Conducting email correspondence. Business Email Rules

How often do you receive emails without a subject, with an incomprehensible sender, missing paragraphs, or with a bunch of grammatical errors? Or maybe you write such letters yourself? Meanwhile, network correspondence has its own etiquette.

In 70% of communications are carried out by e-mail and chats. In other companies, this percentage is less, but wherever there is work with documents and active communication, e-mail wins its place over regular mail, telephone conversations and personal meetings.

In 2013, email turned 42 years old - it is a veteran of electronic communications. However, not everyone knows the etiquette of email communication.

Simple business email rules will help you use your email professionally and efficiently.

E-mail is used to save time.

Whenever you write a letter, think about whether it would be faster and clearer to discuss the issue orally or by phone.

Mail must be answered no later than 48 hours after receipt.

Anything more and without a good reason is a refusal to communicate in a rude manner. If you don’t know what to answer, just say: “I need a little time to answer, so I will write to you on Friday.” The sender will know when to expect a response from you.

Check your spam folder regularly.

As well as all thematic mail tabs, so as not to miss important letters. Often, an important letter can also end up in spam.

The subject line is a required element.

The subject should contain keywords by which the recipient can easily find the letter in his mailbox. The subject saves time, and if you are writing for the first time, it is the decisive factor whether the letter will be read or not. Respect your colleagues, and even when writing some trifle, be sure to indicate the topic.

Addressee management.

The answer to the letter or some kind of reaction should be carried out by the one to whom the letter was sent. Everyone who is in the copy - get it for information, and are not required to respond.

The letter must have a clear sender.

Indicate your first and last name, if you often write abroad - in Latin, as in a passport. Cyrillic is not installed for foreigners, your letter may simply fall into spam due to an incomprehensible addressee.

Business address structure:

firstname.lastname or lastname@company domain. Documents for accounting sent from the box [email protected] look extremely unimportant. Public mailers are acceptable for personal mail.

even of an official nature, it is better to do it through professional mailing services. 200 recipients of the letter, the absence of a subject or an incomprehensible subject, and even an attachment - the letter will end up in spam, but it looks undignified.

Signature in the letter.

The signature will inform the recipient about your role in the company, provide the necessary contact information. A small advertisement and a link to the site are appropriate in the signature. The signature should be no more than 7 lines in length, a photo or a logo is appropriate here, but remember that your letters will not look beautiful in all mailboxes, therefore it is better to use standard formatting in the signature.

Automatic texts that are added to the subject. Re: reply to mail, Fwd: mail forwarding. It is appropriate to leave them in official correspondence so that the recipient is aware of what you are replying to.

Answers in the text.

In personal correspondence, it is allowed to parse the sender's letter into blocks and write an answer to this block under each block. In business correspondence, it is believed that the entire answer should be written from above. In practice, it turns out that even in business correspondence it is more convenient to answer questions in the text, in blocks, and on top you can write several sentences that answer all questions. Example: “We agree in principle. But we want to draw your attention to some nuances. Read the text below."

Correspondence ends the one who started it.

It is not necessary to bow at 5 letters “All the best”, “To you too”, “And to you”. If you received a response to your initial request, thank you politely and end the correspondence, your interlocutor will be grateful to you for the time saved.

One topic, one thread.

It is not necessary to start each letter with a new subject. Reply to letters of the same topic in one thread, and if another topic has appeared in the process of communication, start a new correspondence. It is better not to combine answers from different threads into one letter, because different threads may have different recipients who are in the copy. The exception is letters with heavy files or layouts, it is better to write “Logo and description of the company such and such” in the subject line, then the recipient will find the letter right away, without re-reading the entire thread of 50 letters.

Letter tree.

Business letters should have a clear semantic structure. It's profitable, it saves you and the recipient's time, it's fair and efficient. Many books can be written about this, but the most capacious and lively is Sasha Karepina's book The Art of Business Writing. Using all the tips in this book, you will learn how to write good letters once and for all.

Literacy and formatting.

Write in capital letters, using all punctuation marks. ALL CAPITAL LETTERS ARE PERCEIVED AS A SHOUT. There is no redline in email, indentation is used instead.

