The Power of Email Etiquette

As recruitment professionals we see an array of emails on a daily basis and wanted to share some etiquette tips that we feel may guarantee your email is noticed for all the right reasons.

Be specific on the subject line: Every job application email you send out needs to have a proper subject line. If you don’t put anything in the subject line, chances are that your email is going to end up in a spam mailbox. Your subject line should list the job that you are applying for, so the person who receives it knows exactly what job you want. You can also include your own name in the subject line to reinforce the fact that you are applying for the job, and not just sending an email on someone else’s behalf.

Use a professional Email address: You should always have an email address that is ideally your name so that the recipient knows exactly who is sending the email. Never use email addresses (perhaps memoirs of your grade-school days) that are not appropriate for use in the workplace, such as “lovelychic@…” or “beerlover@…” — no matter how much you love a cold brew

Be cautious with humor: Humor can easily get lost in translation without the right tone or facial expressions. In a professional exchange, it’s better to leave humor out of emails unless you know the recipient well. Also, something that you think is funny might not be funny to someone else. Something perceived as funny when spoken may come across very differently when written. When in doubt, leave it out

Keep your fonts classic: Purple Comic Sans has a time and a place (maybe?) but for business correspondence, keep your fonts, colors, and sizes classic.Your emails should be easy for other people to read. It is best to use 10- or 12-point type and an easy-to-read font such as Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman, as for color, black is the safest choice.

Proofread: After writing your email, read it through out loud to ensure that your errors don’t overshadow your message. The reason for reading it out loud is that sometimes your ears will catch something that your eyes skim over

Add the email address last: You don’t want to send an email accidentally before you have finished writing and proofing the message. Even when you are replying to a message, it’s a good precaution to delete the recipient’s address and insert it only when you are sure the message is ready to be sent