How to Impress With Your Email
If you’re in the workforce, you probably know by now that almost all communication is done via email.
Scheduling interviews, scheduling meetings, communicating with basically everyone at work and reaching out to clients is almost exclusively done through email.
With that being said, you need to make sure that you know how to use your email like a pro so that you impress those around you, and make solid first impressions.
Have a Professional Email Address
If your current email is something like DancerBaby420@RocketMail or LebronJamesFan5Ever@DooberMail, it might be time for a change. Sure, these emails were fun when you were in high school, but now that you’re older you should consider making a new one. Keep your old one on hand in case you have it tied to other things like your social media accounts or your Netflix account. DanceBaby420 doesn’t need to stop the dance altogether.
Most professional emails use a mix of a person’s first name and last name. Also, you should use a respectable email provider like Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail instead. Other email providers can come off as unprofessional, or look like spam. If you don’t use a professional email provider, people may avoid looking at your emails altogether.
Write Good Subject Lines
Yeah, it can be hard to come up with a decent subject line that gets your recipient’s attention. You’ve probably had a difficult time coming up with them yourself.
To come up with a decent subject line, think about the subject lines that you avoid. You probably avoid subject lines that look like spam. Things like “Lose 100 pounds in two days!” or “I’m a Nigerian prince and I want to bequeath my billions to you!” are obvious spam, but you can see the things the scammers do to get attention. They use flashy language to capture your attention. Even though the claims are obviously fake, you still read them all the way through!
The most common piece of advice you are probably going to get is to be short and concise. So, for every email, make sure that your subject lines are short, concise and grab attention.
Some examples include:
- Request for interview
- Questions About XXX company
- New job opportunity
Get to the point. Get the information out. Make it sound decent.
Spell Check
Before you send every email, read it through a few times. Make sure that everything is spelled correctly, all names are correct, your wording makes sense and that you sound like a professional.
If you need help checking your spelling, consider downloading Grammarly. Grammarly will show you your spelling and grammar mistakes as well as edit your writing in general.
Add a Salutation
All decent email providers have a way to automatically add a salutation at the end of all of your emails. Your salutation tends to include your name, and “thank you” of sorts and additional contact information.
For your salutation, add your primary phone number, and links to sites such as your LinkedIn or blog. For your “thank you,” make it brief. Here are some solid choices:
- Thank you for your time,
- Best,
- Thank you,
- Regards,
Get to The Point
You may think that you need to craft long emails with lavish language in order to get your point across. This is far from the truth. You can have a very effective email that is only a few sentences long.
For each and every email that you send, make sure that you jump right into the point. Offer a friendly greeting, and then dive right into the email. If you don’t, your audience is going to lose interest quick, and dump your email into the trash.