Job Skills: How to Improve Your Business Emails

Today, more and more business issues are solved by electronic correspondence. How many emails you receive and send daily? 10? 20? 100? How many of them are really important (or at least are not templates)? Finally, how to write so that your messages work for you?

Look at the business emailing essentials and use them to sharpen your style!

1. Create a Separate E-mail for Business Purposes

It is not advisable to send a letter on behalf of the company from a personal mailbox. A much better idea would be to create a separate e-mail with the name of your company (my-company-name@gmail.com).

If you want to look even more respectable, create a company website with its own domain mailbox (info@my-company.gmail.com). Sometimes it is useful to divide the e-mail addresses rather than use the same address for all purposes.

2. Stick to the Proper Structure of the Letter

As a rule, every business letter consists of three main parts:

• A task or a question.
• Possible solutions.
• Call to action or response to your letter.

Be sure to make a subject of the letter informative, relevant and concise. If it’s the first business contact, the recipient may just remove your letter without reading if it seems too lengthy and senseless. As a rule, people just browse through emails, not reading all the correspondence. Thus, the more clear and definite the business letter, the greater the chance it won’t go unnoticed.

Do not make too long sentences, separate the text into paragraphs, and a leave a blank line between paragraphs. Do not forget to quote the previous conversation if it’s reasonable.

3. Write Politely

Perhaps, a respectful treatment to the interlocutor makes 90% of success. Do not forget to use “please” and “thank you” to demonstrate your openness and willingness to cooperate.

Remember that the recipient only sees you through the letters and sentences. Try to bring the notes of positive and respect to the conversation!

4. Personalize

If you don’t want your email to be treated as templates, please start it with a personal greeting like “Hi (Hello), Walter.” Including the name of the recipient is crucial. Personal treatment proves that you’re really interested in communication, not just blindly sending tons of letters in a hope that someone will respond sooner or later.

• Imagine you come to the crowded market to buy strawberries. But you’re lucky to know the name of the seller! From now, people from the crowd are not competitors for you. The seller hears his name, sees you, and sells you the sweetest strawberries. The same is about business emails. Our brain is especially responsive to our name since we hear it from the first minute of life and see it on the birthday cards through the entire life.

Forget about such greeting as “good morning,” “good afternoon” or “good evening” unless you are sure about the time when the recipient will open the letter.

5. Leave Contacts at the End of the Letter

Contact information and personal signature are a must for all those who want to be treated as business professionals for the next reasons:

• It proves that you are not a fake.
• It gives a potential partner more opportunities and sources to contact you.
• It promotes you and your business.

6. Respond Timely

The best way to guarantee timely response is to install one of the email notification applications. If you don’t want or can’t answer immediately, the best thing you can do is to send the notification that you received the letter and will respond soon. Pointing an accurate data of response will be a plus.

If it took too long to respond to the letter, be sure to apologize for the delay and indicate the reason. Better late than never.

7. Don’t End the Dialogue if You Didn’t Initiate It

One of the golden rules of emailing is that the right to end the conversation belongs to the initiator. Well, if you were the one, the best way to end the dialogue is to include some words of gratitude or polite farewell.

8. Don’t Be Too Annoying

The desire to get a response instantly mustn’t make you writing again and again. Be patient and do not expect a quick answer. If you do want to remind about yourself, do it in the most delicate manner. Don’t make the respondent guilty – better emphasize on the fact that you’re highly interested in collaboration and that’s the reason you’re so impatient. Flattery will get you everywhereJ.

9. Don’t Send Emails on Holidays and Weekends

Sending emails on weekends is not a bad tone, but it greatly reduces the effectiveness of correspondence. There’s a great chance the recipient will browse through the letter and postpone the answer. Later, he may forget about it. Thus, holidays, weekends, and the end of the working week are not the best time to send important messages.