Email Etiquette Tips
By Yahaira Hernandez
Much like learning how to handle a business call, mastering email etiquette comes with experience. I practiced email etiquette while attending college when I emailed professors. Since then, my performance has improved thanks to a career that heavily relies on electronic communication.
To this day, I learn more about email etiquette by communicating with different people every day. Surely, you know how to create an email that appears professional and friendly, and with the following tips, your emails can inspire others to follow better email techniques.
Courteous Greeting and Closing
By beginning your email with “Hi, John” or “Good morning, Sarah”, the person you are communicating with will always appreciate the friendly greeting. As for the closing, be sure your signature sits below one or two simple and pleasant words like, “Best regards” or “Thank you.” These words are key when creating any formal email.
Spell Check
Typos happen or misspelled unique names, but it’s extremely important to carefully construct emails and documents without spelling errors, especially in our line of work. My name for example, is very unique, not everyone knows how to spell “Yahaira” but unfortunately for me, many devices autocorrects my name to “Sahara”, causing me a little annoyance when I see it in an email. To avoid spelling errors, be sure to run spell check or review your email before hitting “Send”.
Respond in a Timely Fashion
Some people may work under strict deadlines, that’s why it is very important to respond to an email anywhere between 24 hours or less. In our industry, we work very closely with reporters, some of whom receive thousands of emails a day, so we make it a priority to follow up with extremely busy people if a couple of days pass without a response. By responding quickly, you are helping yourself and others get closer to checking an item off your to-do list.
Check Your Tone
To avoid sounding demanding or rude, read your email out loud to ensure the tone is that which you desire. Words like “please” and “thank you” go a long way in an email. If you are emotionally charged when writing an email, make sure you step away and wait to reply until you are calm and ready to write an email.
Properly Addressing Emails
Make sure you don’t reply all unless everyone needs to see your email. Use the “CC:” field only when it’s important for those who need to see an email. If you’d like to “BCC:” someone, let all parties know you are doing so, so that everyone sees your intentions are proper.
A perfect example is an “introductions” email. The first person to reply should acknowledge putting the connector into the BCC field in order to avoid cluttering up their inbox with the back and forth of getting acquainted and setting up a time to meet.
With these tips in mind, I hope you construct emails even more carefully. People like myself, will really appreciate the formality of each email that comes their way. Have you ever received an email with one or more email etiquet