classic. The cardinal rule: Your emails should be easy for other people to read. “Generally, it is best to use 10- or 12-point type and an easy-to-read font such as Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman,” As for colour, black is the safest choice.
14. Keep tabs on your tone.
Just as jokes get lost in translation, tone is easy to misconstrue without the context you’d get from vocal cues and facial expressions. Accordingly, it’s easy to come off as more abrupt that you might have intended: You meant “straightforward,” they read “angry and curt.”
To avoid misunderstandings, read your message out loud before hitting send. If it sounds harsh to you, it will sound harsh to the reader. For best results, avoid using unequivocally negative words (“failure,” “wrong,” “neglected”), and always say “please” and “thank you.”
15. Nothing is confidential – so write accordingly.
Everyelectronic message leaves a trail. A basic guideline is to assume that others will see what you write, so don’t write anything you wouldn’t want everyone to see.” A more liberal interpretation: Don’t write anything that would be ruinous to you or hurtful to others. After all, email is dangerously easy to forward, and it’s better to be safe than sorry.
16. Data Protection
Don’t forget data protection, GDPR and Our data protection courses provide detailed information on privacy relating to personal/sensitive data, marketing, emails and much more.
- Sending unsolicited emails to addresses that contain a person’s name or initials, as opposed to functional addresses eg generic titles such as admin@, HR@, finance@, may breach data protection legislation. If you do not know the person you are emailing and they are not expecting the email you need to check that sending the email does not breach data protection and privacy regulations.
- The ICO recommends that emails containing sensitive information are sent using an encrypted email service.
- Use “blind carbon copy” (BCC) or “email merge” instead of “carbon copy” (CC).
The CC function gives each recipient access to the email addresses of all the other recipients. Where the recipients do not know each other there is a high risk of data protection legislation being breached if they can see the personal email addresses of other recipients. This also includes personal business addresses, i.e. any email address that contains a name or initials. - NB the ICO now advise against the use BCC and recommend the use of bulk mailing software.
