8 Email Etiquette Guidelines Every Professional Needs to Know

As a leader, the chances are that you’re constantly dealing with emails. Whether you’re answering them from your bosses or handling all the enquires from your team, it’s estimated that all American workers spend about 25% of their day on their emails.

But as a leader, get these emails right is vital to your success. To help keep you in the know and so you can be the best leader you can be, here are nine rules you can start following today.

Use a Professional Email Address

If you’ve had the same email since you were a teenager, maybe using the links of MSN and such, you’re probably going to want to update your email address to something a bit more professional.

Use Your Subject Lines

The subject lines of an email are so important, and it’s essential that you master how to use these properly for accurate and effective communication.

Start the Email Properly

It might be tempting to say ‘Hi’, ‘Yo’ or ‘Hey’ but is this really appropriate for the message that you’re sending? As a leader, it’s important that you remain professional and use the language that a professional would use.

Don’t Overuse Exclamation Marks!

Just so you can see for this paragraph, although this is an important point, using an exclamation mark is simply unnecessary. It also makes you read the content in a strange voice, and it just looks unprofessional. Use them only if you have too.

Use Clear Formatting

If you’re writing to someone and your message includes a lot of information, make sure that it were all nicely laid out and formatted correctly. This makes the message a lot easier to read and for the reader to absorb the information.

“This makes you look considerate as a leader while making sure there’s no error of miscommunication, helping your projects or teams to operate smoothly” – explains Sandra Clark, an Email Marketing Strategist and a Huffingtonpost writer.

Don’t be Blunt

It can be very difficult to gauge emotion when you’re reading an email and one message saying something along the lines of ‘I need to see you later’ can be portrayed both negatively and positively.

Try to avoid using blunt words in your messages, such as ‘failure’ or ‘wrong’ and always read your message aloud, so you know what it will sound like.

Edit and Proofread Your Emails

The chances are that you won’t write exactly what you want to write the first time. As a leader, make sure you go back to your email again to make sure that you’re communicating the exact message that you want to communicate.

Don’t use write out an email and press ‘send’. Instead, be sure to read through, after editing, that all your spelling and grammar is perfect.

Editing and proofreading your emails is such an important process you need to take to ensure perfection in your messages and therefore your respect as a leader. Here are some tools that can help:

State of Writing - a tool you can use for improving your grammar.

Paper Fellows - a tool to teach you how to edit your text.

Via Writing - an online writing community you can join.

Big Assignments - a tool for proofreading your emails.

Academadvisor - a tool for editing all kinds of written content.

Ox Essays - a tool for ordering writing on your behalf.

Assignment Help - an online tool to help you write accurately.

Always Reply to Your Emails

As a leader, you want everybody to know that you’re on top of things and have things under control. This means replying to all your emails, even if you receive an email that isn’t intended for you.

This is good email etiquette and proves that you’re a good leader and a professional because you’re making things happen and making sure messages get to the right place.

As you can see, there are many easy ways to start improving your email etiquette almost instantly. Just take your time, put your reader first and remember how great a leader you actually are and can be.