Emailing is a relatively new method of communication, but most businesses now rely heavily on it. Ironically, few companies make the effort to educate their employees in email etiquette, which puts the efficiency, professionalism and liability of the business into question.
Clarity and Concision
Most professionals receive more email than they would like to read in any given day. They can forget, confuse or ignore details in messages. In addition, many emails become irrelevant as the workday continues. The simpler and more direct the content of the email, the more likely the responder will understand what needs to be done and accomplish the necessary tasks.
Correct Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling
It may be acceptable to shoot a "How r u?" email to a friend, but this is not appropriate in a professional environment. Particularly when the correspondents don't know one another, it's crucial that they give the impression of being intelligent, responsible and capable. Errors of this nature may lower someone's credibility. Reading over an email before sending it is always the best way to ensure that it is well written.
Timeliness
The beauty of emailing lies primarily in its rapid delivery. As a consequence, a swift, reliable response to emails is appreciated. This is why many businesspeople now wield Blackberries. Many work environments are competitive and they want to communicate easily and quickly to ensure effective results for their businesses.
Thoughtful Subject Lines
Before people click on a message, they will typically glance briefly at the lineup in their inbox. An email with an obscure or general subject line will probably not be high priority, which means it probably won't get done promptly. Always summarize the most important point or issue in the heading so people know what they are about to read.
Appropriate Recipients
Reply-all can be a useful feature of emailing, but be sure to assess who specifically the message must go to before hitting send. Sometimes only one person needs to receive the email, and including extraneous recipients may annoy others, or complicate simple business matters.
Confidentiality
Before forwarding or CCing an email or attachment, it's important for the sender to make sure that she has permission to do so. Misunderstanding this could result in a costly lawsuit. This is sometimes overlooked because of the ease and speed of responding.
Attaching Wisely
Intraoffice emails usually contain the same programs to view attached files, but be thoughtful when sending something outside of this sphere. Some people will need to convert the document to another file type. Furthermore, attachments may slow down computers and servers, so only include them when necessary.
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