Whether you are just beginning your professional career, studying your AACSB MBA online, or even if you have been running your own business for many years, knowing the practices for business email etiquette is a useful skill no matter what stage you are at in your professional journey.
In this article, we will look at 5 of the best practices for business email etiquette that still stand up.
1. Be careful how you ‘open’ and ‘close’ the email
This does not mean how you click open and read the email, or how you close the email after you finish reading. ‘Opening’ the email refers to how you start or introduce the email. ‘Closing’ the email is how you end the email and ‘sign off’.
The way in which you open and close a business email should always be professional and respectful. This is one of the most important parts of writing proper business emails.
Try not to start your email with greetings such as “Hi”, or “Hey”, or just by using the recipient’s first name. These openings will all be too informal.
Try to avoid using “To whom it may concern”, unless there is no other way for you to find out more about the person or business who will be receiving your email.
When in doubt, you can always begin the email with a simple, “Dear [recipient’s name].”
If you are writing the email to more than one recipient it’s fine to write: “Hello everyone”, or “Hello [team, or name of the group],’
And the way you end the email is just as important. Make sure you close the email politely. It never hurts to write “Thank you”, or “Best Regards”, or something else like “I look forward to hearing from you”.
There are lots of ways to start or end an email to make sure it reads professionally.
2. Remember this is a business email, not a personal email
If you are writing the email for business, then be sure to keep the language and voice strictly professional. Also, write your business emails with a neutral tone.
Do not write your business emails with aggressive messages, or with messages that might be perceived as passive-aggressive. Even if you are writing disciplinary emails or emails to address negative subject matter, it is best to use dispassionate language and voice. Business emails should always be impersonal.
It is usually good etiquette to also avoid writing playful emails or attempting to write humor. These things can be subjective and can often be misinterpreted. But even when they are understood correctly, most of the recipients you will be writing business emails for will consider emails with jokes, sarcasm, or personal expressions as being unprofessional.
A neutral tone might sound boring, but just keep in mind that these emails are not supposed to be entertaining – they’re meant to be professional.
This also leads us to the next practice.
3. Your business emails should always be about business
Business emails are for important communications, relevant to the business. Therefore they should clearly and succinctly get their message across, without any unnecessary words or information.
A lot of the time you will be writing your business emails for other professionals, and they won’t want to read through long emails with irrelevant details.
Your business email should be clear and to the point. The content of the email should be relevant to the business or the professional matters being discussed.
Your business email should not be used to discuss personal matters, or subjects other than business. This should be the case even if you know the recipient of the business email personally.
Even if the recipient is a friend, the email should be professional (and the language and tone should still be neutral). Writing about personal lives is what personal emails are for.
4. Respond to your emails on time
This is another practice that is as much about carrying out business etiquette as it is about maintaining a professional standard.
Sending your emails late might not only negatively affect your own professional credibility or your business, but it can also impact others as well.
Not responding to your emails in a timely manner might keep others from being able to complete tasks of their own, or to act on certain decisions.
There will be other businesses or professionals who will be waiting for your emails. They will be expecting that their communications are read on time and responded to reasonably quickly.
If you do not have the time to respond to an email at once, or if you do not have the information yet that you need to write a proper response, still be sure to let the recipient know. Write them a shorter email that you will provide them with more information the next day, or that you are still waiting for things elsewhere to come through.
5. Make sure to check and proofread your emails
When your schedule becomes very busy and you start sending out and receiving a lot of emails throughout the day, it becomes tempting to write quick responses and send them out as fast as possible. For business emails especially it becomes easier to to start writing rushed emails, using shorter sentences, and more abbreviations.
But it is better business etiquette to take the extra few moments to read through your email. Be sure to check for grammatical errors and fix any spelling mistakes you might have made.
Always make sure that your business emails are easy to read and to understand. The recipient of your emails should not have to decipher or try to work out what your messages are trying to say.
One of the fastest ways for your business emails to seem unprofessional is for the email to be filled with spelling errors or grammatical mistakes.
Think very carefully about how you write your professional emails. The way you compose your business emails will influence how your communications are received and may impact your professional reputation or business.
The practices mentioned above will be useful no matter what area of business you might be in.
This article has highlighted 5 best practices for business email etiquette that still stand up.