A professional touch is crucial: Email etiquette

So far we’ve given you tips and reminders on how to create good first impressions.  Now that you have the right tools to leave your initial mark, it’s time to follow up with appropriate actions.  When you’re communicating through email, you want to uphold the image you’ve created for yourself. 

Use a professional, easy to recognize email address with simply your name in it.  It might have been fun when you were 16 to have the email address hollywoodhottie@hotmail.com.  However, people probably won’t give your message the time of day and delete it right away thinking its junk mail. 

When beginning your email, proper salutation can sometimes be tricky.  If it’s an initial email, it is always best to play it safe and keep it formal.  Dear Mr., Mrs., Dr., Prof, etc.  One way get a feel for the formality is by paying attention to how they address themselves in any previous or response emails.  If they sign their name only by first name, then you’re safe to keep titles out of the message. 

 Make sure you keep your messages concise and to the point.  You can write a brief message that gets across what you want to say without losing the interest of your reader.  This can also be done while maintaining correct spelling and punctuation.  Leave confusing abbreviations such as “g2g aka got to go” out of it.       

            Another suggestion when writing your emails is to write your message first, and then go back to put in the recipient address last.  You don’t want to accidently send an email you wrote while you were blowing off steam, and then decided differently afterwards.  Or what if your email contains private information?  You don’t want to accidently send it to the wrong person.  The point is once you’ve sent it, accident or not, it’s sent and there’s no taking it back. 

            Last word of advice.  If you’re sending emails from a mobile device, make sure your message is sending from the right account.  Having multiple email accounts set up on your smart phone can make it easy to send your message from the wrong one.  It would be a shame if you accidently sent your business proposal from hollywoodhottie instead of Bridget Doe and never heard anything back.