Attachments.

Heavy attachments are inconvenient, business-oriented mail services almost always have restrictions on the weight of incoming letters, therefore it is better to attach a link where you can download the desired file.

Compliance with these rules saves time, positively works on your professional image, and most importantly - helps people, whether they are colleagues or new clients, understand well what you want from them. When you create a comfortable environment for communication via e-mail, it is much more pleasant and easier to satisfy all your requests.

For whom: sales managers; sales managers; employees who deal with clients.

Summary: Rules of business correspondence. The structure of the letter to the client. Formatting a letter.

Business Correspondence Rules

1. It’s good to start a letter with gratitude or a compliment: “Olga, thanks for the answer!”.
2. If you are writing to a client for the first time, let them know where you got their email from or remind them of a previous interaction.
3. Write in simple, understandable language. Avoid the use of clericalism and speech stamps: “at present”, “to bring to your attention”, “cooperation on mutually beneficial terms”, “highly professional”, “to avoid”, “for a reason”, etc.
4. It is also worth avoiding complex terms, highly professional and foreign words, incomprehensible abbreviations.
5. To focus on the important points of the letter, start the sentence with the name: "Alexander, please send a reconciliation report ...".
6. If you are answering several questions, quote them or briefly mention the content of the question so that it is clear what is being said.
7. Respond calmly to dissatisfaction or aggression on the part of the client, show your intention to help him resolve the situation.
8. Avoid sensitive or sensitive topics. The letter can accidentally get to another employee, than you can embarrass the client.
9. Let the client know that you have received his letter.
10. In business correspondence, it is customary to respond to letters no later than 3 hours later. If you do not have the opportunity to resolve the issue immediately - let the client know when you can do it.
11. Avoid writing to clients on weekends and holidays, as well as on Monday mornings or Friday evenings. Exception: if you have previously agreed on this with the client; if you have an urgent matter that cannot be postponed.
12. It is considered impolite to send many letters in a row. Exception: if you sent a letter and saw that the information in it is incomplete or out of date, you can send another letter in pursuit with additions and apologies.
13. Auto-reply about receiving letters is not used in modern business correspondence.
14. Be sure to check that the addressee's name and company name are correct before sending.
15. Postscript is not accepted in business correspondence.

Letter structure

1. Email
   The postal address should be as short and memorable as possible. It is better to use a personalized e-mail (for example, [email protected]).
2. Letter subject
   Be sure to indicate the subject of the letter. The topic must match the content. If you know the name of the person to whom you are writing or his position, indicate them in the subject line.
3. Notes
   For special messages, you can use the "Important" mark. It is better to request a read confirmation only in exceptional cases.
4. Letter structure
   • greetings;
   • short designation of the subject of the letter;
   • decoding the question;
   • closing (call to action).
   The golden rule: one letter - one topic - one appeal.
5. Attachments
   If you are attaching files to the letter, please inform the recipient in the subject line of the letter. It is more convenient to transfer heavy files through a cloud service (for example, Yandex.Disk).
6. Signature
   Put in the signature only the main and relevant contacts. Try to keep within 3-5 lines.

Letter design

1. Use easy-to-read sans-serif fonts in your email. The optimal font size is 12-14 pt.
2. The optimal paragraph length is 3-4 lines. The sentence length is 12-18 words. It is better to break a longer sentence into two.
3. It is desirable that the letter fit on the screen in its entirety.
4. To highlight important words and expressions, use bold type (no more than 4-5 words in a row). Refrain from highlighting whole sentences (especially if they are long), and even more so, entire paragraphs.
5. Do not abuse the selection of text with bright colors, capital letters, italics. When in doubt, opt for restraint.
6. It is better to refuse text with underlining - it can be confused with links.
7. The exclamation point should be used sparingly, only where it is really needed. Three or more exclamation/question marks would be redundant.
8. Numbered and bulleted lists improve the perception of information.
9. Pictures should complement the content of the letter, but in no case replace it (many recipients have images disabled; letters where the text is replaced by a picture can be regarded as SPAM).

