E-Mail Etiquette
| Sending Business Emails | Setting up a Signature for Outlook 2003 | Replying to EMails |
E-mail is a great tool but it is easy for messages to be misunderstood and they can eat up time and can pile up quickly.
This is a list of guidelines to help you use this wonderful tool to be helpful and productive.
Sending Business Emails
- Subject Line - A descriptive subject helps the reader quickly see the purpose of your email.
- Capitalize words correctly - all uppercase seems to shout and all lower case seems childish. It looks more professional to use correct capitalization.
- Check spelling and grammar - errors make your business look sloppy. If your email client does not have spell checking, compose your message in your word processing program and check the spelling and copy and paste into the email.
- Be concise - long messages and attachments take time to download. Use simple language and limit acronyms to reduce miscommunications. If an acronym is used, make sure you define it the first time you use it.
- Attachments - It is a good idea to specify why you have attached file(s) and what you expect the reader to do with these files.
- Use signature file - most email clients allow you to set up a signature file. A signature file is a few lines automatically inserted at the end of every message you send to give them an alternative way to contact you. The signature should include:
- your first and last name
- your company's name
- your address (optional)
- your phone number including area code
- your company's website (optional)
- Setting up Signature for Outlook 2003
- Go to your email.
- Select Options
- Click on the tab Mail Format
- Look in the Signature sections at the bottom. Select the email that you want to add a signature.
- You will probably have to add a new signature.
- If you are not using Outlook 2003 then go to http://email.about.com/od/signatures/ and select the your email client for directions.
Email messages are often misunderstood because there are no gestures, body language or facial expressions to give cures to your meaning.
Replying to Emails
- Only use Reply to All button if everyone in the to list really needs to see what you are saying. Many times just the sender needs a response, i.e. when we are setting up meeting times – only the coordinator needs to hear your response.
- Only send a response if one is really needed. For example: no triple “thank you for your message”. Many emails simply don't need a response. If you want to be sure to get a response then say it in the subject or body of the e-mail.
- Evaluate your response and decide if this message is something that really needs to be talked about instead of written about. For example: you need four people to communicate on a policy revision, a meeting or conference call would better serve this situation.
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