When looking through my archives I couldn’t quite believe that I had never published a post about email etiquette! In today’s digital world it is absolutely essential to be able to communicate clearly and concisely through email.
Here are some tips to help you when corresponding electronically.
- Start with a courteous greeting, and use your discretion with respect to familiarity depending on how well you know the recipient. I am a fan of “Hello ___” no matter who I am emailing.
- Make sure you always utilize proper grammar and spelling. When you have careless mistakes in your email it sends the message that you didn’t really take the time to respond thoughtfully.
- Keep your emails as short as possible. You’ll lose your audience if you get bogged down in too many words. Just say what you need to and send it off.
- Make sure to choose the correct “reply” or “reply all” option, because there is a difference!
- Refrain from using all capitals and multiple exclamation points as this can be seen as annoying and unnecessary.
- Try and close with a call to action. What is it that you want the recipient of your email to do after reading it?
- Read your email out loud before you send it (especially if you’re using your phone where it’s easier to make mistakes) because once you press that button there’s no going back! If you use gmail there is a little trick to give yourself an “undo” option. Just click the gear on the top right and choose Settings. Then scroll down to “Undo Send” and select Enable. You can choose the cancellation period and then click Save Changes at the bottom.
Do you have any email advice?
-AJF
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