As much as social media platforms are becoming more popular nowadays, email still remains one of the most commonly used professional communication platforms. Follow these tips and tricks to perfect your email etiquette, practice your professionalism, and increase your reply rates.
Concise subject lines – The subject line is the deciding factor for the reader to open your email. Make sure that the main purpose or idea of your email is clearly expressed in a concise subject line. Also, be sure to edit grammatical errors and check capitalization of the title. Keep in mind that most emails are opened on mobile devices nowadays, so keeping the subject clean will generally work better on smaller screens.
Grammatical errors – We all make grammatical mistakes when we quickly type up emails. It is important to always read through your emails before you quickly hit the send button. Applications such as Grammarly can be installed as a plug-in to your browser and will automatically check for any spelling or grammatical errors as you type to prevent mistakes. Additionally, use caution when including jokes and always be aware of how many exclamation marks you include.
Scheduling emails –Research studies have been conducted to find the best and most effective times to send emails. For example, we all know that feeling when we get into the office on a Monday morning and our inboxes are flooded from everything we have been ignoring over the weekend. Try not to send emails out on Monday as they will more likely be ignored. According to CoSchedule, the best days to send emails are Tuesday and Thursdays. The same research studies also showed that the best times to send emails are at 10am or between 8pm and midnight. There are many applications such as Boomerang for Gmail or Outlook’s Delay Delivery function that can help you schedule an email to send anytime in the future.
Read receipts – Ever wonder if your recipient actually opened your email? There’s an app for that. By installing Mailtrack as a plug-in to your browser, you will receive a notification every time your recipient opens and reads your email. This is a very handy tool for you to test the effectiveness of your emailing. It also provides a good guide to gauge the interest of your recipient and potentially follow up with them.
Organization tips – If you’re on the receiving end of emails, we understand that some important messages may fall through the cracks. The same app, Boomerang, that schedules emails in advance can also return an email to your inbox after a certain amount of time if you have not received a response. This app serves as a secretary who keeps track of your email conversations and reminds you to either follow up or reach out to somebody else. Taskforce is another app that is very great for organizing your emails. It allows you to turn your emails directly into a list of tasks so that you remember to address every email.
