For us, it was 2005 – about six months after we’d spent a bundle on thousands of pieces of new print literature! Just about a year later, we invested in developing emailable literature, and haven't looked back since.

Today the business world runs on electronic communications – and email in particular. And not only has the format changed, so has the approach. We've become a lot less formal. Instead of “Dear Mr. Harris”, now it's “Hi Mike”.

Despite the new informality, however, there is still a certain degree of professionalism – etiquette, if you will – which should be followed, particularly when you’re sending email in the workplace.

Therefore, in the tradition of Miss Manners, here's my list of "suggestions" for improving business-related email.

Send Less!

Everyday, our inboxes are literally flooded with emails. By the time we sort through and delete, save or reply, it seems like there’s no time left to accomplish anything else. We're all in the same boat here, so let's help each other out by sending less. Here's what I mean.

Send emails that are concise and easy to read. Keep sentences and paragraphs short. Use bullet points when appropriate. Don’t make me read through endless paragraphs to determine the point of your message. Some of your colleagues, and especially busy executives (such as your boss or potential clients), may be accessing their email via a small mobile device. Long-winded doesn’t work in email.
Copy (cc) only those who actually need to know. And please, stop using “Reply to All”. Example: An email went out to all employees introducing a new staff member. Shortly thereafter, my email box was full of “Welcome, xxxx, I’m looking forward to working with you” or some such. Does everyone really need to get those emails? I don't think so.
Remove people from email strings when they no longer “need to know.” Example: You send an e-mail to a co-worker about an upcoming Client Dinner. You copy her boss and your boss, because they need to know that the dinner is coming up. The co-worker replies asking “Who’s coming?" You reply. Then she asks, “What’s on the menu?" You reply. She suggests, “Change fish to steak.” You reply … again. She asks, “But what about parking?” You reply ... yet again.

Do the bosses need to be on all these e-mails? Unless you’re sure they care about all these details – remove them from the string.
Remember that work email addresses are for work-related emails. Remember the chain letter? Today, it’s the chain email. My opinion? NEVER forward a chain email, no matter how inspirational, clever, or cute. And, if for some reason you must send it to me, don’t send it to my work email address.

Business Email Should Look and Sound Professional

Include a courteous greeting and closing. In the U.S., “Hello, first name” is generally acceptable. But abroad, or whenever you’re emailing someone in a senior position that you don’t know personally, “Dear Mr. (or Ms.) Jones” may be more appropriate. Ending with “Sincerely” or “Best Regards” before your signature block is also a nice touch.
Use proper sentence structure. Write in complete sentences. Capitalize the first word. Use appropriate punctuation. Just because it's an email doesn't mean you should forget everything you learned in English 101. Remember, you're a professional. It's still important to present yourself well and to show respect for the recipient by putting some effort into your communication.
Keep the background white and the font black. Remember, we’re talking about business. Fancy backgrounds, “creative” or colored fonts have no place in business emails. Save your creativity for Facebook and your friends. Black and white is much easier to read and gives a more professional image.
Make your email easy-to-read and to understand. This goes along with my first point: “Send Less.” Reading from a screen is more difficult than reading from paper, so how you structure and layout an email is important. Use short paragraphs with blank lines in between. Drop those run-on sentences. If you have several points to make, or several questions to ask, number or bullet them and put them on separate lines.
Always include a subject that is RELEVANT to the content of your email. Please don’t reply back to my email regarding the new report I’ve created, with an email about that totally unrelated proposal you need out by Monday. If your email is about the proposal, mention the proposal in the subject line.
Be Kind. Don’t use email to argue, gripe or criticize. Deliver those messages in-person, preferably face-to-face. If the recipient is in a different city, then use the phone. Better yet, don’t argue, gripe or criticize in the first place. It seldom does any good and makes us look petty.
Never Send an Angry E-mail. No question; you will regret it. I certainly have. By all means, if it helps defuse your frustration, type it out. But, then, delete it. (You may want to remove the address before you start – just in case you inadvertently hit "send".)
Use spell check AND read through your email before sending. This is another rule I often break in my rush to “get things done”. It’s easy to skip a word you meant to include, or to type a similar sounding word with a different meaning. Here’s an example I received today: “Thanking you for your anticipation”. Did he mean “consideration”?
Set your Out of Office Assistant when you’re going to be out a half day or more. (Another rule I often forget.) Most people that send work-related emails expect an answer the same day. You need to let them know you won’t be able to respond right away. The flip side of this rule: When you’re back at your desk, remember to turn your Out Of Office Assistant off.
Include the original message thread in your replies. When you reply to an email, include the original email after your response. Many of us send so many emails that it becomes hard to remember what you're replying to.
Don’t request delivery or read receipts. They annoy many recipients. They can be blocked and some software doesn’t support them. Personally, I get a lot of emails requesting read receipts. I rarely allow Outlook to send back delivery or read receipts, especially if the email is not from someone I know.
Do not ask to recall a message. The recall often won’t work unless the person is logged into their email. And, chances are, your message has already been delivered and read anyway. Recalls can also raise questions and suspicion when the recipient notices your email in his inbox – and then has it suddenly disappear before he can read it.
Do not write in all capital letters even though that makes typing the message easier. Almost everyone knows this rule. All caps MAKE IT SEEM AS THOUGH YOU’RE SHOUTING OR ANGRY. Using multiple punctuation points, like ????? or !!!!! does the same thing. And, we all know, no one likes to be yelled at – even in an email.

When it comes to getting our inboxes under control and keeping a professional edge in our communications, we're all in this together.

I've listed some of the ways we can improve how we do email. There are others.

The following two websites provide some great advice. They cover just about every rule and every form of electronic communication.

More Information on Etiquette for E-mails and Other Electronic Messaging

Robert Half Business Etiquette - the new rules in a digital age
Download a FREE PDF, watch a YouTube video on Business Etiquette, ask a Business Etiquette Question. The PDF is a big file (2.6 mb), but it includes advice on etiquette when using social and professional networking sites, email, instant messaging, mobile devices, phone, video and web conferencing.

Email Etiquette from Emailreplies.com
Provides 32 “most important” e-mail etiquette tips -- some you might never have thought of.

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Loral Narayanan, Marketing Manager, has worked with ABC-Amega since the early 1990s. She is editor of the ABC-Amega monthly e-newsletter, Credit-to-Cash Advisor, and writes articles, proposals and other documents for the company. Loral is also responsible for managing ABC-Amega’s marketing web sites.