Essential Email Etiquette

Avoid common pitfalls when composing your messages

By: Amr E. Ochba

September 13, 2010

Learning proper email etiquette can help you be persuasive and inoffensive. You can
increase your chances of writing winning email messages by sticking to these basic rules.

1) Think of an Appropriate Subject

Select a title for your email that reflects its content. If you want to convey important
information, make your subject as detailed and specific as possible; for example, "Price
Waterhouse Coopers audit closure meeting 9/13/2010"

If you wish to craft an attention-grabbing subject line, be brief and direct; for example,
"Piraeus Bank Egypt Response towards the CBE sent report" Use active verbs and punchy
words. However, avoid words like "Free" and "Money," and the overuse of all caps and
exclamation marks, such as "Win Free MONEY!!!" These messages could be mistaken for
spam and deleted immediately.

Similarly, take care not to overuse the priority tags in your email client. Don't send every
message as high priority if they really aren't that important to your recipient. Abusing these
tags can make you look a little desperate for attention.

Never leave your subject line empty. It's the first thing your recipient sees even
before he or she reads the body of your message. If you leave it blank, it will
appear as "(none)" or "(no subject)" in some email programs. This leaves a poor
impression.

2) Address Recipients Properly

Dale Carnegie, author of "How to Win Friends and Influence People," said that "a person's
name is, to that person, the sweetest sound in any language." That's why when you're
writing email messages to people for the first time, it's best to address them by their names
instead of using a generic "Dear Sir/Madam" -- that is, unless you are in fact working a
Ponzi scheme or other con.

If you're sending a message to people you don't know, make an effort to look for your
recipients' full names in the "Contact" or "About" sections of their Web sites. If at first you
don't succeed, surf through more of the site to see if their names are featured somewhere
else.
Spell their names correctly. Be careful when handling foreign names, especially those with
accents on certain letters.

Don't be too casual during the first contact. Use the honorific (Mr., Mrs, Miss)+ surname
formula when addressing people for the first time, (that is to say, address Laura Glover as
"Ms. Glover"). Wait for your recipients to use your first name before addressing them by
their first names.

If it's not obvious from the name whether your recipient is male or female, don't guess. Just
use the first and last name without an honorific.

Of course, make sure your message isn't spam.

When you're sending a message to a group of people to outside Piraeus bank, particularly if
they don't know each other, enter their addresses in the "BCC" line to protect everyone's
privacy. You can enter your own address in the "To" line. If you are sending the message to
a large number of people (more than a dozen) perform a mail merge that results in one
message per person. Microsoft Word 2000 and later is capable of this technique; it can save
your message from being mistaken for spam by filtering software that blocks messages with
many addresses in the BCC field.

3) Select an Appropriate Tone

The tone of voice you use in your e-mail depends on the level of formality you deem
necessary. It's advisable to be a little more formal during the first contact. You can adopt a
more casual tone in subsequent messages.

Use smileys, such as ":)", ":D" and ":P", judiciously to reduce the level of formality and
express a lighter tone. However, smileys should be avoided if you seek to convey a
professional image. In any case, don't overuse them in any messages, as they can make
you look like you never grew out of junior high school.

Don't fill your messages with acronyms like " OTOH," (on the other hand) " ROTFL," (rolling
on the floor laughing) and " FWIW" (for what it's worth). If you're too busy to spell out
anything in your message, consider sending it when you have more time. Messages that
look like "Carol, LTNS. AFAIK, the report is due EOD. HTH. BFN," ("Carol, long time no see.
As far as I know, the report is due at the end of the day. Hope that helps. Bye for now.")
are difficult to read and best left to text-messaging teenagers.

Pick your fonts and colors carefully. Messages with overly large fonts can be annoying.
Making every word in your message a different color is a bad idea. Writing a message in
yellow may get you shot. And for recipients with clients that don't handle styled text, your
message may come through completely garbled.

Also avoid the use of repeated exclamation marks! Nobody is that excited!!

Don't use all-caps in your message text unless you really mean it. When you use them, it
comes across as if you were screaming. SO DON'T DO IT!
4) Avoid Irony and Sarcasm

Because of the impersonal nature of email, it's hard to convey your true emotions. It's
equally hard for the person on the receiving end to determine if you're trying to be funny or
insulting.

In general, humor does not work well with email. Don't be wry or ironic, because the other
person could think you're being rude. Avoid humor especially when it could be interpreted
as offensive. Reread your message carefully from your recipient's point of view to detect
possible misunderstandings before they occur.

If you insist on using humor, use smileys to indicate that you bear no ill-will towards the
recipient. You could also use tags like "<tongue firmly in cheek>" to indicate that you are
not serious.

5) Edit Your Message

Typos, missing punctuation, and grammar slips can be a big turn-off. Use your spell-checker
to spot mistakes. Then read through your entire message once more, and look out for
places where you could be misunderstood. If you don't address the message until you're
ready to send it, you can avoid accidentally mailing it before you're ready.

6) Keep Messages Pithy

Respect the fact that your recipients are busy people with inboxes that may well be bursting
with unread mail. Don't assume that they will piously plough through your wordy email.
Write your email so as to allow the reader to get the gist of your message by skimming
through the text. When editing your email, cut out unnecessary words. Keep sentences
short and to the point.

If you're forwarding a message, especially one with a long string of correspondence, or

7) Attachments

Don't send attachments to people you don't know without asking first. Many people don't
like to receive them, can't receive them, or won't be able to read your particular file format.
If your mail client automatically adds a .vcf attachment to every message, turn this feature
off. These little files can pile up in your recipients' attachment folders and may annoy them.
In Summary

Never underestimate the power of a well-crafted email. It can be an effective tool for
communication. Put as much thought into writing an email message as you would when
writing a letter. Write it with your purpose and audience in mind, and always remember the
essentials of email etiquette. Email is increasingly becoming the primary way many of us
communicate with one another. Often, people never meet their colleagues or clients face-to-
face or even talk to them on the telephone. The only impression others have of us may be
the one they get when they read our email messages. That is why it is so important to take
great care in composing those messages. Before you hit the send button, ask yourself these
questions.

• What does my email address say about me?

If you are using your email account to send professional email make sure your address
conveys a professional tone. Don't use an address that is suggestive, childish, or cute. There
is no place for that in work-related email.

• Are the name(s) and email address in the "TO:" field correct?

Many email clients fill in the "TO:" field for you when you type in the first few letters of an
email address or a recipient's name. Make sure the right name is there. You want to make
sure your message reaches its intended destination, or that it doesn't reach an unintended
one.

• Have I properly addressed the recipient?

First names are often okay in business, but not always. If this is your first time communicating
with the recipient you should use his title, i.e. Mr., Ms., or Dr., and last name. Look at how the
recipient signs his messages before you decide whether you should be on a first name basis
with him.

• Have I used the appropriate tone?

As the saying goes, "It's not what you say but how you say it." It's a lot easier to convey the
meaning of your words when you speak than when you write. Make sure your tone is polite
and friendly, but gets across your intended meaning.

• Is my email too wordy (or is it not wordy enough)?

Get your point across quickly, but make sure not to leave out important details.

• Have I attached unsolicited attachments?

Many people won't, and shouldn't, open attachments they aren't expecting because computer
viruses are often transmitted in them. Get permission from the recipient before attaching a file
to your message.

• Have I proof-read my message?

Make sure your spelling and grammar are correct. Errors will make you look careless.