Professional email etiquette for business: 10 examples for Better Communication in 2024

Last updated on April 2nd, 2024

Proper email communication is crucial for businesses of all sizes. With professional email etiquette, they can foster a strong relationship with their clients. It works as an invisible bridge between them, leading towards mutual growth and success. On the contrary, a casually written email without paying attention to etiquette will harm a business in many ways. So, following the best email etiquette rules while writing business emails is essential to win clients’ trust. 

But before going any further, let’s first understand email etiquette and its importance.  

What is email etiquette?

Email etiquette is about maintaining polite behavior while communicating via email. Communicating clearly and respectfully is a standard etiquette everyone should follow. 

So, etiquette is a set of rules that businesses worldwide follow to keep communication trustworthy with proper conduct. It is all about conveying a message professionally to get a desired response from the recipient.  

Why is email etiquette important in the workplace?

Good email etiquette is crucial for building relationships with clients or target audiences. It will help you project a professional image. When proper email etiquette is followed, recipients are more likely to respond to your emails. They’ll identify your brand as an authentic platform for sourcing products and services. On the other hand, lacking professionalism may trigger them to consider your emails as spam and potentially block them.   

What is not considered appropriate email etiquette?

Sending an email without telling the recipients its reason will only confuse and leave them directionless. Even forwarding an email without properly explaining it to the recipient isn’t appropriate email etiquette. 

Asking personal details, being too friendly, and using too casual language are considered inappropriate.

Here are some crucial email etiquette you should follow while emailing your clients. 

Professional email etiquette rules for businesses 

Consider these email etiquette if your small business plans to start an email marketing campaign, sending various emails daily to target clients:

01. Introduce yourself properly 

Starting your email message by introducing yourself would be good email etiquette. Do not assume that the recipient knows you well. Starting with a brief paragraph about who you are or what your business is all about will show your humility and good values to the recipients. 

If the recipients know you, still remind them that you both know each other. Tell them about your last telephone conversation or where you met.

02. Start with a proper email greeting 

Make it certain that you start your email message with a greeting to build a relationship with the recipient. The greeting can be formal or informal. Starting your email with a casual greeting is perfectly acceptable to give your message a friendly tone. 

Here are some casual salutation examples you can consider to let recipients perceive your business as friendly and approachable.

• Hi
• Hi [Name]
• Hey
• Hi/hey there
• Good [morning, afternoon, evening]

In case you are sending an email to someone for the first time, you can greet them in the following formal way:

• Dear [first name]
• Dear Mr./Ms. [last name]

But avoid greeting recipients these ways:

• Hey! – Too intimate and eager
• [Name]!: Too off-putting
• Yo – Too childish and informal
• To whom it may concern: Too impersonal
• Dear sir or madam: Too stiff
• All: Too cold
• Gentlemen: Too old-fashioned

03. Structure your emails

When you create business emails, ensure they’re well-structured to make an impact that yours is a professionally run business. So, following this email etiquette, ensure that your email has a subject line, a formal or informal greeting, a text body, a proper sign-off line, and a signature at the end.

Ensure you distribute the text body containing your message into easy-to-read small paragraphs. But keep the body text to the point and short. Start with the most relevant information. 

If your body content is larger, then present it in bullet points so that the recipient can instantly notice it. 

Also, your email message should be in a standard font. Avoid using unusual fonts. Use standard black font and in a standard size. An overdose of italic or bold fonts also is not suggested. Do not use wild colors, and avoid eccentric formatting. 

04. Create a professional email signature

The signature space at the end of your email message is equally important to build your brand image. This space should leave a good first impression on the recipients. A neatly designed email signature features the email sender’s photo, job title, and contact details laid out professionally. Consider these email signature examples to create one for yourself. 

Make sure that your email signature is a simple design and aligns well with your brand guidelines. You can find email signatures in sales, collaborative, and almost all types of email communications.

05. Write in a professional tone

One of the email etiquette rules to consider is to write your email in a professional tone. Some marketers use sarcasm, which involves different tones. But that may only go well with selected recipients. So, keeping a professional tone is a safer way to please all the recipients and potential customers. 

The recipients will understand the intent of your email message due to its formal tone. So, write your message precisely and formally if that suits your brand’s personality.

06. Check for grammatical errors

Grammatical errors in your email body content are appalling for your company’s brand image. It also builds a wrong impression about how you conduct your daily business. Therefore, check your email message for spelling errors and lousy sentence structure before pressing the ‘Send’ button.

Some common errors include misspelled words, overuse of the passive voice, incorrect capitalization, improper punctuation, and repeating words too often.  

Know that grammatical mistakes are bound to happen. So, you must recheck the text to remove them thoroughly and abide by professional email etiquette. 

Installing software like Grammarly to detect errors automatically and offering relevant solutions simultaneously as you write would be helpful. 

7. Write a descriptive but short subject line.

A subject line in an email is the small text that appears in the recipient’s inbox. It matters since it is correlated with email open rates. Subject lines create the first impression that the recipients get when they see emails lined up in their inbox.

If the line is precise and to the point, it will compel one to dive into the message. So, write witty and intriguing subject lines. Also, keep the line within 40 characters so recipients can see it fully. 

Note that a good email subject line catches the recipients’ attention and interest. It also encourages them to open the email. 

08. Sign off professionally 

Professionally, finishing your email is as important as it is to write its beginning and middle sections. After completing the body content, ensure you respect the recipient to conclude the message.

Here are some respectful words that are a part of email etiquette to write at the end of your email:

• Sincerely
• Regards  
• Great working with you
• Best wishes
• Have a great day/week/weekend

09. Check all email fields

Another email etiquette for businesses to follow before sending the message is to recheck all the email fields to ensure they are all filled correctly. 

The ‘To’ field should have the recipient’s proper email address. 

The ‘Cc’ field is for anyone other than the primary recipient you want to send the email. You should add that person’s email address there. But add someone who is not directly relevant to the information in the email, but you want them to read the message. You can also put someone connected with the primary recipient regarding the content. 

Bcc stands for Blind Carbon Copy. You can add contacts from your email list when filling in the Bcc field. Use this field when you need to send email to many people. But know that the email address in the Bcc will not be visible to the primary recipients of the email. 

10. Respond on time

Businesses receive hundreds of emails daily, and office workers can only respond to some of them on time. Still, devise a schedule to reply to emails, as it is good email etiquette to follow for a better brand image and to build trust.

You do not have to respond quickly. Instead, take your time since there is typically a response window. Usually, businesses should reply to the emails within 12 hours. If the message you receive is not that urgent, you can take 24 hours to respond. It would be helpful if your office could mark the email as urgent for a quick response to high-value clients within hours. 

So, your business must consider these key email etiquette when launching an email marketing campaign. Recheck your emails and ensure everything from the subject line to the signature is excellently written. 

If you need email templates with a professional layout, visit Designhill, the leading creative marketplace. You can also access its DIY signature generator to create impressive email sign-offs.

Wrapping Up 

Your email is a robust marketing tool. You can use it to build strong relationships with the target audience by following standard email etiquette. From introducing yourself and greeting to checking the message for grammatical errors and sign-offs, consider following all the aspects for desired results.

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