The average US employee spends approximately one-quarter of every work week sifting through the dozens of emails we all send and receive on a daily basis. In 2024, the number of active email users globally jumped to 4.37 billion and is expected to grow to 4.89 billion in 2027. With businesses running with employees across the globe and regular catch-ups becoming digital, email usage has become even higher. Yet, despite being stuck to our reply buttons, many of us still don't know how and when to use email appropriately.
What is email etiquette?
Email etiquette refers to the established code of conduct that guides how individuals should communicate over email. This involves using appropriate language, maintaining a polite tone, when to send a message, and structuring messages in a way that ensures clarity and respect. But, what’s the point?
Well, by adhering to these principles, you ensure that your emails are effective, professional, and considerate of the recipient's time. Whether you're reaching out to a colleague, a client, or a potential business partner, good email etiquette can significantly impact how your message is perceived and can help to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings.
Email etiquette isn't just about avoiding mistakes; it's about mastering the art of digital communication to foster productive relationships and efficient exchanges. Think of it as a time investment for the future—if you spend two minutes double-checking an email, it can save you days, if not weeks’ worth, of misunderstandings.
In both professional and personal contexts, a well-crafted email sets the right tone and shows your attention to detail, which in turn influences how seriously your message is taken. When you’re making a first impression, this can be the difference between a new client and a lost lead.
Why is email etiquette important?
Proper email etiquette goes beyond formality—it's a reflection of respect for the recipient's time and an essential component of effective communication. It ensures your messages are clear, well-received, and that your intentions are understood without ambiguity.
When etiquette is observed, it promotes clarity, minimizes friction, and helps establish a foundation of respect and professionalism. It also allows you to stand out positively among the countless emails people receive daily. Everyone is trying to sell something, and you can’t afford to blend into the crowd.
In this regard, mastering email etiquette can differentiate you from others, allowing you to convey your messages effectively and build trust with your audience.
Email etiquette rules
Here are fifteen essential email etiquette rules that every business professional needs to know:
1. Use a direct subject line
2. Use a professional email address
3. The “reply-all” button should be used sparingly
4. Add a professional email signature
5. Use professional greetings
6. Be wary of excessive exclamation points
7. Be careful when using humor
8. Reply to all your emails
9. Always proofread before pressing send
10. Add the email address after you’ve composed the message
11. Double-check the recipient addresses
12. Always consider how cultural differences may affect your communication
13. Keep your fonts simple and classic
14. Segment your communications
15. Consider your tone
Email etiquette with examples
1. Use a direct subject line
In many cases, people decide to open an email based purely on the subject line.
Strong subject lines are brief, descriptive, and whenever possible, action-oriented. For example, "Board Meeting moved to Tuesday, 11/21" is a stronger subject line than "meeting date changed."
The importance of having a strong subject line cannot be stressed enough, especially if the email is being used for direct marketing purposes. Always choose a subject line that will let the receiver know you're addressing their business issues or other concerns.
Example: Instead of "Meeting," use "Project X Strategy Meeting - Agenda & Timing for April 5th." This tells the recipient exactly what to expect before they open the email. It shows you respect their time. Bonus points for attaching any relevant files.
2. Use a professional email address
Obviously, having your emails deleted is the last thing you want. One of the best ways to ensure that doesn't happen is to avoid using a non-branded or nondescript address.
If you are representing a company, you should always use the email address your company has provided for you. This instantly makes you look more credible and improves email deliverability substantially. Therefore, be prudent about choosing your professional email address.
However, if you are using a private email address (whether you are a freelancer, or just prefer to use it) you should really be careful when selecting your handle.
If you are engaged in B2B marketing, your business email address should always convey your name in order for the recipient to know where it came from and who they should reply to.
Example: If your email is related to work, a personal address like "partylover99@example.com" is a bad choice. Use your company domain, or something simple like "firstname.lastname@example.com." You can buy a domain for less than $20 nowadays—there’s simply no excuse for doing so.
3. The “reply-all” button should be used sparingly
Nobody likes to open or read emails that have nothing to do with them, their department, or their individual responsibilities.
