How to Write Effective Emails
Making e-mailing mistakes in the workplace is not going to capsize your career. But learning the unspoken rules of writing professional emails will affect how competent you are perceived to be in the eyes of your colleagues.
And since there are no standardized training courses for this, we are going to first share the very real benefits of getting good at email in the workplace.
Tips For Professional E-Mail Etiquette
Then dive into our top 8 tips for professional e-mail etiquette, many of which people have learned the hard way during their first full-time job as a management consultant. So, let’s get started.
Many people such as us have a nerdy passion to present an email with the proper e-mail etiquette in the workplace. Think back to the last time you received a poorly written e-mail. You might have had to reread it a few times to get the main point and the action items might have been scattered all over the place.
Worst case scenario, it led to an unnecessarily long back-and-forth e-mail thread that could have been avoided had the initial e-mail been adequately planned out. And therein lies the beauty of well-crafted emails.
No one does it help you, the sender, come across as more capable by showcasing strong communication skills, but also saves the reader so much of their time by only servicing information relevant to them.
Tip 1. Proper Call to Action in Subject
So now further ado, our first tip is to have a call to action when appropriate in the e-mail subject line. As you might be familiar with the generic action required in subject lines, right? Our recommendation is to take it a step further and include exactly what you need the recipient to do and the estimated time it takes for them to do it.
For example, instead of writing the action required feedback for Project X, write 5-minute survey feedback for Project X instead.
This very small tweak probably gave you a lot more context. It’s a survey for Project X, you can get it done very quickly in between the two meetings Or, if it’s not appropriate to include the estimated time, be specific about the call to action.
For example, instead of spending estimates for Q4, right? You want to approve spending estimates for Q4, so Elon knows what’s expected of him even before he opens the email.
Tip 2. One Email Thread
Stick with one e-mail thread for the same topic. To be honest, many people have been called out for this by a colleague of theirs, but you will be glad we told you before that time has to take place.
Basically, many people send out separate emails for the same project whenever they have a new idea or follow-up question. But if you think about it from the recipient’s point of view, they’re missing the context from their original e-mail thread, and multiple new emails on the same topic just clog up their inboxes unnecessarily.
So, the general rule of thumb here is to stick to the original e-mail chain for any given topic, so everyone can refer to the same information. e-mail etiquette.
Tip 3. Addition of Recipient’s Information
Explain why you added in or took out recipients in e-mail threads. In many situations, we have to add someone to the e-mail thread to get their input or take someone out to spare their inbox. A professional and easy way to do this is to add a sentence at the very top of the e-mail.
Pretty showing who you added in or took out. We would like to add parentheses and italics. The font to separate it from the actual e-mail body. This way the readers know who the new recipients are immediately.
Tip 4. Precision and Concision
Addresses a very big pet peeve of mine, which is when senders include a lot of information upfront. But what they’re really trying to get at or ask for is at the very end of the e-mail. To avoid that, always include your main point first, followed by the context. by pushing the context back.
We’re giving the other person the option to read the not-so-important part of the e-mail. Oftentimes when we’re emailing someone more senior than us, we feel obligated to explain why we’re emailing right at the beginning. So, it doesn’t seem like we’re bothering them.
This is actually counterproductive because if the person is very senior, they probably just want to know what you’re emailing them about. How they can help deal with it, then move on with their own schedules.
Tip 5. Summarization of Email
If we receive an e-mail with a lot of disorganized content, summarize the sender’s main points for them in your reply. So, you receive an e-mail from someone who sent you a long, wordy, convoluted message you must reread a few times.
What you want to do is Take a few minutes, identify and bucket common themes from their e-mail, and summarize their message in a few sentences before responding to whatever they’re emailing you about. Not only does this help you confirm your understanding is correct.
The other party will appreciate the extra effort you took to help them organize their thoughts.
Tip 6. Hyperlinking Important Stuff
not etiquette. Tip number six, hyperlink whatever is possible. This is another pet peeve of mine. If you’re sharing a link with someone over e-mail, you really should take the extra few seconds to hit command K on Mac or control K on Windows and hyperlink the external website for video or the important task not only does this look so much.
Here to the recipient that just pasting the big Funky link, but also decreases the chances of you making a mistake by adding an extra letter. Meeting one in the original URL.
Tip 7. Changing Setting
Change default setting to Reply instead of Reply All Honestly the risk-averse side of us talking the way we think about it. Let’s say you reply to an e-mail in a rush, and you make a mistake. The damage is contained to that one recipient because your default setting is to reply to one person instead of replying to All.
