We offer 10 tips to make your email professional.
The world of business was transformed completely when email became widely used in the 1990s. Emails now occupy a large part of our workday. A study by the International Data Corporation (IDC) found that workers spend 28% of their work week answering or reading emails.
While we strive to be efficient and quick, it is important that we remember the social norms that go along with any type of communication. These are the rules and guidelines for email etiquette.
Many of us deal with hundreds of emails every day. The more specific your subject is, the better your chances of getting your message seen. If you’re sending someone a proposal, make sure to be precise and say “Fitch’s proposal attached.”
A signature should be included in every email. It should tell the recipient who you really are and how you can contact them. It should appear at the end of every email. So that the recipient doesn’t have to search for your email address, phone number, or address, you can include all your contact information.
Use “Hello! Use “Hello!”, “Hey! No matter how much you know the recipient, “Buenas”, or “Hello” are not professional. Use “Hello” instead without exclamation points. To make it more formal, you can write “Dear (insertname)”. It is appropriate to use the name of the person as the heading formula, such as “Hello Roberto”, but you must not reduce the name of that person unless permission has been granted.
Humor is not a good choice for email. You may think something funny is funny, but it could be misinterpreted by the other person, or taken as sarcasm. They cannot hear your voice tone or see your facial expressions.
Do not be surprised if people judge you based on the way that you write emails. If your message contains misspelled words or grammar errors, they may view you as lazy, ignorant, or lax. Before you hit “Submit”, make sure to check your spelling and grammar.
Even if you are replying to a chain mail, it is best to create your message in a separate note. This means you shouldn’t type more than one line. Include the subject, as well as any references to emails, searches, and conversations previously. It can be tedious and time-consuming to go back through the chain in order to view context. The recipient might receive hundreds of emails each day, and they may not be able to recall the sequence of events that led to your email.
You should respond politely to all legitimate emails that are sent to you. Even if there is no reply, you can still send a message to the recipient letting them know you received it. Report it if you think your email was sent to the wrong address.
Don’t send angry emails. Respond quickly and clearly. Before you send it, take some time to review your message. You can leave your message in drafts if you’re feeling unwell. Later, you can review it again and calm down to come up with a response.
It’s easy to share email messages, even if you don’t realize it. You should not share sensitive or confidential information over the telephone or in person. You should also ask permission to send sensitive material as an attachment or in the body of a message.
In the context of a business, exclamation marks and other methods of showing emotion such as smileys and informal abbreviations and CAPITAL LISTERS are inappropriate. If you don’t know the recipient well, these techniques should be ignored. A row of exclamation marks is not professional. It is not professional to use a row of exclamation marks!
Although it may take some time to get your emails looking professional, you will eventually be able to make them more organized and polished.