Ignoring unrelated emails can be hard, and the repetitive alerts can be irritating if we're trying to focus on other tasks.
Avoid hitting "reply all" unless you know everyone included on the list really needs to receive the reply. Also, make wise use of CC and BCC in email to avoid conversational clutter.
Example: If your entire team of 20 is copied on a thread, but your response is only relevant to the sender, avoid spamming everyone's inbox by replying directly. Once you’re done reading the initial email, just think about who the message is relevant to in the first place.
4. Add a professional email signature
Professional email signatures can lead to higher ROI rates if you're engaged in marketing campaigns. It makes sense to give your reader additional information about you or your company. Usually, an email signature includes your full name, title, company name, and contact information.
You can add a little publicity too, but don't go overboard with artwork, links, slogans or quotes. Keep your font, type size, and text color the same as the rest of your email to set a professional tone.
Example: Ensure your signature includes your name, title, and contact information. If applicable, you might also include a link to your LinkedIn profile, as well as any other relevant information. Witty messages along the lines of “Will be back in a few days, xoxo” are, of course, out of the question.
5. Use professional greetings
It’s important to learn how to use professional email greetings when it comes to email etiquette.
Be careful when using casual greetings such as "Hey there” or "Hi everyone." While casual, friendly greetings are appropriate in many types of emails, make sure you know what sort of audience you're addressing.
Example: Instead of "Hey," use "Dear Mr. Smith" or "Hello Sarah" depending on the context and the relationship. This isn’t only more respectful, but also more impactful on a human level.
6. Be wary of excessive exclamation points
If you are in the habit of using exclamation points, be careful to limit them when expressing your enthusiasm or excitement.
Some people tend to overuse this punctuation mark and end up using several exclamation points in the span of a few sentences. This may make the writer sound overly eager or even immature. Use them sparingly and only when it is really appropriate.
Example: “Hope to hear from you soon!!!” sounds a bit like “You better respond to this email quickly... OR ELSE!” Keep exclamation marks and rhetorical questions away from email correspondence because they can be easily misconstrued.
7. Be careful when using humor
Without the corresponding facial expressions or tone of voice, any humor used over email can easily get lost in translation. In fact, it is better to rather leave all forms of humor off professional email exchanges unless you know the receiver very well.
Also, something you find personally funny might not be remotely amusing to someone else. In some cases, humor can even seem rude or hurtful, so when in doubt, it's best to leave it out.
Example: Sarcasm might work in person but can often fall flat over email, especially if the recipient doesn’t share the same context. Instead of joking, "Don't quit on me yet!", try "Looking forward to collaborating further."
8. Reply to all your emails
The dramatic changes we’ve experienced post the pandemic have led to major transformations in the ways we conduct business. Our workplace communication is changing dramatically and how we use our email is a perfect example.
It's hard to answer every email you receive, but it's good email etiquette to at least try. This includes emails that were sent to you accidentally: a reply is not mandatory but it's always good email etiquette.
Even something short will suffice: "I know you're really busy, but I believe you sent this email to me by mistake. I wanted to let you know, so you could get it to the right individual."
Example: While it’s no secret that email communication can be overly cumbersome, and people understand this, not responding at all is never a good idea. Even if it’s a simple “Hey Mark, I got your message, and I’ll send you a detailed response later tomorrow. Thanks.” You never know when you might need something from that same person.
9. Always proofread before pressing send
Don't depend solely on your standard spell checker. Your email recipients will likely notice mistakes, and while the occasional typo happens to everyone, repeated mistakes and misspellings can look sloppy.
Just like autocorrect, you can't always trust spell-checkers. That is why Zoho presents to you Zia, our writing assistant, who not only checks your spellings but also makes contextual corrections.
Example: One of the tips that can save you from email embarrassment is creating a checklist before sending. Morning meeting mentioned? Check. Response to the previous email? Check. Blueprint files sent? Check. Second attachment? Check. It’s a foolproof way of uncovering mistakes and fixing them before you send out that email.
