Texting and Tweeting might be popular ways to keep in contact with friends and followers, but a well-crafted email still carries huge weight in the business world.
Here are 5 things you can do to make your emails more professional:
1. Make sure the subject makes sense.
Be conscious of forwarding emails where the initial subject line has no relevance to the person to whom you are forwarding. A quick swipe of the subject line and you can delete and replace with something that the receiver will understand and recognize. Along those same lines, consider deleting unnecessary parts of the email string that don’t relate to the person receiving the forward.
2. Include an opening and closing thought.
I’m really bad at remembering to start my emails with a nice salutation like “Hi Joan, it was great to talk to you the other day.” Instead, I tend to jump right in with “remember to send me that photo you promised.” I’ve gotten myself in the habit of jumping right in, but then after I’ve written the meat of the email, I go back and add the beginning and end to make it sound more conversational.
3. Make sure your signature line is up-to-date.
Have you changed your phone number or website? Don’t forget to make sure that you’ve updated those in your email signature line. There’s nothing more frustrating than trying to call someone at the number in their email, only to find out that it’s no longer valid.
4. Spell check and proofread.
A quick read-through goes a long way. Your message will be better received if it’s free of spelling errors and grammatical mistakes.
5. Did you attach all attachments?
We’ve all done it: mentioned an attachment in an email but forgotten to actually attach it. If you aren’t in the habit of attaching it as soon as you type the word “attached” make sure to catch it when you read through for spelling errors.
