Writing Business Emails

We use email on a daily basis - to communicate with clients, colleagues and sometimes even to simply keep in touch with friends and family. Writing emails has become such an integral part of our lives that sometimes we simply take it for granted and write in an over-friendly or over-formal manner.

Below, you can find the main points that one should think about when writing business emails.

1. When should we send an email? Think about time of day and days of the week. Should we just send emails during business hours, or is it OK to send an email once we leave the office as well?
2. How do we determine who should and shouldn't receive a copy of the emails that we send? Think about cc and bcc.
3. What do we include in the subject line? This determines whether a person is going to want to read your email or simply put it off to read later on (if not discard it completely).
4. How do we address the person receiving the email in the salutation? And how do we sign off our business emails? Think about levels of formality - should we use first names?
5. Do not forget about grammar and punctuation. Simply getting the message across is not enough when writing business emails.
6. Keep the content of your email clear, concise and specific. People are busy and do not have time to read neverending emails. Simply say what you have to say in a polite manner.

The art of business email writing is another course that MISCO Malta is offering to help those who want to become experts at sending good and effective emails, and those who wish to improve their business writing skills in general. Send me a message if you are interested in this short half-day course so that we can give you further information and pass you on to the person in charge.