The concept of email is quite old, as the first email system was invented long before the World Wide Web was introduced. Emails have found various uses over time. To this day, they are used for various purposes, including digital marketing, information sharing, and message exchange. However, the most prevalent use of emails is business communication.
Even though various other communication and information exchange channels have emerged over time, worldwide professionals and businesspersons still prefer emails for business communication. There are multiple reasons behind this phenomenon. Emails trigger immediate responses and help users keep track of the inbound and outbound communication.
Additionally, emails allow targeted communication, enabling users to ensure bespoke messages according to the needs and interests of individual recipients. Above all, emails are convenient, versatile, efficient, and affordable. Hence, you will see professionals and businesspersons preferring emails over any other way to communicate with others when it comes to business communication.
Effective business communication requires you to know how to write email copy that sounds professional and clearly reflects your message. Failure to ensure an effective email copy with a professional tone may lead to misunderstanding and confusion on the recipient’s end. However, this article will help you write a perfect professional email in English.
You only need to learn a few steps to learn professional email writing. This article discusses those steps in detail. Read on to learn more.
Steps to Write a Professional Email
This section will outline all the steps you should know to craft an impeccable professional email for various recipients. Further details are given below.
Ensure a Clear and Concise Subject Line
The process of writing a professional email starts with writing a subject line. The purpose of writing a subject line is to give the recipient a clue about the message you want to deliver through email. The subject line of any email is quite similar to the title of other write-ups. It should be intriguing enough to grab the recipients’ attention and trigger them to read the rest of the email attentively.
However, you should ensure that the subject line is clear and concise enough to help the recipient understand the email’s content in a mere glance. Your subject line should feature 7 words at max or even less. Try to include action words in it to convey a sense of urgency. Keep the tone of the subject line professional. You can opt for a grammar check to make it impeccable.
A Proper Salutation is Essential
Before writing your email’s body, you must greet the recipient using a proper salutation. A suitable salutation is an essential element of any professional email. So open your email by conveying respect to the recipient and choosing a suitable greeting. You can start with “Dear Stephanie” or “Greetings Stephanie”.
In case you don’t know the name of the recipient, using a phrase like “To whom it may concern” would do the trick. Just remember you are making a business communication; it is your job to make the right first impression. Hence, sounding professional and avoiding casually greeting someone is always the right approach.
Start with Clearly Stating the Purpose
Here comes the most important phase of the whole task: writing the body of your email. The first paragraph is all about clearly stating the purpose of sending an email. If you are sending an email in response to their action, you can start by thanking the recipient. This will not only help you appear polite to the addressee but also ensure their convenience. For instance, “Thank you for showing interest in hiring our services!” could be a perfect way to start the email body.
Sometimes, you are the first to make a business communication through email. In such a scenario, you must reflect the email’s purpose. For instance, you may need to request customer feedback regarding your services. In such a scenario, starting the first paragraph with a sentence like “I’m writing this email to request your feedback about our services” would do the trick. Stating your purpose clearly in the early part of the email triggers recipients to read the rest with interest.
Ensure an Impeccable Email Body
Writing a perfect email is not just limited to ensuring a clear subject line, adding a proper salutation, or stating the purpose of making communication. Every single detail of your email reflects your professionalism. Hence, you can’t overlook the importance of making the content of your email’s body impeccable. You must ensure that the email you send is free of any drawbacks. From perfectly structured email copy to grammatically perfect content, ensuring everything is essential.
You must also keep an eye out for punctuation and spelling errors in your email body. However, not everyone has substantial time to revisit the entire message multiple times and identify such issues. Using an effective grammar checker for this purpose is a practical ideal. Such a tool will perform a quick grammar check of your email copy and identify various issues that might go unnoticed by the naked human eye. It will also suggest rectification to ensure an impeccable email body.
End Your Email with Polite Closing Remarks
An essential element of any professional email is a sense of respect and politeness for the recipient. You should convey respect to the recipient in every part of your email. However, it becomes essential when you are closing your message. Adding a few polite closing remarks will enable you to thank the addressee for one more time.
You can add remarks like “Thanks for sparing your valuable time to read this message. Looking forward to hearing from you soon.” You can also request further interaction through your closing remarks. Such remarks will help you convey the message that you are always available to respond to the messages sent by the addressee. These remarks will also put the recipient at ease.
End with a Professional Closing
Here comes the last step of the process of writing a professional email. You must end your message with a professional closing. Using words like “Sincerely,” “Best Regards,” and “Thank You” will be perfect to professionally close an email written with the intent of business communication. Once you end your message by adding foretold phrases, it is time to add your professional details.
Write your complete name after adding any of the aforementioned phrases. After your name, add your job title and contact details. You can also add URLs to your social media profiles like LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter). Adding these details will help the recipient to interact with you more easily and effectively.
In the End
Writing email that sounds professional is not tricky. However, many people working in the corporate landscape still don’t know how to write email while ensuring professional structure and tone. This article resolves this issue by outlining the steps you must take while writing a professional email. Hopefully, you will have plenty of takeaways after learning this article. We wish you luck with your upcoming business communications via email!
