Email Content & Etiquette

Quick reference

• 00:05 If you're sending an email for business,
• 00:07 the first thing you want to pay attention to is your domain name.
• 00:11 That's what comes after the at sign on your email account.
• 00:16 A professional email address will help you win trust when dealing with other
• 00:19 businesses and customers.
• 00:22 Email accounts on free email services, like claudia@gmail.com,
• 00:26 aren't good for business because they don't look professional.
• 00:30 Your customers and
• 00:32 other businesses will find a professional email address more trustworthy.
• 00:36 Remember, we're trying to get people to prioritize reading our emails.
• 00:41 If your email looks spammy or scammy, that's not going to happen.
• 00:46 For a professional email address, you will need to have a domain name and a website.
• 00:53 Here's a really useful greeting matrix that you can use as a guide when writing
• 00:57 your emails.
• 00:59 Avoid a greeting that says good morning or good afternoon since you don't
• 01:02 know when they'll be reading your email and it's just kind of weird.
• 01:06 Something to note here is that using dear, as in dear John,
• 01:10 seems like it would be wrong, but I assure you it's perfectly fine and
• 01:14 it's completely appropriate in business.
• 01:18 Using dear full name and a colon is considered very formal.
• 01:24 We use that for legal communication or on job application cover letters.
• 01:30 If in spite of your best efforts you can't find the name of your recipient,
• 01:34 you can use their job title.
• 01:36 If you've already had some communication with the person and
• 01:39 you know how they want to be addressed, use that instead of their full name.
• 01:44 You can take a look at their signature block or how they addressed you if
• 01:49 there was a previous email for clues on how to address them.
• 01:53 Remember that some people have strong feelings about name titles like Miss,
• 01:59 Mrs. Ms. Dr, and so on.
• 02:01 Some people don't even want any of these titles used, so you may want to play it
• 02:05 safe and stick with dear first name and last name until you know for sure.
• 02:11 We use a comma instead of a colon for people we're familiar with.
• 02:16 And if they're colleagues or friends, we can use hi or hello and their first name.
• 02:23 In spite of all this, the most important part of the greeting is to make sure you
• 02:28 get the spelling of their name right.
• 02:31 As far as the content of your email, remember never to send a potentially
• 02:35 inflammatory email to someone copying their boss,
• 02:39 unless you're trying to create a hostile work environment for you and them.
• 02:44 And you also never ever want to send a potentially inflammatory
• 02:49 email copying team members who report to that recipient.
• 02:53 We have discussed that in emails, shorter is better,
• 02:58 but remember blunt is still not okay.
• 03:01 Here's an example of an email response that's too short.
• 03:09 When you're ready to close your email, for formal emails,
• 03:13 you might want to use cordially, sincerely, or best regards.
• 03:18 For less formal emails, you can use regards,
• 03:22 kind regards, thanks, or even all the best.
• 03:26 For informal emails, cheers, talk to you later, but
• 03:29 never abbreviations because it's still a business setting.
• 03:35 As far as your signature goes, you do need a signature line,
• 03:39 preferably with your name, title, and contact information.
• 03:43 Signature lines with jokes, religious or
• 03:46 political convictions are usually considered unprofessional,
• 03:50 especially when they're being sent to people outside your organization.

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