Develop corporate standards for business correspondence. This will help regulate the process of correspondence between employees and clients and avoid mistakes that may affect sales and the image of your company.

E-mail correspondence is an integral part of the daily business practice of a modern secretary. The ability to persuade while remaining polite and correct is a skill that needs to be developed and honed. An ineptly composed and illiterate letter can put an end to a career and irrevocably ruin a business reputation. In this article, you will find a set of simple and effective rules for conducting business email correspondence that will help you prove your professionalism and successfully achieve your goals.

From the article you will learn:

Business Email Correspondence: Rules and Examples

Rule 1:

work email is used only for official correspondence

This remark applies not only to business letter etiquette how much to business ethics and the preservation of your reputation. Always remember that all letters that you send from your work computer are stored on the server, and your manager can review them if desired.

Rule 2:

Rule determine the circle of addressees of your message

If you write a letter to a manager, then there must be one addressee - the leader, if you write to colleagues or subordinates, then there may be several addressees. They are entered separated by commas in the "To" field, all interested parties - in the "Copy" field. These may be third parties mentioned in the text of the message. Try not to send extra copies, especially to management. Subservience and the desire to please will not adorn you. Even more disservice to you will be the presence of "blind copies" of the letter. You will be known as an intriguer.

Rule 3:

the purpose of the letter should be transparent to both you and the recipient

Clearly state the purpose of your message: what action do you expect from the reader of the message? What reaction should follow. This goal should be transparent not only for you, but also for the addressee.

The purpose of the message will predetermine the form and grammar of the narrative:

• the statement of your opinion and your assessment of the situation involves the use of 1 person (“I” and “we”);
• request, instruction, motivation for action involves the use of 2 persons (“you” and “you”);
• informing about events from the point of view of an outside observer involves the use of 3 persons ("he" or "they").

Rule 4:

do not leave the "subject" field empty

Most users start with by email from the study of the "topic" field. Sometimes they end up with this. To prevent your message from being deleted before it's read, try to keep the topic as specific, informative, and concise as possible. Vague topics like "Request for information", "from Moscow", "modified version" are not allowed. Examples of successful topics:

"List of team members for the Olympiad in Mathematics in Moscow"

"List of faulty equipment of the eighth workshop dated 06/01/17"

Projection Equipment Market Research 2017

If you are replying to a message, then the “Re” symbol will appear in the “subject” field, it is recommended to delete it.

Rule 5:

stick to traditional message structure

The structure of the letter is simple and clear, but each element in it is required:

1. Greeting and address;
2. Main block;
3. Summary block;
4. Signature
5. Contact Information.

Rule 6:

greeting and address - the key to mutual understanding

Never use the expression "Good day" as a greeting. This is bad tone. Use the universal "Hello!" or "Good afternoon!". An official letter can be started immediately with the appeal “Dear (name and patronymic)” or “Dear Mr. (surname)”. Which option is preferable - first name, patronymic or last name? The rule here is this - if you are just making contact and writing a message to the addressee for the first time, then it is appropriate to address by last name, when contact is established and you write a message for the second time, address by name and patronymic.

If the message has several addressees, then the appropriate option would be to address “Dear Sirs” or “Dear Colleagues” if you are addressing representatives of a profession close to you. At the end of the appeal, you can put an exclamation point or a comma, and start the text itself with a new paragraph, with a lowercase letter. Which option to choose? In a formal letter or in a message to which you attach great importance, put an exclamation mark, and in a simple work message, put a comma.

Rule 7:

conciseness is the main advantage of electronic correspondence

“Maximum meaning – minimum words” is the golden motto of business correspondence.

The presentation of ideas should be:

• specific;
• consistent;
• concise;
• understandable.

Write in short sentences - it's easier for you and clearer for the addressee. Break the text into paragraphs, so it's easier to browse and find the information you need.

Another tip: one topic, one post. If you want to consider several unrelated issues, highlight several different ideas, then devote a separate text to each topic. Of course, the "Subject" field should contain this idea or question in a short form.

