Email Etiquette – 10 Tips by Sean Gray

E-mail is a fast and effective tool for communication in business. There is a certain expectation of etiquette that is required to maintain professional communication. While e-mail is often used as an informal tool, it is essential that in the workplace it is used with professional etiquette.

The following 10 tips can help you and your employees maintain professional and positive relationships with clients, fellow employees, supervisors, and potential customers.
1. Write in complete sentences and check for spelling and grammar mistakes.

2. Do not write in all caps.

3. Get to the point. Do not write long, laborious e-mails.

4. Be careful when choosing, “Reply All”. Make sure your reply is indeed intended for “all”.

5. Reply to e-mails in a timely manner. In this day and age of technology, it is understood that all e-mails are usually received within minutes of sending. It should not take a weekor more to reply.

6. Do not use emoticons in business replies. Emoticons are informal and not appropriate in business communications.

7. Do not use e-mail to relay confidential information.

8. Do not forward e-mails that are libelous, defamatory, racist or sexist. This could land your business or company at the other end of a lawsuit.

9. Choose a meaningful subject for easy review.

10. Use BCC when sending out large mailings. You do not want to indicate that the message is being sent to a large group of recipients nor do you want to publish other recipients’ e-mail addresses without permission.