Tips to Effective Business Emails

Effective communication skills in the business environment are essential for day-to-day operations as well as career progression.  The most successful leaders are excellent communicators.

Writing good emails in any corporate environment is key to getting your work done efficiently and effectively.  Since most workers receive a large volume of email each day, it is important that your emails are crafted well so that you can get the response you need within your expected time frame.

Here are Tips to Effective Business Emails:

• Do not over-communicate by email. If the subject you are writing about needs back-and-forth discussion, it is better to do that in person or via phone.  Also, you do not want to use email to communicate about personal or sensitive information since it can be easily forwarded.  Finally, you do not want to communicate bad news through email since verbal communication allows for empathy and compassion.
• Make good use of subject lines. The subject should grab the reader’s attention and summarize what your email is about.  It is not good to leave subject lines blank as they may get treated as spam or even overlooked.
• Don’t over cc. The use of carbon copy should be limited to only those involved in the topic. Don’t copy your boss on everything just to impress. People will see through that real quick.
• Keep messages clear and brief. Emails should be short and to the point while communicating all of the information the recipient needs to respond.
• Be polite. The emails you send reflect upon your professionalism and attention to detail.  Avoid slang, jargon, inappropriate abbreviations, and emoticons.
• Check your tone. Your choice of words, punctuation, capitalization, and sentence length can all be misinterpreted in the absence of visual cues.  Double check how your email “feels.”
• Finally before you send, double check spelling, grammar, and punctuation.  Your email is, once again, a reflection of your professionalism.
• Use some kind of greeting and some kind of sign-off. Don’t just start with your text, and don’t stop at the end without a polite signature. Sign off with Best Wishes, Best regards, or Thank you.

Raymond Lee

Raymond Lee is the President of Careerminds, a global outplacement company based in Wilmington, Delaware. He has over 20 years of human resource, outplacement, and career consulting experience. He has his bachelor’s in psychology and holds a Master’s Degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Louisiana Tech University. He is active in SHRM and ATD. Raymond’s been featured on SiriusXM Business Radio, CareerTalk, and the Wall Street Journal and he’s published a book titled, Clocking Out: A Stress-Free Guide to Career Transitions.