Communication is an art form in itself, and many people seem not to have been taught the difference between personal and business communication. They are two very different beasts, with very different rules and requirements.
A business e-mail should be a formal communication between two or more parties, relating to a business topic. This is not the place for informality, or a casual tone. Save those for e-mails to friends and family.
In a business e-mail DO:
1. Use proper punctuation.
2. Use correct capitalization.
3. Use correct and formal grammar.
4. Use correct spelling.
If you are uncertain of any of these, you might want to compose your message in a word processing program, and paste it into your mail program. Be sure to check for formatting errors, as the two programs may not transfer everything correctly.
5. Check to be sure you have the correct word - to or too, pale or pail, sense or since - they may be spelled correctly, but may not be the correct word for that sentence.
6. Have a subject line that quickly and clearly defines the purpose and content of your correspondence: Custom Emerald Ring, or Guild Jury Question for example.
7. If this is an ongoing correspondence, be sure and include prior e-mails in the current e-mail. You can set your mail program to place these either at the beginning of the e-mail, or at the end (which is my personal preference). Keeping everything together helps both you and your correspondent stay current on the discussion.
8. If the topic changes, be sure to change the subject line appropriately, and drop any prior correspondence that is no longer relevant.
9. Do be sure and include appropriate contact information in your e-mail.
A note on organization: most mail programs will let you create folders, and you can set up mail rules that will automatically drop mail into the correct folder. So if you have ongoing correspondence with a supplier or client, you might want to set up a folder and mail rules to house all of that correspondence in one easily accessible place.
Now for the DO NOT’s:
1. Do not use slang.
2. Do not use profanity or curse words.
3. Do not take an informal, casual tone unless this is someone you know well and have done a lot of business with - and maybe not even then!
4. Do not assume the other person will remember something from a prior discussion or e-mail; reference it clearly.
5. Do not use emoticons or abbreviations such as <vbg> - (very big grin). Stay formal.
6. Do not use lots of colors and fonts. Stay simple.
7. Do not overuse cc’s and bcc’s - copy only those people who really need to be included.
I hope you find these tips on business e-mails helpful.
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