Reading and responding to emails is one of the most time-consuming and important aspects of a lot of professions. A major chunk of time during the day is taken up responding to emails, and your professional life is dependent on them.
And it’s not simply good enough to reply. How you reply and what you write can make a big difference. Do you know about email etiquette? Do you know how to start your email and how to sign it off?
If you do those things incorrectly, you could find yourself in a bad situation at work. Considering how much time in corporate life revolves around emails, there are some email rules you need to be aware of. In this article, we talk about some of the things you should keep in mind when responding to a work email. These tips will help you be more professional and in turn, make a good impression on the people you are communicating with.
The Subject Line
Sometimes it can be easy to forget that the person you are emailing has hundreds, if not thousands of other emails to deal with. If you’re not clear about what your email is about, it could be put on the back burner or completely ignored.
For this reason, being clear in your subject line is of the utmost importance. Keep your subject short and concise. You definitely should use the main keyword in the subject line so that the receiver knows exactly what the email is about.
Appropriate Email Address
Professionalism is important when it comes to writing emails. Make sure that the email address you use for work has your name included in it.
Most companies give out professional email IDs to their employees, you need to ensure that you use them for your communication.
Lots of people often have both their personal and work emails logged in on their computers for convenience. But that means that you can easily send a work email from your personal address by mistake.
So make sure to double-check that you are sending from the right email address. A professional email address is a lot more likely than a personal one.
Double Checking
Once you get used to writing a large number of emails daily, you can get muscle memory for how you respond to them.
Make sure you double-check every word you’ve written, checking it for spelling, grammar, and punctuation before you send it. You can use online English grammar tools like Grammarly for your needs.
Another important thing to keep in mind before replying to an email is checking who you’re responding to. If you’re on a chain mail, make sure you do not hit Reply All if you want your mail to just be read by the sender.
Beginners
No matter how long you have been working with someone or how close you are to them on a personal level, professional emails should begin with a proper, formal salutation.
Hi, Hello, or Respected are acceptable forms of salutations when it comes to a professional email. Try to stay away from informal greetings like Hey, or worse, Yo.
Exclamation Marks
Although we covered proper punctuation in an earlier section, we need to specifically talk about the exclamation mark. This particular punctuation is used far too much by some people.
Exclamation marks can make you sound unprofessional, informal, casual, and immature. Even if there is something that you need to show excitement about, do not be too liberal when it comes to the use of exclamation marks.
Most importantly, never use more than one exclamation mark at the end of a sentence, no matter how enthusiastic you are about the topic at hand.
Jokes
You could be in a position where you can crack a joke about something you are having a back and forth email chain about. You need to keep in mind that your joke might not be taken in good humor.
This is because humor is not the same when it’s written as it is when you’re talking to someone.
In this scenario, it’s better to be safe and leave out the jokes, as they might cause hurt sentiments if the person at the other end perceives it any other way than intended.
The Bottom Line
Corporate culture thrives on email services in today’s world. Even when you have someone’s personal contact information like their phone number, you use emails to be professional as well as to have a record of the communication.
Since you’re going to be writing emails for a good chunk of your life, it makes sense to learn email etiquette. Knowing how to formulate emails correctly can help you get yourself promoted or land a huge sale and so much more.