Your emails can look sharp or sloppy. It depends on how you write them.
The good news is that by learning email etiquette, you never need to send a bad email again. Email etiquette is a set of rules that, once learned, can make people respond faster to your emails and actually read what you send. But get it wrong, and your reply is most likely going in the bin.
Email etiquette outlines how a professional email should look, sound, begin, and end. Here's what that looks like.
In this guide:
Email etiquette is how we make our emails clear, respectful, and easy to act on. It makes sure your message fits both the person and the moment. And, it keeps your emails professional and helps people understand and trust what you're talking about so they can act on it.
What good email etiquette looks like:
Email etiquette plays a crucial role in various areas. Let’s take a look at some examples of email etiquette:
Email isn't always the right tool. Neither is a phone call. It always depends on the situation. But knowing when to use each one can save you serious time and avoid a lot of back-and-forth.
In short, email works best when the message can wait and needs to be recorded. A call works best when speed, sensitivity, or complexity mean its better to speak to the person ear-to-ear.
Use email when:
Pick up the phone when:
Let’s start off with the basics of email etiquette for business. Regardless of whether you’re sending an email, an old-fashioned letter, or even a text, all professionals communicate with a certain degree of formality in their language. Respond with courtesy, pleasantries, and directness, and you’ll be on your way to a beneficial business relationship.
A good subject line will almost guarantee your contact will open your email immediately. In a competition for eyeballs, the clearer your subject line, the better. Write your subject field in a clear, concise manner. Never use all caps or all lowercase as this not only looks unprofessional but will most likely get you flagged as spam.
Below are some examples of short but specific subject lines:
When your reader opens your email, you want them to understand it fast. If you ramble, your message gets lost, and so does their attention. Keeping your message short and focused makes it easier to read and more likely to get a response.
Here's how to do that:
Your greeting is the first thing people see, so make sure it isn't the last. It sets the tone for everything that follows and helps your message feel clear, respectful, and appropriate. Think about who you’re writing to and how formal the situation is. Keeping it simple and professional is usually the safest choice.
It always helps to have a few go-to greetings ready, especially when you don’t know the person you’re speaking to. The tips below should get you started.
Use:
Avoid:
There's a reason you use a different tone when talking with your mates, or your colleagues. At work, you're probably dialing up the respect. The same goes for emails.
Emails can be easy to misread, which means the tone needs to be perfect. Keeping your language clear and respectful helps to avoid confusion and makes it easier, and more likely for the reader to respond.
How to nail tone every time:
Want a reply? End on a high. After someone has trawled through your email, make it as easy for them to follow up or learn more about you. End with all the details that are going to reinforce who you are and why they should get in touch.
The right way to end an email:
Professional relationships rely on tone of voice. When using email, it can be difficult to infer the subtle cues that would be clear in an in-person meeting. In general, when it comes to business email, you’ll want to avoid humor, snarky jokes, or memes.
Keep to the subject at hand, be clear and concise, and keep in mind your recipient is just as busy as you are! It’s all about building trust and making it easy for them to reply.
To avoid being flagged as spam, prioritize your message content over formatting. Bold faces, unnecessary inserted images, crazy fonts, and different colors will tend to annoy the recipient or give your message a spammy quality. Keep it simple and clear, and your chance of getting a response will be much higher.
Who you include in your email matters just as much as what you say. The TO, CC, and BCC fields help you control who needs to act, who needs visibility, and who should stay hidden. It keeps your emails clear and avoids confusion, so the right people see it.
Here's how to use TO, CC, and BCC like a boss:
To – This is for the main person or people your email is for. They’re the ones expected to read it and take action.
CC – Use CC to keep others in the loop. They can see the email, but they’re not the focus and don’t usually need to respond.
BCC – BCC hides recipients from everyone else in the thread. It’s useful for privacy, especially in large sends or when sharing contacts shouldn’t be visible.
Reply All sends your response to everyone in the email thread, not just the sender. It can be useful in group conversations, but it can also turn a simple email into a long, noisy thread if used without thinking. Before using it, think about who actually needs your response.
Here's how to use it:
Maintaining good email habits starts with proofreading before sending. Are all the intended recipients on the list, or are there any unintended recipients? As we’ve mentioned, being careful with TO, CC, and BCC will be appreciated on the other end.
Keeping in touch in a timely manner is a great way to build a good client base and show off your email etiquette. Set aside time during your workday to answer emails; for example, an hour or two in the morning as you start your daily tasks. Unless it is an emergency, follow ‘email response time etiquette’ by responding within 24 hours during the business week, and you’ll be on the path to a fruitful professional relationship.
Along the lines of jokes, cynical memes, and other humor, stay away from emojis in the professional realm. The potential for misinterpretation is huge, not to mention the lack of formality.
Avoid undercutting your professional image by staying away from them altogether. The key is to know your audience. A single smiley emoticon from a colleague is not the end of the world, but outside the workplace, with unfamiliar business relationships, it’s best to stick to the written word.
In some instances, you’ll want to show your contacts and customers you’re email savvy by responding to the topic at hand. Keep the response friendly, light on content, and edit out previous content that no longer applies. This includes simply cutting out the unnecessary trail of email responses from the previous thread. Select the text to be cut and simply hit ‘Delete’. This leaves your recipient with less clutter to contend with and makes it much easier for them to read and respond.
Removing e-mail headers, signature files, and disclaimers that are repeated at the bottom of messages gets rid of most of the junk of a lengthy reply. Top-posting — when you just hit reply and send on a long email thread — can annoy your recipients. If there is no need to reiterate every single message, then down-editing shows savvy email etiquette to all included in the message.
Putting everything into writing is the best way to maintain a legal record and be crystal clear in what you say. Phone conversations usually mean there’s no record of what was said, and this could be problematic if an issue ever escalates to a courtroom setting. An email thread at least provides a record of what was said. Even if a dispute starts in a phone call, it’s worth switching to email for this reason.
But when your communications are about a legal matter or another intricate back-and-forth where a record of everyone’s input might be useful in the future, keeping all correspondence is a good method to cover yourself if the messages are ever used in any sort of dispute or contract.
If you plan to send marketing emails, apart from creating an email according to email etiquette, it’s also important to have a reliable service. This video on choosing an email marketing tool for your business will help you decide on the right email marketing service for you. Combining a good email service with a well-written email makes your strategy work better for sure.
To sum up, knowing these basic email etiquette rules and tips should help you keep your emails professional and relevant. Apply email etiquette in your emails using Namecheap Private Email — a professional business email service that starts from only $14.88/year, and enjoy a secure and reliable webmail.
Email etiquette is a set of rules for writing emails that are clear, respectful, and easy to act on. It covers everything from subject lines and greetings to tone, formatting, and sign-offs.
Email etiquette builds trust and makes you look professional. People are more likely to read your emails and respond when you write them well.
Write a clear subject line. Keep your message short and focused. Use a professional greeting and tone. End with a full signature. Proofread before you send and respond within 24 hours during the business week.
TO is for the person who needs to act. CC keeps others informed without requiring a response. BCC hides additional recipients from everyone else in the thread.
No. With people you don't know well, emojis can come across as unprofessional and are easy to misread. Stick to words.
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