10 Tips On How To Write A Business Email

Email is part of the everyday activity of an IT professional. It’s utilized in offices as a main form of communication, and some organizations use it better than others. You will find there's big difference between a good email and a bad email. Sometimes we can pick up bad habits from other companies or employees, causing our emails to get into the “bad email” category. Have a read of these ten tips on how to write business emails to help enhance your writing.

Use an Informative Subject Line

The subject line is the very first thing that a person sees in an email. Usually, they see it before opening the email itself, as depending on the email client, the subject and recipient is shown before the entire message.

The subject ought to provide enough information about the email so the recipient knows what it's about before opening. A subject such as “Review” or “Document” is extremely vague and doesn’t help much. On the other hand, a subject such as “Review Requirements Document” is much more specific and offers the recipient more information about the email.

Greet The Recipient Appropriately

Start off your email by providing a greeting - don’t just launch into the email. There are several occasions where you can simply reply to the email using a quick answer, but in nearly all cases it’s preferable to have a greeting.

How should you use a greeting in an email? Well, this email is formal but not as formal as a business letter. Utilizing “Dear John” is too formal. Something similar to “Hi,” or “Hello,” or “Hi John,” is often acceptable. It will need to be adjusted when there is more than one recipient. I usually include both names if there are two people, or use the word “all” if there are more than two. For example, “Hi John, Peter,” if it’s two John and Peter, or “Hi all,” if it’s to John, Peter and another person.

Keep It Short And Necessary

In this world of computers and technology, it’s tempting to turn the email into an essay and write anything and everything inside for the person. I’m not sure if you’ve ever gotten a long email before, but if you have, how did that make you feel? Did you feel enthusiastic about reading it, or did it turn you off making it feel like it was a lot of work? I know how I feel when I receive a long email - it’s not a good thing.

In some cases, selecting the most appropriate communication method may well mean you don’t even need to compose the email. On the other hand, if you do, among the most difficult things to do when learning how to write a business email is to make it short and concise. You need to be able to get your point across efficiently, without getting into too much detail or unnecessary information. It takes some practice and experience, but try and think of yourself as the recipient when reading the email. A suggestion that I mention later on is on reviewing the email - while reviewing, you can see if it’s a good length.

Put Your Main Point In The Opening Sentence

Along with attempting to keep the email short and to the point, there's something else you're able to do to help the recipient and get a reply from the email. You can put the main reason for the email in the starting sentence. This point might be a request (such as “I’d like your approval on the following action” or “Could we meet to talk about the plans for the new employee?”) or even just information (such as “Please find below the details on the server outage on the weekend”).

This will help the recipient read the email and improve the way the email is used. More detail in the email can go below, to support this point.

Be Aware Of The Recipient’s Knowledge

A huge part of how to write a business email in the IT market is the gap in knowledge between employees. There is obviously a great deal of technical information in various areas of IT - and not everybody knows what it all means. This is certainly something to think about when writing emails to other individuals.

It might be OK when writing as part of your own team or when you know the person is aware of the subject of the email. However, when writing to others, it’s important to be aware of the recipient’s knowledge. This knowledge can be in two areas - knowledge of the technology, and knowledge of the business context.

Knowledge of the technology involves all the IT stuff we know and love - servers, networking, programming, databases, configuration - all that stuff. These kinds of things other IT people would most likely understand, but not always. Just because someone is aware of how switches and routers are set up for the network, doesn’t mean they know about database configurations. You may have to explain the aim of your email to them in non-technical terms.

Knowledge of the business context involves software systems, business processes and teamwork that isn’t relevant to the technical part of your email. The recipient may see why you want to change a configuration on your server to accept a new application, but they may not know what the application is or why it must be accepted. This is simply one example where explaining the situation or request in context may help the recipient.

Don’t Use All Caps or Text Speak

Using all caps in an email makes you LOOK LIKE YOU ARE SHOUTING. Sure, maybe you have it on by accident, but make sure you review the email to check. The sole exception to all caps is for acronyms or initials - that should be used sparingly. Keep your emails to sentence case - as though you’re writing a sentence.

Additionally, don’t use “text speak” in an email. Acronyms and words that could be acceptable in text messages, such as LOL or PLZ, should not be included in the email. If you believe you need to use them, you’re not writing an effective business email. Keep it to full words as required.

Use Correct Spelling and Grammar

Spelling and grammar is necessary in an email - it’s expected that it is correct. A number of people may not notice incorrect spelling and grammar, but for many people, bad spelling and grammar stands out. It can actually ruin the outcome of your email and makes you look less professional.

Ensure you are using the proper spelling and grammar for an email you’re writing. Your email client should do a reasonable job of correcting the spelling and grammar, but you shouldn’t depend on it. Especially working in a technical environment, it might try to translate or “correct” things that shouldn’t be corrected. If you’re unsure, ask a colleague to look over it to check that it is correct.

Say Please and Thank You

If you’re asking people to take action, it’s smart to use the words “please” and “thank you”. It’s something that we learnt in early school days, and from our parents - using please and thank you is polite and other people will respect you for it. It isn’t something which is implied in an email, so if you specifically mention “please” and “thank you” it will probably be appreciated.

Include an Appropriate Signature

Adding a signature in the bottoom of your email is arguably the biggest thing you're able to do when looking for how to write a business email. It’s up there with an email subject as a vital part of an email. This is significant for a few reasons:

It includes contact information for you, so the receiver is able to contact you.
It can make you look professional. Having only your name at the end of the email is one thing, having a signature with all of your details is a step above.
It enables others to contact you if they be aware of the email in the future, or if it’s on a chain of emails.

There are several things you should include in a signature - your full name, your role, your department, and your phone number. You don’t have to include your email address, as the receiver can just press Reply. Stay away from quotes or images in your signature - there’s no reason to include any of this and it just fills up the signature.

In addition, ensure you send it out with every email you send. A lot of email clients contain a function to instantly include an email signature, and I would propose you use it. It means you don’t overlook to add it and it’s one less thing to think about.

Review and Edit Before Sending

The last step before delivering the business email is to review it. You need to review the email for a few reasons:

Be sure the spelling and grammar is accurate.
Check that the point of the email is being delivered.
Be sure the email is not too long.

It may be tempting to just create the email and send it. If you spend a minute re-reading and reviewing the email, you could find things that you didn’t before, and it should lead to a higher quality email. It may also help to improve your quality of work - if others think your emails are always accurate then they should have a high opinion of your actual work.

Bonus Tip on How To Write A Business Email

Yes, I’m incorporating a bonus tip - point number eleven.

This extra tip is to only send the email to those who require it. It can be tempting, and quite easy these days, to add a huge number of contacts into the To and CC field of the email. However, you'll need to be careful with this. It’s the number one cause of emails clogging up people’s inboxes - being sent emails that they don’t need to see.

It is best to only send the email to those who need to see it. Depending on the email and the contents, and the team you work in, this is any number of people - but the less people the better.

I hope these pointers on how to write a business email are valuable for you and help the way you write emails.