At work, there are admittedly some things that we take for granted. It might be because we have done the same thing thousands of times already that it almost feels like muscle memory, so we don’t really put a lot of thought while doing it. In other circumstances, we might be too busy with more serious and larger concerns that we hastily do these smaller things without too much effort. Finally, there are some things that, from the start, we don’t really put too much importance on because they’ve always felt trivial, so we do not put a lot of care when we do them.
One of these things is email, and for most of us, we just write them, send them, grudgingly read through what we receive, and most of the time, just “finish” everything in our inboxes just to be over and done with them, or just so we can have that sense of accomplishment upon seeing our clean email accounts. But like everything else in our work, we need to take a step back and really think about how we do our emails. Not doing them properly can give rise to problems that are easily avoidable if we just take the time and effort to be more careful we do each and every email.
Take time to proofread and review your message
Admit it: There are some of us who type emails in a surge of energy without really reading it because we oftentimes just want to get it over with. A lot of us regard answering or writing emails as a race, where we need to write our emails or responses and hit send before time is up. So, there may be times when, because of our eagerness to just finish an email, to click on that send button without doing a review.
Reviewing your email before sending it is a great practice you need to do every single time. After drafting the email, read it aloud so that you don’t just read your message but at the same time, listen to your tone while reading it. Recalibrate your tone by changing some words or editing out some sentences when you feel like the tone you intend is not correctly reflected by your choice of words. Of course, by reading your email aloud, you can spot typos and grammatical errors. Finally, after tweaking your tome and correcting all typos, check with the email you are replying to (if you are sending a reply email, that is) if you have answered all the points or questions raised by the email. And of course, it is very important that when you promise to attach files or documents with your email, that they are actually attached to it before hitting send. I am sure you’ve sent emails that are supposed to have attachments but do not have them because were too eager to hit send.
Make sure the personalization is set up properly. There’s nothing worse than receiving an email that starts with, “Hello [insert name here].” The whole point of doing this kind of campaign is for your audience to feel as if you have created it for them. If you can’t even get the greeting right, nothing else matters.
(Via: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/10/28/12-things-to-double-check-before-hitting-send-on-a-marketing-email/?sh=571abea1c887)
Reply All isn’t always a good idea.
Just because you received an email from the rest of the team, for example, it doesn’t mean that all members of the team should also see your response. Reply All should only be used when everybody in the original email needs to know your thoughts. If not, then there’s no need to Reply All, as your email will just clutter the inboxes of your teammates who didn’t necessarily have to get your reply.
You should only Reply-All to an email when you’re sure your reply is relevant to everyone in the thread. Does everyone in the previous message need to see your response, or should you only reply to specific individuals? Choosing to Reply-All is really situational email etiquette, so take one instance at a time.
(Via: https://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/business/email-etiquette-when-should-you-bcc-cc-or-reply-all)
Subject Lines are very important, especially if it is a new email.
Your email will most probably be one of the hundreds of emails to be received by your recipient. Thus, you need to make it effective so that their attention is caught just by reading your subject. Also, if you can already put all details in the subject line, ike in FYIs or invites, it would be great to do that so that your recipients won’t need to spend too much time opening and reading your email’s body. Here’s another tip on email subject lines for apps on mobile devices:
According to research from software company HubSpot, 46% of all emails are opened on mobile devices, which means your subject line shouldn’t be much longer than a few words. Longer subject lines will get cut off.
(Via: https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-write-an-email-subject-line-2015-1#place-the-most-important-words-at-the-beginning-4)
Don’t forward willy-nilly
When we get forwarded emails, the first thing we think is, “Why am I getting this email?” If you are forwarding an email, make it a point for your recipients to not have to ask that question by explaining to them why you’ve forwarded the email to them and what the email would mean to them. For sure, if you don’t do that, you will likely receive a reply of “Why did I get this?” or a direct message asking the same question.
Make sure to edit the email message before forwarding it. Sometimes the email may contain some sensitive data that you need not send to anyone. Ask yourself that do you really need to forward the content of the message to a third person or more.
(Via: https://emailetiquetteguru.com/what-to-write-when-forwarding-an-email/)
Aside from these basic but commonly forgotten email etiquette details, we might also be confronted with issues about your laptop like missing documents. For help on their recovery, get in touch with us.