Email top tips

Emails seem so simple but they can often cause a lot of worries and a lot of time staring at a scared to press send. If you’ve never had to send an email until getting to the workplace it can feel intimidating - is the tone right, am I explaining well enough? We’ve all been there, so we’ve put together some tips to help!

Emails Vs Messaging?

A good place to start is to ask a manager or team member what people prefer. Do they do everything on email, are some messages sent on another platform like Microsoft Teams or Slack.

A good way to think about it is legnth of the message. If it’s just a quick question, it may be better to just message them.

It is also worth thinking about whether the conversation needs to be logged somewhere. For example, if you’re asking someone to do a task, email would be better because it is less likely to get lost and it is easier for someone to log.

Don’t be afraid to ask as it is often different depending on where you work!

Meeting Vs Email

With everyone often being busy and tied up in their own tasks it can be hard to know whether an email or a meeting would be more productive. Some key things to think about are;

• Is it one topic?

  If you’re only discussing one thing, an email is often sufficient. However, if the topic starts breakign off into lots of tasks or ideas, it can be helpful to call a meeting to delegate tasks.

• How many people?

  One to one meetings can be helpful if you have a lot to discuss, however, often if you just need something from one person an email would be sufficient. If there is a lot of people involved in a task, emails can become complicated, in which case calling a meeting may be better.

With all of this, it really depends on your workplace and other peoples workload. If you feel a meeting would be more productive, don’t be afraid to ask!

Learn from those around you

The best way to figure out how to write an email is reading those sent to you. How are they phrasing things, how formal are they, how do they sign it off?

If you ever doubt something, remember it is okay to ask.

Tips for writing an email:

• AI tools may help

  If you’re worried about tone or if you’re getting your point across well enough, you could use AI software like Chat GPT. However, use it carefully. It is important to re-read the email after using AI to ensure it sounds like you and it has the correct information. When used well, AI can help you when you’re having writer’s block or you’re just needing a bit of help getting your point across succinctly.

• Other helpful apps

  Grammarly is a good browser extension if you struggle with grammar, wording, spelling or clarity. Or using a text-to-speech app may help if you struggle with tone. Having another voice read out your email to help you be aware of any issues before sending.

• Read and reread

  Rereading your email your email is always good for spotting any errors and fixing any clarity issues. It can also be helpful to reread it to see if you’re coming across in the way you want to. Do you feel it’s too blunt? Could you add some niceties? Is there too much waffle? Could you be more direct? Have you used too many ‘!!’ or ‘☺️’?

• Do you need to add context?

  It is always good to add context, sometimes it is easy to forget that not all members of the business know the same things. Having one brief sentence that explains the context of the email can help with clarity and avoid lots of back and forth.

Subject lines

People will have an inbox full of emails and they are often very busy, so subject lines are important.

• Keep them simple

• Use keywords so they are easy to find e.g. the project name

• Use phrases so they know what the email is asking e.g. feedback needed or project update

Organising a larger email:

Sometimes we need to fit a lot of information into one email, it becomes a large wall of text. This is never easy to read and even hard to skim read, which most people will do. These tips will help these longer emails be more effective:

• Bullet points

  Keeping key information to bullet points helps the email be easier to read. Obviously the full email can’t be bullets but adding the key points that are covered in the email to the top in bullet format can help.

• Add titles to sections

  This can help people skim to the bits that impact them

• Tagging people

  It can be helpful to @ people in the sections that impact them. Again this helps them skim the email and take in the information they need to.

CC Vs BCC

CC literally means Carbon Copy, which bascially means whoever you CC into an email will get an exact copy of that email. BCC is a blind copy, so they will get a copy of the email but they can’t be seen by others recieving the email.

Simply, CC is fine if you’re happy with everyone recieving the email to see eachothers email.

BCC is helpful if you do not want people to see who is receiving the email. There are many reasons for this but the main one would be data protection. If you’re emailing the attendees of an event, for example, but you do not have their permission to share their email, you will need to BCC.

Top tips:

• Learn as you go - how other people address emails/end them etc.

• Confidence comes

• Ask questions if you don’t know