People in general spend a quarter of online time sifting through their hundreds of daily emails. Because of the vast amount of emails received and sent its important to handle them properly. Here are 10 email etiquette rules you should follow. With simple rules put in place you can avoid the embarrassment or worse, the loss of your potential client.
- Use a Professional Email Address. Loose the personal email address when communicating with business affiliates. You should always use an email address that is associated with your name or bus so that the recipient can clearly identify who the email is going to. Never use email addresses that are not appropriate such as “allnightfun@…” or “hightimes@…”, you get the idea. Gmail offers free email addresses so get a simple one using your name today!
- Always Use A Clear Subject Line. Your subject line should contain verbiage that clearly says what you are contacting the recipient for. If its to set up a meeting then “Meeting date and time” should be somewhere in the subject line. Or “Invoice for ABC Company work attached” if your sending an invoice.
- Do Not Over Use “Read Receipt” Feature. Unless it is a company compliance issue or something that is time sensitive do not auto enable this feature. It is often seen as obnoxious and many will not “ok” the send back to recipient link anyway.
- Careful With the Reply All Button. The “Reply All” button should be used sparingly and on a need to know basis. If everyone does not need to know the information you will be replying with, think twice before hitting that reply all button. If recipients are reading an important email thread then your email will slow them down and have a negative effect on the group message.
- Keep Humor Minimal and Appropriate. Best to leave the humor out unless you know the recipient will likely think its funny. Some words or humor have a different effect when put in writing especially if you don’t know the recipients depth of personality.
- Always Reply. Reply to your emails even If you receive an email that wasn’t intended for you, especially if you were included in a group email. If you don’t reply and someone in the group notices, you will seem as though you were ease-dropping and perceived in a negative way.
- Be Sure to Spell Check. Some recipients may pass judgement on your misspelling or improper grammar use. Re-read you emails before sending will save you from embarrassment.
- Enable The Delay Email Send Feature. After you complete your email and hit send, your email will be held in your outbox for a certain amount of time. This is a good practice and you will be surprised how many times you will go back into your email to fix up your writing before it is sent.
- Keep Your Greeting Formal. When it comes to contacting a business professional, refrain from using greetings such as “Hey” or “Yo” or addressing the person using their nic-name. A respectful greeting will get you a respectful reply and come across with the impression that you are professional first.
- ALL CAP NO NO!!! Do not write in all caps and refrain from using all those exclamation points. Reading an email with all capitals relay the feeling of yelling or anger and when combined with exclamation points, can be abrasively received. For example “I TOLD YOU I DIDN’T LIKE THOSE!!!!” compared to “I told you I didn’t like those.” Stay away from the all cap writing.