Email for Professionals: Make All Your Emails Stand Out

In 2020, most business and communication in the office is conducted through email. Email is quick and easy to use, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t challenges that come along with it. With people receiving hundreds of emails a week, The amount of unread emails in a professional's inbox can be almost insurmountable (or at least feel like it). Subsequently, it’s easy for emails to get lost or for messages to not resonate with the intended recipient. Tone can be misinterpreted, and although you thought your message was clear, your co-worker, boss, or employee may have read it differently. This can have devastating consequences if projects have tight deadlines and someone misses a direction because an email lacked clarity. To squash the confusion, here are a few key things to remember when you press “send.”

It all starts with a good subject line. There’s no point in focusing all your time on making the body of your email perfect if you don’t have a good subject line. The subject line makes the first impression, so it's imperative to make it a good one. The email's recipient will either decide the need to read it right away or save it for later. If you have something that isn’t too urgent but don’t want it to sit in someone’s inbox, make sure to create a subject line that draws attention. If you need someone to review or act on something, put “For Review” or “Action Required” first to alert the recipient that they will need to do something with the email.

Be clear and concise but avoid being abrupt. Email is not meant for someone to write a novel. To maximize the effect of your email, you should write clearly and be concise. State a summary of your intention right away, and then provide bullet points with the additional information you want to provide. People shouldn’t have to read paragraphs because like you, they don’t have the time for that. However, you don’t want to send emails that are abrupt and contain little substance or direction because these will have the opposite effect than a concise email. The recipient will be confused about what they are supposed to do with the email and will have to respond for further clarification, which causes more back-and-forth emails and for you to write more explaining the purpose of your original email than you would have if you were clear the first time. Moreover, this can slowdown business if important decisions are required.

Proofread your emails. It goes without saying that grammar is important, and that is also true with sending emails. Sending private emails with some slang and grammatical mistakes is fine, but in a professional setting, you should take a “dress-code” approach: business casual. You don’t need to write with formal language—contractions and ending a sentence with a preposition are acceptable—but you shouldn’t have misspelled words, punctuation should be correct, and there shouldn’t be any run-on sentences. If you don’t focus on grammar and punctuation, the glaring mistakes will draw focus away from your email’s actual intent, which will also cause confusion and miscommunication. Furthermore, these mistakes will reflect on you, as others may see you as someone who doesn't pay attention to details.

Watch your tone. Digital communication, including email, often causes misinterpretations of tone because of how things are worded in a quick way. If your intent is to be funny or sarcastic, the tone and intent won’t come through in an email, so the recipient could read it seriously. In some instances, you could even offend someone regardless of what your original intent was because they misinterpreted what you wanted to say. It's best to keep it professional in digital communication unless you have a closer relationship with the person who will understand your tone and intent.

Respond quickly to emails. It’s your responsibility to manage your email inbox, and that includes opening and responding to emails in a timely manner. If you let emails sit, the sender could misinterpret that as you are ignoring them. It’s also a reflection on your character. Senders may think that you are too disorganized and unreliable, which can have further consequences such as managers not considering you for projects because they view you as irresponsible. If there are too many emails to handle, a good tip is to send a short message back acknowledging that you've seen the sender's email and will respond as soon as you can. This also shows why the steps above—good subject line and clarity/conciseness of an email—are key: if the sender makes things difficult, recipients' inboxes can fill up because it takes longer to respond.

Be Polite. Saying “please” and “thank you” can go a long way. It shows others respect, and it doesn’t take too much time. Negating these words in your emails can make you sound demanding—this is especially true for people who manage others—and the recipient may not give your request 100 percent attention or effort if they perceive you to always bark orders. But a simple “please” can soften an otherwise direct email, and a “thank you” or “thanks” shows your appreciation for the person’s time.

Sending emails is a science and an art, and as the main form of communication for businesses, they’re vital to success. By following these few tips, you will be able to up your email-game and stand out among your peers, superiors, or people whom you manage.