In the case of a long correspondence, you can limit yourself to the words "Respectfully" and a first name with a surname.

Rule 14:

try not to use postscript

The use of a postscript is permissible in one case - if at the time of writing the letter some important event occurred that is directly related to the addressee.

Example: P.S. The plane tickets were delivered an hour ago.

Rule 15:

use the read receipt as intended

The purpose of this notification is that the addressee is expected to perform some action. It is used only for external destinations.

Rule 16:

do not overuse the "high importance" flag

Remember Leo Tolstoy's parable about the boy who liked to shout "Wolves!" as a joke? Everyone was so used to his jokes that when the wolves really attacked him, no one reacted to his cries.
When you need to really indicate the importance of the letter, all the necessary flags will already be used.

Rule 17:

double-check all the data, numbers and names

Make it a rule - before sending, be sure to re-read letter, check all numbers, clarify surnames and initials. One small mistake could cost you your seat.

Rule 18:

reply to email immediately

If for some reason you cannot answer right away - for example, you do not have all the information or are simply not ready, just write that the letter has been received and you will answer later. Otherwise, the recipient will not be sure that the letter was received or was not deleted by mistake.

The rules of business correspondence and a few tricky maneuvers for establishing good relationships with the help of a letter need to be known not only for those who have email overflowing with incoming correspondence every working day, but several correspondence and messages are included in the plans, the initiator of which should be you. Owning the magic of beeches is useful for every modern woman. This will come in handy, at a minimum, when looking for a job - sending resumes, cover letters, additional information about yourself upon request and test tasks, as well as sending messages to agree on an interview time.

Literacy is the basis of business correspondence and your face

The fact that bloggers with dyslexia can be popular on the Internet should not be an excuse for your mistakes and typos. Do not console yourself with the fact that the Russian language did not work out at school (it’s time to tighten up the rules for writing “not” with various parts of speech). Be as demanding of yourself as possible. It is especially offensive when conducting business correspondence, it is incorrect to write words from your professional field. The interlocutor may doubt your competence.

1. Keep the site gramota.ru bookmarked in your Internet browser.

2. Don't use words you can't define exactly (at least check Wikipedia).

3. Keep in mind that rare and specific words that may not be familiar to the interlocutor will confuse him or may be misinterpreted. If the interlocutor needs to be introduced to your terminology, then, according to the rules of etiquette, give an explanation of the terms and abbreviations used.

4. Try not to make sentences too long. Leave complex and ornate designs for writing a novel, and not for conducting business correspondence.

5. We strongly recommend that you type the message not immediately in the body of the letter, but first in a file on your computer. First, the built-in spelling and punctuation in word will help you. Secondly, you will eliminate the unpleasant situation of accidentally sending a business letter prematurely or losing it due to closing the browser, etc. (when typing text in word, get in the habit of clicking on the “save” icon more often and set autosave at short intervals in the settings) . Remember that predictive typing on tablet and mobile devices can give you some very unexpected corrections to your words.

6. Before sending the letter, read it over several times. If time is running out (by the way, one of the important basic rules of business correspondence is not to delay the deadlines, so it’s better not to take up a letter at the very last moment), then re-read the text you typed some time after typing - in half an hour or an hour, switching for some other business.

Proper business correspondence. Important Details

Attention to detail in the conduct and execution of business correspondence speaks of respect and saves time

7. Don't neglect filling in the "subject" field of the letter . If you are sending your first cold email, the headline can be effective, out of the box, and intriguing. But if your letter is already expected or you have been in correspondence with the recipient for some time, then the subject should be short, clear and concise. This will allow you to quickly find your letter (both for you and the recipient) in the mail if necessary.

8. Long chains of "Re: Re: Re:" give the impression of litter. Do not be afraid to start a new thread with your interlocutor, quote only relevant previous messages (and yes, they need to be "pulled along" if, for example, you are discussing the details of a particular project, agreeing on a budget / prices / service packages and etc. - in this case, quoting is convenient and business etiquette requires it).

9. If the incoming message contains several questions for you, then answer them, quoting each separately. If you are sending a letter with several questions, then use numbering, break the text into paragraphs. Stick to a clear structure.

