When it comes to delivering efficient performance in a dynamic business environment, email correspondence can be crucial for your long-time success, especially with key customers. Emails have to be simple, easy to follow and concise, giving an opportunity for establishing a quick contact with the worker at any time.
Emails are the right form of correspondence when we want to:
- send a reminder
- send a quick update
- make a request
- arrange or invite for a meeting
- send an attached document
- initiate an informal or semi-formal communication
Simple and easy as it may seem, however, email writing can be tough job. There is a risk that you may irritate or offense your recipients if you are not aware of some common email etiquette rules.
Allow us to give you some tips of the trade that may be of great favor to anyone whose job requires a lot business writing and communicating with a variety of costumers and stakeholders via email.
Don't waffle on
Most of the emails have this opening line "Sorry to bother you". Starting with an apology is not such a good idea. First, it wastes your recipient's time and time is a very valuable thing in terms of a hardworking in an dynamic environment. Second, what annoys most recipients is the fact they have to deal with a bunch of irrelevant information until they get to the main point. Therefore, don't waffle on or use cumbersome tone of voice. Instead, try to cut down on words and deliver a clear message.
Provide good grammar knowledge
Grammar is very important and when it comes to online correspondence it has always been an issue. Most people do not pay good attention on their grammar when writing an email. An email can be formal, informal or semi-formal, it depends on who is going to read it. Regardless of the format there are basic grammar rules that must be followed:
- use correctly verb tenses while creating sentences
- avoid using double negatives
- use words with capital letter when needed
- use punctuation correctly
- verbs in plural come with subjects in plural
- nouns and pronouns must be of the same gender and number as the subjects (if you are not sure, just build the sentence in a gender-neutral way).
If you don't feel confident enough about your grammar, you can always review the basic grammar rules and study the common mistakes in order not to make them in the future.
Write emails that can be easy to read on a small screen
Stay up-to-date. This means to apply a technology-friendly attitude. Remember that we live in the Digital age where everyone feels attached to their mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. For this, considering today’s people are always on the go, it is highly likely your recipients read their emails via their iPhone or iPad. Therefore, when you compose your emails stick to short paragraphs. Make the message look as scannable as possible. Use bullet points and highlight text when is necessary. People are not happy when they have to read long blocks of text. If the email has to be longer, simplify it for the reader by adding a summary at the beginning. This will be much helpful and the recipient would appreciate it.
Style of writing
You are free to keep the same formality in writing emails as business letters. Apply eloquent style of writing. Good grammar is a must as well as complete sentences, appropriate capitalization and punctuation. No abbreviations, acronyms, emoticons, negativity and confusing sentences are allowed. Use polite and positive tone of voice if you want to sound like a professional.
A few more tips:
- Install “Spell check” in your writing software
- Reread at least once before press the "Send" button.
- Don't answer the minute you receive the email. Think it through then compose an appropriate answer.
