Anatomy of business emails

A B H I N AVA P R ATA P S I N G H

ANATOMY OF A BUSINESS EMAIL

EMAIL COMMUNICATION

How do I avoid Foot in the Mouth Syndrome?

COMMON QUESTIONS

•  When do I use the To, CC and BCC fields? •  How do I write a Subject Line? •  How do I address people? •  Is writing ‘Dear’ more informal than ‘Hi’? •  How should my signature look? •  When should I use a Post-Script? •  How do I structure the main content? •  Is a signature needed? •  Why do we need a disclaimer at the end?

SECTIONS OF AN EMAIL

1.  To 2.  CC 3.  BCC 4.  Subject 5.  Salutation 6.  Introduction 7.  Body 8.  Closure 9.  Signature 10. Disclaimer

Introduction to these sections is the scope of this presentation.

TO

•  Name of the Actor •  Person(s) Taking Action •  Person(s) Needing the Information

CC

•  Non-Actor who needs to be Informed •  Person(s) not directly taking action •  Person(s) supervising the actions of others •  Person(s) generally interested in a thread •  Person(s) acting as back up for Actor

BCC

•  Discreet Distribution List •  Person(s) who need to be informed, but you don’t want the

other people to know about it •  When you don’t want a chain mail to get started with

Reply-To-All •  e.g. Your Vendor and Client Lists, Mail to all employees of a

firm etc.

SUBJECT

•  Wrapper of the Email Body •  Should be meaningful •  Related to the Body of the text •  Should be interesting enough

SALUTATION

•  Formal Greeting •  Can change based on relationship with Actor •  Dear, Hi or First Name

INTRODUCTION

•  Brief Positive Stroke in Context •  Greeting, Compliment or Gratitude about the context •  Setting a positive base for take-off

BODY

•  Main Content of the Email •  Conveys the Action Items •  Conveys Observations or Opinion •  Structured, non-verbose communication •  Brief, Bulleted, Numbered etc. as required

CLOSURE

•  Parting Remarks •  Closing Thoughts •  Summary •  Most Important point •  Leaving on a Positive Note

SIGNATURE

•  Identity and Contact Details •  Clear Establishment of Identity •  Complete Contact Details

DISCLAIMER

•  Legal Safeguard against potential mistakes •  Unintended Recipient •  Limited Liability

SOME GOOD PRACTICES

•  Check if all people receiving the email are relevant •  Do a spell check before hitting ‘Send’ •  Do not just Forward, specify the action needed •  Respond to an email within a day •  Change the Subject, if necessary •  Use Action oriented language •  Use Bullets and Numbering to improve readability •  Avoid using P.S. and BCC as far as possible

FOR YOUR ATTENTION