Best practices in writing professional e-mails

On average, an office worker can interact with 121 e-mails a day, so knowing the best practices when using the work email account is not superfluous even if we are users of this form of communication for many years. That's why we decided to include a blog post advising you on best practices when composing e-mails so you won't be the one who looks weird at the office.

Captivate from the subject line

First impressions are forever and anyone who works with email knows that the first thing we see is the sender and the email title, so always try to captivate from the very first email. A clear, concise and short subject line helps us to make it clear before the receiver even opens the email. You can use certain pre-established structures if you want to capture attention, generate interest or desire and lead your recipient to action, you can take into account these tips we have prepared for you on how to use powerful email subject lines.

Always useful content

People nowadays have much less time on their hands, much less in the case of decision makers, managers or executives. Your goal is to write as concisely and clearly as possible, but still provide a solution, timely information or generate interest. Always think about the sender and what you are trying to convey before writing and sending an email. If you are trying to inform them about your product or service, always remember to take into account the stage of the buying process they are in, because price information will not be useful for a prospect if they have not even seen what your company is about. You can take our tips on lead nurturing and learn how to give your prospects the information they need at the right time.

Take care of your mail body

We don't just want to ask you to drink water and exercise constantly. We are talking about the body of the message, which should have a formal but clear language, and a tone that will depend on who it is addressed to but that is always respectful. Look for the structure of GREETING, IDEA, CONCLUSION or PROPOSAL and FAREWELL. Do not forget that you must be respectful and always greet, the right thing to do is to do it in a timeless and general way, that is, do not use good evening or good morning, and replace it with a good morning or simply Dear or an always useful Hello.

After the greeting remember to go to the point with what you want to convey and always end with a farewell at the same time of the greeting, if it is in a formal tone a "I am waiting for your kindly reply" or in a more relaxed and colloquial tone a simple “Best regards” works, but do not forget the farewell.

Give it the whole thing to them

Something we've learned through hard work and effort at Upnify is that giving more than they expect from you will always bring rewards. Don't forget to always use the email signature option provided by the different providers and give a unique touch to your mailings by including your contact information and relevant data for your prospect. Also, using greetings that include the sender's name is a good idea because it will give an aspect of attention to detail and personalized attention. Automating certain mailings can be key to gaining trust with your prospect, make it simple by using Upnify and its automatic communications, with which you can use the new pre-designed email templates that work for all occasions and give a touch of professional design to all your mailings, learn more about them.

Respect your time and the others

Not every email has the same importance or urgency. This does not mean that some are less than others, however, learning to use the urgency markers and reading confirmation tools is essential to communicate if the message requires special attention from the recipient, otherwise it may be interpreted as not urgent and left aside.

It is also a very good idea, if you already have a relationship of trust with the person who receives the e-mail or is a client, i.e., an employee of the same company as you, to confirm the arrival of the information with a quick phone call.

Finally, we do not want to close this topic without mentioning certain details that, although they did not enter the list as topics by themselves, are really valuable if they are taken into account when writing professional e-mails.

First of all, as in everything you write in your daily work, please take care of your spelling. We are human and there may be some mistakes, however, checking a couple of times before clicking send is not a bad thing.

If the email chain is extended, avoid sending the whole thread and try to leave only the last two emails in case the sender requires context. Similarly, do not send a copy to the whole company of something that is relevant only to one department or if the message requires confirmation and the whole company has been copied, do not reply to everyone, generating junk mail in everyone's inbox.

Resist the urge to use GIFs, emojis, or images that are not your own. We know that many of these tools may seem attractive to new generations, however, in a professional email they break their purpose. It's not that we are against them, but you can do without them or make minimal use of them, such as using a GIF of your logo in your email signature. No prospect will take your email seriously if you sign off with a smiley face and a picture of a cat.

Apply these tips to all your professional emails today, contribute to a good working environment in internal communication and generate confidence in your prospects by reading each of your emails, you will see that by using each of the techniques listed here, in addition to the strategies we recommend, you will be able to create the right professional emails.