Tag: Email Etiquette

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Email Etiquette #5

Respond to emails promptly

In a perfect world, we’d respond to emails immediately. But busy schedules and cluttered inboxes means this isn’t always possible.

You’ll need to make a judgment call based on who’s sending the email and its importance. For instance:

  • Emails from your clients. Respond within 4 hours.
  • Emails from colleagues should be responded to within 12 hours.
  • Emails related to urgent projects should take priority.

If you’re having trouble getting to longer emails, send a quick reply acknowledging receipt of the email and inform the recipient you’ll respond. Eg if a client sends a request for a quote or order you can reply with “request received with thanks, quotation to follow”.

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Email Etiquette #4

Ensure subject lines are short and specific

Subject lines should preferably be ten words or fewer and, if you can, aim for seven.

According to Marketo Data, subject lines with seven or fewer words get opened more.

They should also be specific. For example, if you’re emailing a colleague for a project update, don’t title it “Checking in.” Rather say, “Checking in about [insert project name].”

To make sure your subject lines are hitting the mark, think about your:

  • Recipient: Knowing who you’re emailing (e.g., CEO vs. sales rep) will help with messaging.
  • Connection: Think of how to grab the receiver’s attention. For example, if you’re cold-emailing, mention a problem your product solves.
  • Credibility: Spamming your prospect’s inbox with deceptive subject lines that encourage opens only causes distrust. Be honest — if it’s not a follow-up email, don’t act like it is.
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Email Etiquette #3

Review Your Message Before You Send

After you enter your recipients’ addresses, create an appropriate subject line, write your message, and attach a couple of supporting documents, go back and make sure you did everything right:

  • Review the message. Is anything unclear? Are there any grammatical errors or typos? Did you say everything you wanted to say?
  • Check your sources. Would a link to an outside source clarify your meaning? Would a link help your recipient find a website quickly?
  • Look at the recipient names. Did you forget an important person who needs to see the message? Did you add someone that shouldn’t see the message?
  • Look at your address. If you have more than one, be sure to send the message from the most appropriate one for the purpose of the message.
  • Determine the message priority. Does the message need to be tagged as important?
  • Add supporting documents. Did you forget the attachments?
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Email Etiquette #2

Addressing emails (Forwarding, CC & BCC)

1. Forward

Forwarding an email sends the message to a contact not included in the original “To” field.

Choose to forward an email instead if the contact receiving the forwarded message does not need to receive future messages in the thread.

2. Cc

An email cc, or carbon copy, is similar to forwarding in that the preceding message thread gets sent to a new recipient.

Contacts who are carbon copied on an email are usually affected by the message, but the sender has directly addressed the email content to a different group of people. Carbon copies are preferred when a recipient needs to be kept informed of the correspondence thread without personally contributing, such as to observe compliance or be notified that a business transaction is underway.

Employees sometimes use reply all and carbon copy together. You might use reply all with carbon copy if you notice that an employee who should have been in the previous message correspondence was not listed in the “To” or “cc” fields. This method both notifies current recipients of the new contact added to the thread and ensures that the new recipient receives future responses.

Don’t overuse this field, as you’ll unnecessarily clutter peoples’ inboxes

3. Bcc

When you add a contact to the bcc field, or blind carbon copy, the email thread conceals their email address from the other recipients.

Blind carbon copy emails are useful when a new employee joins an existing message thread, but others don’t need to be notified of the new contact or send the new contact future content related to the thread.

Bcc is also a safe choice when you’re sending an email to people who do not need to correspond with one another about the message topic in the future. Blind copying multiple contacts can be especially helpful when sending mass emails out to a list of clients, contractors or the full company.

When someone is CC’d or BCC’d and the email is not addressed to them they will not prioritize the email, so be clear when you CC or BCC

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Email Etiquette #1

Reply and Reply All

What does reply all mean in an email?

The reply all function means that you email your response to both the sender of the previous message and everyone who received the original email. Contacts in both the “To” field and the “cc” field of the preceding messages receive your email.

When to choose reply all:

1. You have relevant questions.

Use reply all if you have a question that other contacts in the thread might have as well. Asking this type of question through reply all lessens the possibility of the original sender issuing multiple replies with the same answer.

For instance, if you wanted to ask your supervisor about changes announced via email to the company’s PTO policy, reply all streamlines the communication process between your supervisor and coworkers.

2. Your response could have a direct effect on others.

Replying to all is the most efficient option when you have important information for the majority of the people included in the message thread.

If your response would only affect a smaller number of recipients, then edit the list of contacts in the “To” field so that you are only communicating with those affected.

For example, it would be most effective to reply all if you know that a piece of information from the previous email is no longer true. Reply all is also usually acceptable when you’re working on a company project and need to update fellow project participants on your progress.

3. You’re scheduling a meeting with a small group.

Reply all is a considerate option when the preceding email is inviting you to or trying to coordinate a meeting with, fewer than ten people. If a supervisor or coworker is attempting to coordinate with a small group of people, then they likely require most or all of the email recipients to be there.

Replying to all in this scenario helps to quickly find a time that works for all or most contacts. Both the recipients and the original sender remain informed about everyone’s scheduling conflicts and available time blocks.

When to reply to an email with a different method:

If an email contains information unnecessary to some recipients of the original message, then a different response type would most likely be better. The following are scenarios in which you should use an alternative to reply all instead:

1. Your response is only pertinent to the sender.

If your response is relevant only to the original sender and not everyone on the message thread’s contact list, then send your email only to that person.

For example, if the original sender asked for a confirmation reply, you can reply with your confirmation only to that individual. Replying only to the sender is also usually the most appropriate choice in the workplace if you need to reveal personal information, such as salary or a social security number.

2. The response is only appropriate for select people.

Some internal company email systems default to reply all. Checking the recipients in the “To” and “cc” fields before you send a response is always a smart decision, especially when your email has content that would be inappropriate for some recipients.