This is a standard setting and most if not all the popular e-mail clients and you can usually find this in the General settings section and e-mail Etiquette
Tip 8. Change Undo Send Option To 30Sec
Change Undo Send option to 30 seconds. So, you might not know this, but Murphy’s Law when it comes to emailing the workplace is that you will always catch your mistakes. 10 seconds after the e-mail was already sent, all jokes aside, we are sure we’ve all been there.
We send an e-mail, we go into the Sent e-mail folder to read it from the other person’s perspective, and we realize something is wrong. Again, this is a standard setting you can play around with in all the e-mail apps, instead of the default 5 seconds undo Send, for example. We can change it to 30 seconds for good measure.
Top 21 Phrases And Expressions To Make Your Email More Professional
The Top 21 Phrases Include
Hi everybody, in this short lesson I’m going to show you some useful phrases and expressions for writing formal emails.
1. Greetings
Our first tip is always to use MS and not miss when writing to a woman in a professional context. So as an example, write Dear Ms. Jones and not Dear Mrs. Jones. When writing to a man simply writes Dear Mr.
In formal emails, we always use this surname as an example. The person’s name is Mary Franklin. Don’t write dear Ms. Mary or dear Miss Mary Franklin. Right, dear, Ms. Franklin.
If You don’t have the name of the person you’re writing to because the e-mail address starts with info or office, then write. Sir/Madam.
2. Introduction In An E-mail
For some emails, you’ll need to introduce yourself and follow the simple structure. In this sentence, you will only mention with name, job title, and company.
If you know the person, you’re writing to a little bit but still have a formal relationship, you can start with a friendly opening by saying something like
- I hope everything is going well,
- I hope you had a nice Christmas.
3. Phrase To Use For The Previous Contact
Now let’s look at some phrases you can use to refer to the last contact you had
- It was lovely meeting you at the sales conference last week
- it was nice talking to you on the phone earlier
- Thank you for your mail last week.
All these three phrases are included to signify a contact of email towards you and your client.
4. Context of email
Another important part of formal e-mail writing is to state the reason for your e-mail. As this gives the reader a better understanding of the email you have sent. We have different possibilities. Phrases like
- I am writing in connection with,
- I am writing regarding and so on.
5. Information About Email
Another typical e-mail function is to give information, and a very simple way to do that is to use the phrase
- I would like to inform you about, etc.
6. Attachments
Then we have attachments. Another tip here, don’t write I have enclosed it in an e-mail. We only use that for letters when we send additional documents with a physical letter. For emails, we always say attached and the simplest way to do this is to write.
- I have attached, etc.
7. Request in an Email
Next, we come to make a request. So here we have some different options.
- Could you please let me know if
- I would appreciate it if you could
Would it be possible to, etc.
8. Arrangements in an Email
When deciding in an email on arrangements, one of the most common phrases we use is.
- I was wondering if or would 10 AM be a suitable time?
- I am afraid I’m not available on Wednesday with Thursday work, etc.
9. Conformation
If you want to confirm something from your client or business partner simply right,
- I would like to confirm, etc.
10. Answering in an Email
And if you want to refer to a question that the person had in the previous e-mail, you can use examples like this
- In answer to your first/second question
- To answer your question, etc.
11. Closing As A Salesman Or A Client Finder
And now we come to the end of the e-mail, the closing lines, and sometimes we want to offer more communication. So, a typical way to do this would be to write,
- if you need or require any further information. Feel free to please do not hesitate to contact me.
12. Closing on Reminder of Meeting
We sometimes want to refer to the next meeting. The most common way to do this is
- I look forward to another tip here, always use inform after I look forward to.
- I look forward to seeing you, meeting you, hearing from you, and so on.
13. Proper Closing Of The Email
Finally, the most common way to close a formal e-mail is to write.
- Best regards.
Conclusion
Many people such as us have a nerdy passion to present an email with the proper e-mail etiquette in the workplace. This is a driving factor that leads to a better form of communication and a better work environment as people feel at ease about how to send their emails professionally. This is an essential factor that is crucial in all tasks.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q: Why should an email have proper etiquette?
Learning the unspoken rules of writing professional emails will affect how competent you are perceived to be in the eyes of your colleagues. And since there are no standardized training courses for this, we are going to first share the very real benefits of getting good at email in the workplace.
Q: Why should the un-send option be 30 seconds long?
We are sure we’ve all been there. We send an e-mail, we go into the Sent e-mail folder to read it from the other person’s perspective, and we realize something is wrong. Again, this is a standard setting you can play around with in all the e-mail apps, instead of the default 5 seconds undo Send, for example. We can change it to 30 seconds for good measure. So, in case of a mistake, we can correct it.
Q: What is the most common phrase to remind a person about a meeting?
We sometimes want to refer to the next meeting. The most common way to do this is to write, I look forward to another tip here. Always use inform after I look forward to, I look forward to seeing you, meeting you, hearing from you, and so on.