Six Fatal Business Email Mistakes

Six Fatal Business Email Mistakes

Email has revolutionized the world of correspondence and has nearly made obsolete snail made. The ease of sending out e-mails however invariably results in every inbox flooded with junk mails. Sending out effective business email in such a context entails avoiding common email mistakes.

Effective email writing depends on paying attention to the following five business email etiquette tips.

1. Vague Subject Line: A clear and to the point subject line catches the reader’s attention from amongst the many emails in the inbox. A vague subject line in a business email is most likely to result in the user deleting the email without reading the contents.
2. Including BCC: BCC is the acronym for “Blind Carbon Copy” and used to send a copy of the e-mail to a recipient without the other recipient’s knowledge. In business emails, some of the BCC recipients might click “Reply All” breaking down the deception and leaving a bad taste in the original recipient’s mouth.
3. Poor Grammar and Style: Email is an informal mode of communication compared to a printed letter, While a full “From,” “To” and “Date” as in printed letters is not required; business email writing still need to follow conventional grammar and style.
4. Neglecting Common Courtesies: The email takes care of the senders name, signature, and date, allowing the users to skip these constants. Many users however tend to skip common courtesies like “Hi,” “Thank you” and “Regards” as well. This is a fatal mistake and sure to put off the reader of the email.
5. Long Emails: Overly long business emails puts off the readers. The attention span for a person viewing the computer screen is very short and the reader is likely to become distracted and skip through the contents after a few seconds. A better alternative to long chunks of text is bullets, or even separate emails containing small pieces of information. Failure to clean up the thread when the thread has outgrown its utility is also a bad practice that annoys the reader.
6. Appropriate Use of Email: Email is a medium of communication suitable for a variety of situations, but not all situations. Some matters are best discussed face-to-face or over telephone, and some matters require writing down in paper. An email becomes an unnecessary evidence for a matter best discussed verbally, or an inadequate evidence for an agreement that requires signature and witnesses.

Adherence to the above five business email writing tips ensures the intended recipient not only reading the email, but also taking action on the contents of the email.