7 ways to practice good email etiquette

As employees continue to work remotely, whether it be temporarily or permanently, communication by email is becoming increasingly important. Conversations that might have taken place when stopping by a coworker’s desk, or while grabbing a cup of coffee, are now happening by email. Follow these tips to make the sometimes never-ending flood of emails easier on yourself and your coworkers.

1. Understand your audience

If you’re not seeing your coworkers on a regular basis, emails can replace casual conversations at the office. Include genuine greetings. You may also use shorthand or slang. But when communicating with clients and management, you may want to use more formal or professional language. Avoid using internal abbreviations. Be cautious of your tone, as sarcasm and other light-hearted comments don’t come across as well in writing. Make sure your contact information is included in your email signature. And as email chains evolve and may be forwarded if they are relevant, you should be comfortable with someone outside your organization reading anything you’ve sent through your work email account. 

2. Set realistic expectations for response

When emailing outside working hours, or even at the end of the day, set realistic expectations for email replies. If you’re catching up on emails you missed during the day, or getting a jump start on the following day, don’t expect replies until your coworkers start their day.

3. Beware of reply all

In some cases, everyone in an email thread needs to be kept in the loop. When working on a project, for example, all people involved may need to receive all updates. But when an email is sent to the entire team, think twice before you hit the “reply all” button. You don’t want to clutter your coworkers’ email boxes. 

4. Keep it brief and direct

Everyone gets many emails daily, so keep it as brief and to the point as possible. A few paragraphs should be sufficient. If you have important points you want to make, consider using bullets, or bolding the most important information you’ve included. If the person you write to has to scroll down to see all that you’ve written, they may be less likely to read the whole thing. 

5. Think about screen size

The majority of emails are now read on smartphones, so keep that in mind when composing your message. Avoid using too many graphics and images, and if they’re needed, send a test email to yourself to see how it will look on a mobile device. 

6. Respect shared email addresses

If you monitor a shared email account, make sure you and the others who use it are in agreement about how to organize it. Reading emails without taking action could let other people assume they don’t need to respond, and emails can get lost. Also, be sure to sign your name at the end so that the recipient, as well as the others monitoring the address, know who took care of it.

7. Know when to reach out directly

Once you’ve gone back and forth by email several times without moving a topic forward, it’s likely time for a real-time conversation. Pick up the phone, set up a meeting, or use your company’s instant messaging platform, if you have one. There are some concepts and topics communicated more effectively by talking than in writing.