Here are my top 3 business email etiquette tips that have worked well for me and many others:
#1 – Never flag business emails with “high priority”
- If an email is important enough that it warrants “high priority” (i.e. that red exclamation point in most email programs), then it warrants a face-to-face conversation, phone call, or urgent voicemail.
- Don’t “drop bombs” in email by sending high priority messages. Just seek out the people you are sending the message to and talk to them.
#2 – Never use BCC in business emails
- If you need someone to see an email you sent, forward it to them from your sent items. Never use BCC – if people ever find out that you use it, they will likely never trust your email conversations again.
- Since the reader of a BCC email can “reply to all” they can easily “reveal” that they are on the email.
#3 – Make your emails easy to read
- Most people are dealing with an email “avalanche” every single day. Create messages that are easy to scan, and don’t take a lot of effort to read.
- Keep your emails as concise as possible. Write it, and then try to cut it in half!
- Bulleted lists are your friend – use bulleted lists (which are easy to scan) whenever possible. If you are sending messages to Blackberry users, you can use an * (i.e. shift plus the number eight) as a bullet. Try to limit your use of long paragraphs of copy.
- If you are using formatting in your emails, use black text for normal content. Use red text for eye-catching, must-read content (and bad news). Use green text for good news.
