E-mail Etiquettes : points to remember while writing E-mail

Email Etiquettes

Introduction

Have your ever wondered why you never get the desired reply to your e-mail? Do you sound annoying to the other party? Or is it that the e-mail doesn’t provide enough information to the other party to be able to reply? These are some of the questions worth pondering.
What can you do to ensure that your e-mails are delivered, read and replied? No, not just these but they should invoke the desired actions. Some of the things which you can do are:

1. Keep the subject of your e-mail informative. Don’t write Hi! Or Check this out! Or Press Release while interacting in the professional world. Use a better subject line like Press Release-New software from XYZ, Permission to republish the article.
2. Include all the required information in the e-mail. Too much or too less information will leave the other party un-interested in your e-mail.
3. Attachments in the first e-mail should be avoided. Seek permission from the other party before sending an attachment.
4. Offer to help, if they have any doubts.
5. End the e-mail with a courtesy note. Regards, Best Regards could be the good endings.

Do you have some more experiences and ideas? Share them with other readers to help them join the regime of Internet world.

Following the email etiquettes helps in increasing professionalism and building relationships with clients. Email being the most common medium of communication (especially when interacting with people overseas), it is essential to have an email enriched with etiquettes.
Points to remember:

• Always send a BCC (Blank Carbon Copy) if the email is being sent to multiple people
• The subject line should be detailed enough to give the reader an idea of the email content
• Avoid use of slang’s, acronyms and complicated words.
• If multiple attachments are sent, always zip them rather than attaching one by one.
• Avoid using words like “I” “ME” which may pass across a negative impression.
• Avoid attaching large size attachments.
• Never command in an email. Always request.
• Avoid spelling and grammatical mistakes.
• Use of salutations and signature adds to the professionalism
• Avoid using smiley or quotes in a business email.
• Avoid using Capital letters. It may look offensive.

Why email etiquettes?

• Increases professionalism
• Having email etiquettes get to the point faster as compared to poorly written emails
• Proper use of words creates an overall good impression.
• An email with etiquettes may encourage the use to respond, thereby building a rapport.

Some points to remember while writing emails

When writing emails, be it as a cover letter to a job application or business emails, it is a good idea to pause for a few minutes before we start noting down the points and take a look at the following:
Who are you communicating with? What is it that you want to communicate? Why should the recipient pay attention to your email? What is the expected outcome of your email? etc.

The above thoughts give clarity to the objective behind writing the email. Since there are lot many people writing emails, it is virtually impossible for the recipient to answer each and every individual. In such a scenario, a few pointers may help you get the attention of the recipient and might help you achieve the desired outcome.

• Have an appropriate e-mail id; say like sunil.agarwal@yahoo.com and not like dude23@yahoo.com or sweetgal@yahoo.com.
• Please make sure you are addressing the correct individual and on correct e-mail address. As far as possible, try to use professional e-mail ids, both yours as well as the recipients’. If the recipient has more than one email id, that you are aware of, ask them in your very first email regarding their preference.
• Do not forget to mention the purpose of your email in the subject line. That gives an exact idea of the nature of your email.
• If you know the name of the receiver then you can address them as "Hello, Mr. Benette" or "Hello Ms. Darcy" and if you are not aware of the name or the gender of the person, then you can just stick to "Hello Sir/Madam". Under no circumstances use "Dear Respected Sir/Madam" as it is outdated and not taken very well in corporate world.
• Introduce yourself very briefly and tell them how you got their e-mail id, if it is first time communication between the sender and the recipient.
• Immediately jump to the main reason behind the e-mail by giving all the required information without getting into unnecessary details and not leaving any relevant information and what do you expect from them.
• Conclude the e-mail by saying a few polite words like "Thank you very much for your time", "I appreciate your time/help", "I look forward to hear from you", etc.
• DO NOT make spelling mistakes. Before you hit the send button, please make sure to do spell check.

The above points might increase your chances of being noticed and may also get the expected result.

Additional Points to avoid bloopers

While e-mailing a potential employer or client/customer, please take care of the following:

• Do Not leave the Caps Lock ON and write e-mails, eg. DEAR MS. MITCHELLE.... I WOULD LIKE TO..... (Capital Letters in emailing are used to reprimand people, generally used by Bosses and Superiors)
• Do Not use Bold, Italics or Underline unless required, do not use to much of highlights or colors. You are NOT leaving a message on someone's scrapbook.
• DO NOT begin Professional e-mails with "Hope you are doing fine by the grace of Almighty God" or "Hope this e-mail finds you in the pink of health"; one could simply begin with a short line like "Greetings from LMN Ltd".
• Have a standard signature and autosave it in your e-mailing options.

A simple form could be :