{"id":19174,"date":"2023-03-23T11:14:08","date_gmt":"2023-03-23T09:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.talentlms.com\/blog\/?p=19174"},"modified":"2023-04-07T10:46:46","modified_gmt":"2023-04-07T07:46:46","slug":"email-etiquette-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.talentlms.com\/blog\/email-etiquette-training\/","title":{"rendered":"Email etiquette: 12 rules for crafting professional emails"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cURGENT!!\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Dramatic but ambiguous. The subject line of the email made the new office admin\u2019s heart race. It looked like a contender for spam. But the name in the email address was familiar and came from a consultancy firm working on their company rebrand. Unsure of what to expect, but panicked by the aggressive tone coming from a known contact, the email had to be opened.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHi!<\/em><\/p>\n

We need your tone of voice document and customer personas research now. Due to staffing issues, our client schedule has changed, and we now plan to work on your account this week.<\/em><\/p>\n

PLEASE GET BACK TO ME ASAP!<\/em><\/p>\n

Jim\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

We\u2019ve all received emails like this. And, if we\u2019re honest, most of us have probably, at some point, sent an email like this.<\/p>\n

After all, it\u2019s easily done. Carried away by the urgency of the moment, tunnel vision sets in. You need to get something sorted straight away, and all you can think of is what you need to do to achieve that. The problem is the recipient won\u2019t see it that way. Your<\/em> urgency isn\u2019t their<\/em> problem.<\/p>\n

And writing an email without considering how the tone, language, and formatting might be interpreted is shortsighted and counterintuitive. Not only are you likely to omit practical details your recipient needs to action your request, but the recipient\u2019s response is unlikely to be that urgent or accommodating.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s where email etiquette training comes into its own. A written code of conduct, email etiquette forms the basis of appropriate and effective communication<\/strong>. And it leads to more effective outcomes\u2014for both the sender and the recipient.<\/p>\n

Why email etiquette matters<\/h2>\n

Despite the growth in online messaging platforms, email is still the most popular form of professional communication. A powerful and versatile channel, it\u2019s used for everything from building relationships and promoting goods or services to sourcing information, resolving problems, and answering inquiries. Given its wide remit, it\u2019s part of every employee\u2019s toolkit<\/strong>. But, unlike other platforms in that portfolio, it\u2019s a tool that often comes without instructions.<\/p>\n

The assumption is\u2014everyone knows how to write an email.<\/p>\n

The problem is\u2014that\u2019s not necessarily the case.<\/p>\n

According to a poll we recently ran with our audience on LinkedIn, people seem to be annoyed with emails that don’t respect their time<\/strong>. CC’ing irrelevant people and crafting too long messages are the email habits that turn most employees off.<\/p>\n

\"LinkedIn<\/p>\n

But there are lots of elements involved in writing an email. Tone, content, language, format, greeting, sign-off, detail, timing, and grammar. For an email to be truly effective, all of these need to be spot on. Whether it\u2019s lack of training, lack of confidence, lack of time, lack of motivation, or lack of thought, it\u2019s easy to slip up on one or more of these elements. And the consequences of doing so can be significant.<\/p>\n