10. Add the email address after you’ve composed the message
Want to avoid accidentally sending an email before you've finished typing and proofreading the message? It is good practice to type out your email first, then add the email address of the recipient when you are ready to send the message.
Example: Don't accidentally send a half-completed report to an important client because you clicked on "Send" without thinking. Just like with proofreading, turn the process into a checklist and you’ll avoid situations like this.
11. Double-check the recipient addresses
Do your best to be accurate and pay particular attention when you type a name from your contacts list on the "To" line. It's unfortunately very easy to choose the wrong name, which can be embarrassing for you and the person receiving the email by accident.
Example: Pay special attention to contacts with similar names. A message meant for Mike Williams can easily end up in Mike Willis' inbox if you’re not careful. Again, checklists are your best friends here.
12. Always consider how cultural differences may affect your communication
Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to reach a wide range of people, and it's easy to set up. But it can very easily lead to miscommunication due to cultural differences, especially when your recipient can’t see your facial expression or body language.
If possible, it's a good idea to customize your message to the cultural context of your chosen recipient.
Remember, there will likely be time zone differences you need to take into account as well and send your email at an appropriate time.
Example: You know how difficult intercultural communication is, but things are even more prone to misunderstandings when in writing. Following the rule of “If you want to explain it, don’t write it” will help keep you out of trouble. Anything that can have double meanings or is borderline rude, pushy, or intense should be out of the question.
13. Keep your fonts simple and classic
Every font has its own place and time, but when it comes to business communication it is better to keep your email fonts and their relevant sizes and colors simple and classic.
The most important rule of thumb is that your messages must be easy to read. It is usually best to go for an 11-point or 12-point font size and an easy-to-read sans serif such as Calibri, Helvetica, or Arial. It may seem boring, but black is the safest and easiest to read choice as far as color is concerned. Try to keep text highlighting and use of bolding, italics, and underlining to a minimum. These effects can help make important information stand out, but look chaotic when used too often.
Example: Avoid using Comic Sans or overly colorful fonts, in particular. Anything that’s overly jovial, unserious, or out-of-place will have a detrimental effect on your efforts.
14. Segment your communications
One of the best ways to personalize your communications is to segment your email list, to begin with. A segmentation feature is absolutely something that should come with any email marketing tool that you use.
Segmenting your email lists makes it easier for you to target your campaigns based on your customer groups, which in turn allows you to make your messages more tailored to your recipients.
Example: If you’re receiving emails about two different projects, try grouping the email threads according to their content/subject matter. Internal conversations should be kept in one place, while client-facing communication should be grouped separately.
15. Consider your tone
Finally, just as humor may be misconstrued, your writing tone might be easy to misunderstand without the perspective one may get from hearing your voice. As a result, it's easy to come across as abrupt when you are simply trying to be straightforward.
Read your email out loud prior to sending it. If it comes across as negative or rude to you, it will definitely be perceived that way by the reader. If you want positive results, remember your basic manners: say "please" and "thank you," and try not to use words that are overly-negative or dramatic.
Example: While basic polite phrases are important, there’s still a lot of context that can get lost in the subtext. That’s why the best approach is to read everything you wrote. You’d be surprised how weird, abrasive, or downright out-of-place something sounds when you say it out loud.
Conclusion
While many businesses rely on multiple different forms of communication to collaborate effectively, email remains one of the most effective and popular means of communicating. The business world's recent move to primarily hybrid work has only increased the business world's reliance on email to share, organize, and store information. In fact, due to the sheer amount of emails and texts we read and write every day, we might be more likely to make unnecessary or even compliance-related mistakes—and those mistakes may have significant professional consequences.
Innovative email platforms like Zoho Mail offer more features and functions than ever, but the basics of email etiquette remain the same: be polite, be precise, and be professional.
We hope you found these tips helpful! If you're interested in learning more about what Zoho Mail can do for your business, take a look at the robust collaboration features Mail offers and sign up for your free 15-day free trial today!
Author Bio: Gary Stevens
CTO of Hosting Canada, a website that provides expert reviews on hosting services and helps readers build online businesses and blogs.
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