It’s surprisingly easy to leave a great impression when sending business emails

In today’s business environment, you’re probably far more likely to send someone a quick email rather than calling them or contacting them via post. But for the amount of emails we tend to send, many of us still don’t know how to make our emails sound as professional, knowledgeable and personable as they should.

Thankfully, the experts at Syntax IT Support London are here to tell us all how to make the most of our business emails. These simple tips will help you create professional emails every time.

Make use of a signature

An email signature is your opportunity to let the recipient know a bit more about you, including your business and your role. The best signatures include your title, company name, additional contact information, social media and websites. This gives a clear introduction whilst opening up the invitation for further contact.

If you send emails from both your laptop and your smartphone, make sure your signatures match across both devices.

Create templates for frequent responses

You might send a huge number of emails every week, but if you stopped to examine them you may well discover that a lot of them are just answering the same FAQs. To save time, put a couple of hours aside to craft the perfect email responses to the queries you most often get sent. This will not only save you precious minutes every time you receive an FAQ, but will ensure you always send the optimum response.

Time it right

We tend to avoid responding to emails immediately because we worry it might make the other party think we’re not busy enough or else desperate to hear from them. However, putting off an email response can make us forget about them altogether, which also doesn’t look great. Aim to respond to every email on the same day you receive it. Even if you don’t have the information you need to respond, send a quick reply to say you’ve seen the email and will aim to pass on the information by a certain date.

Always proofread

Nothing looks less professional than a typo. Writing down your response and hitting Send before reading it through is risky, as it greatly increases your chances of passing on an email with at least one mistake. This puts you in the awkward position of having to respond a second time in order to clarify your meaning. Best to just do a quick proofread to stay safe.

Don’t doubt the importance of a good subject

The subject line is something you probably don’t put a lot of thought into, but you should. A subject is the preview for the entirety of the email to come, so you need to make sure it sums up what you’re trying to say and is likely to get read quickly. At the same time, it needs to be concise. People tend to prioritise emails based on both sender and subject, so a good header can get your email noticed.

Keep it simple

The way you format your email is just as important as the language you choose. If you’re hoping for a fast response, don’t ask too many questions. If you do have a lot to say, bullet points can be a good way of breaking down the content and allowing your reader to scan your email quickly.

Imagine everyone reading it

Before you send any business email, think about how you’d feel if it ended up being opened by everyone else in the office. If the mere idea fills you with dread, it’s probably not appropriate for a business account. If you need more information on IT etiquette and safety, consider contacting a professional IT support company.