thrive* | creative group – our blog

As a child, and even still as an adult my mother taught me the mind your manners. It’s a simple concept that I try to follow in every aspect of life. So in my daily communication with clients, friends and family I am often rushed, distracted or concentrating on something else, but I always make an effort to practice proper etiquette no matter what chaos is swirling around in my head. Here’s a list of tips to help with your proper email etiquette:

1. Subject: Always enter a subject to your emails. It doesn’t have to be long, it doesn’t have to be complicated. Just whatever pops into your head when you need to send the email is enough. For example a simple ‘Just saying hello’ or ‘Funny thought’ is simple enough, and for your clients or your request for a document, then say just that. The problem with NOT having a subject leaves it to where the receiver cannot go back and search for that email easily if needed, and if the subject is a forward from another conversation, change it to pertain to what you are trying to point out. The email subject should accurately pertain to the email content.

2. Greeting: Dear John, Simply address the person in a simple way. If it’s a reply you can just put their name — “Adam –” and move on to the point from there. Instead of just spilling into whatever the message might be.

3. Body/Content: Make sure you are using proper sentence structure. Try your best to complete the sentence so that the reader clearly understands the message. Even consider numbering your comments so it’s easily to track the response. Keeping your content organized can save you valuable time in the long run.

4. Spell check: For the love of Pete! I know I am a horrible speller, but most people don’t know this because I have that handy tool! So use it! Some email programs even have a setting where it will not send out the email without spell checking. So don’t be lazy.

5. Attachments: Don’t forget them! Also, don’t make them too huge! There are also handy tools you can add to your email program so that when you mention the word “attachment” a warning message pops up if you forget to add one. And, if that file is massive, then throw it up on Dropbox and send that client a link to download the file. This is the most considerate step you can take, so not to cause a traffic jam in their inbox. I love me some – learn more about here, and it’s FREE Dropbox!

6. Formatting: No textures, no borders, no notebook paper rings people! There is no need to clutter your email message with a fancy-smanshy background. This doesn’t help your email message, nor the reader. Just please, don’t do it folks.

7. Signature: Very important! This is the most valuable part of the email. It’s not where a quote goes, or a dancing emoticons – it’s where your full name, office number, cell number, fax number, email address & physical address ALL goes! There’s a million ways to contact people these days, so be helpful, be nice & give them all the possible ways to reach you. They may not need to call you today, but in a few weeks if they need to fax you, how productive can it be to just pull up that email!

8. CC:, BC: Keep me in the loop! As a boss, as a wife, as a sister this is so very helpful when making plans for babysitting, meetings & Tee ball games! Send one message with a common question out to 4 individuals, and if the response involves them in anyway, CC them, reply all to them. There’s reason not too! Yes, if you want to make a comment about someone behind their back then don’t do it via email anyway. It’s never good to put in email anything you wouldn’t want the world to know, because that baby is there forever.

Hope this helps you mind you manners better when sending emails. In the long run it will save you hours of time & help you be more productive.