Email is one of the most widely used forms of communication. Today’s world is deeply into digital marketing, and having a particular ability to write a professional email might benefit your business and career. People more and more use email for their main income. According to statistics, email marketing revenue is $10.89 billion as of 2023.
Email can be used for diverse purposes, such as job applications, business negotiations, information requests, etc. It’s known that email is used on a daily basis, and imagine writing an email with no knowledge about its essentials. Frustrating, right? At this point, you should understand how to write a professional email.
Convinced? Since I was able to convince you that email is an inseparable part of our lives, you might consider learning more about it. Here are 10 tips on how you should write your email. We believe that implementing these tips into your email strategies can make them look more professional and eye-catching.
Let’s get started.
How to Make Emails Look Professional?
In this article, we will tell you all the essential points to make your emails look more professional. Email campaigns can be successful only by making them look professional and reasonable.
Let me explain why it’s crucial to have a professional-looking email. First of all, when someone opens his Gmail and sees that it’s hammered by tons of emails, he digests through them and looks for professional-looking ones. So if your email does not look like that, your will never be opened, or they will open it when it’s no more is actual.
10 Tips to Write a Professional Email
Before we start, make sure that you have a business Gmail account that fully represents the company you are working for. If you struggle to understand what it looks like, take a look at email domain examples. This will be extremely helpful for you and gives the recipient a first impression of you.
Choosing the Right Salutation in Professional Email
Greetings in the email are extremely important. By choosing the right greeting, you are making a great impression.
Start the email with an appropriate salutation. You have a limitless choice of combinations among “Hi”s, “Hey there”s and “Dear”s, so make sure to choose the right one. Although depending on the topic or situation, you may improvise, anyways there are some basic starts:
- If you’re writing directly to a colleague or someone you have a familiar professional relationship with, you can start with “Hello” or “Hi.”
- If you’re writing to someone you have never met before or have a formal professional relationship with, like a hiring manager or a new or potential client, start with “Dear.”
Tailor Your Subject Line
These days, we get lots of emails on a daily basis, and most of us are quickly scanning the texts in our inboxes and trying to prioritize messages that either need quick or urgent responses. In this particular situation, you need a standout subject line that’ll make your email noticeable, and sometimes people make this mistake in their email subject line and wonder why they do not get feedback. A perfect email subject line must be urgent, include a call to action, or at least be provocative.
Here are some examples of solid subject lines:
Example 1: When you suggest a new tool for your strategy.
- Weak: New Tool Suggestion
- Strong: Decision Required: New Tool Suggestion
Example 2: You want a colleague to give you feedback.
- Weak: Feedback
- Strong: Action Required: Please give me feedback by 1 pm.
Get your intentions straight
Before starting to write an email, try to answer this question – what’s the purpose of your email?
Understanding your intentions can help you to get to the point easily. An email presenting the face of the company must be written in a very formal way, whereas an email to your colleague can have a more friendly tone. But keep in mind, in any case, your email should be written in a very appropriate way.
Make Your Professional Email Concise
Imagine reading an email that has more than 1000 words. You’ll most probably skip that, right? So in order to avoid this particular situation for your emails, make them concise and also break up the paragraphs.
A chunky email fatigues the reader, making them more likely to associate it as a chore and put it aside until later. Remember, breaking your email up into manageable parts makes it easier for your recipient to get through.
Write an Attractive Opening Sentence
Before moving to the actual content of your email, you should add an opening line that’ll be dazzling and attractive enough. Your main objective is to get more and more feedback, and we believe that perfect opening lines can be very helpful. If you have trouble with your start, you might consider having a look at the below-mentioned variants:
Here are good email opening examples for different situations:
- Allow me to introduce myself…
- To follow up on our conversation…
- Thank you for getting in touch…
- I hope the week is going great so far…
- I could use your advice…
- Your quick response is much appreciated…
With these options, you’ll be able to land a perfect opening and get tons of feedback.
Create a Professional Email Account
Remember, not only should your email look professional, but also you must create a professional email account. Setting up a good-looking account will help you to look more professional.
Since 99% of email users check their inbox daily, 58% of them do it first thing in the morning. Having a professional and eye-catching email account will increase the chance of getting more feedback.
If you are applying for jobs, you might consider creating a separate account for that. In this case, you’ll be able to track all your messages in a very easy way.
In other cases, for example, if you are requesting information about the receiver’s product, having a solid-looking profile in his eyes will dramatically increase your chances for future cooperation.
Start with the Most Important
After you choose the best start for your email, you have to make your crucial point at the beginning. Remember that all professional emails get to the point fast. A typical business email answers the question or presents the requests at the end.
If you struggle with how to send better emails, think about a pyramid, start from the top, and announce your intentions upfront.
Choose the Best Time to Send a Professional Email
When it comes to professional emails, time matters too. Choosing the wrong time to send email messages is a big mistake that some people can make. It’s more likely that your email will be seen on work days (the exception is when the receiver works on weekends) than on weekends. This means that you should consider the time you send your emails. However, I am sure that if you keep up with all the points of this article, your email will be dazzling all the time, but it is more presumptive that you’ll be seen after or before the lunch break.
So you have to consider whether you should send your email on weekends or during the lunch break.
Always Proofread
Before hitting the send button, you need to make sure that everything is correct, so do not forget to proofread your email. If there are any mistakes, you’ll see that before the receiver receives them.
Sure, you do not want to look unprofessional in the receiver’s eyes, so having both grammatical and syntactical errors will decrease your chances of getting feedback.
Write a Simple Closing
Once you’re done with the content of your email, it’s time to close it off. You don’t want to make it fancy. Just keep your closing simple and straightforward.
Instead of writing poor email closing lines, stick to the safe, proven closing lines and believe the ending also matters.
Here are some closing lines for your email:
- Sincerely
- Best regards
- Best
- Warm regards
- Warm wishes
- Kind regards
- Kind wishes
- Thank you
- Take care
Make sure to use a strong call-to-action (CTA) to clearly convey what you want the receiver to do next. This could be scheduling a call, filling out a form, visiting a specific webpage, or giving you feedback. Also you might consider creating your own email signature. To learn more about this take a look at the tips to brand your emails.
Time to hit send
That’s a wrap. After making your email look professional, you just hit that send button and wait for your success. Believe me, if you keep up with all the points, your email will be more eye-catching and attractive. If your email looks just like the rest of it, your chances of getting success, even getting proper feedback, will dramatically decrease.
Now that you have a professional and solid-looking email do not hesitate to hit the button.