10. In the body of the letter, comment on all attachments to the message. Sign all files that you attach so that the recipient can immediately receive information about their contents .

11. Signature is a very important detail business letter. In the settings of mail services, you can usually set an automatic signature for all your letters. A well-written signature is equivalent to printing business cards, good business cards. In addition to the name and surname, use the designation of your position, contact details (phone, skype), company logo in the signature. Just as creatively relevant (memorable and associated with the person or company they work for) business cards are considered the best, so the signature can be “with a chip”, indicating your connection with the company or talking about your love for the work you do. For example, some employees of the publishing house "Mann, Ivanov and Ferber" use the additional sentence "Now I'm reading ..." in the signature (and insert the name of the new publisher). Representatives of companies from the field of catering can complete letters with wishes for a “tasty day”, etc. Sometimes such a design of business correspondence should be agreed with the management.

12. For business correspondence, NameWoman strongly recommends having a separate mailing address. It is desirable that it reflects the name of the company or the domain of the company's website, your name (full, without diminutive forms) and your surname. Do not use numbers in the mail name that indicate your age or year of birth. Displaying your position in the mail title is perfectly acceptable, but some people avoid this, as they plan not to change the mailbox, moving up the career ladder.

For sending resumes and similar business letters, you should also not use mailing addresses that are playful or overly creative. Especially if you are an applicant for a serious position in a large company.

business correspondence etiquette

13. The style of business correspondence does not have to be dry. But the seriousness and certain rigor of constructions is a mandatory rule. Give up diminutive suffixes and slang, colloquial expressions.

14. Emoticons can become pitfalls. In the first letters of a business acquaintance, they should not be in principle. With established contact, smiling brackets are still acceptable, but do not overdo it and do not become the initiator of such “cute embellishments” of the letter. Sad and any creative animated emoticons when conducting business correspondence (and especially in situations where you are “from below”) are strictly prohibited.

15. Be sure to use a respectful greeting and address by name, first name and patronymic at the beginning of the letter and further in the text, if appropriate. This is not only required by the ethics of business correspondence, it allows you to increase the interlocutor's interest in your message and loyalty to it. Recipients are always more attentive to address letters, so try to find out in advance the name of the person to whom you should write, and what kind of address he prefers (by first name or first name and patronymic).

According to the rules of business correspondence, in normal cases, a response should be sent within a working day, maximum - two. If you receive a letter in the last hours of the working day before a long weekend or vacation, then you are not required to give a detailed answer to a non-urgent letter. However, according to the etiquette of business correspondence, it would be reasonable to send a short reply that you received the letter and a comment that you are currently away and will respond in detail after such and such a date or no later than such and such a deadline. The same should be done if, in order to answer, you need to clarify any information that you must receive from a third party or by doing a thorough job of collecting data and preparing materials.

In turn, if you need a response letter from the interlocutor, then you can duplicate your request after 3 working days. If you need an urgent response, then correctly write about it already in your first letter (explaining the reasons, if possible), asking also for confirmation of its receipt. By the way: check your spam folder regularly (once every three days).

And a little more about what a beautiful business letter looks like. Registration of business correspondence

The letter should be easy to read and easy to understand. Short sentences, a minimum of participial and participle turns - simple constructions - this is the basis of business correspondence. What else will help you present the perfect sample letter according to all the rules?

16. Paragraphs in your correspondence should be no longer than 7-10 lines.

17. The text of a business letter will be perceived better and look neater if the intervals between paragraphs are greater than the intervals between lines in one paragraph.

19. Words, and even more so phrases and whole sentences, written in capital letters are perceived as shouting, pressure and disrespect. For business correspondence, this style is not available. Do not allow yourself this even if you are a boss who is dissatisfied with his subordinates.

Business courtesy and networking

20. Allow the interlocutor to agree to your proposal, reflect their opinion, give you advice, leave a comment or ask a question. The easiest way to do this is to use the phrases “what do you think about this?”, “if you have any questions, I will try to answer them”, “write me about your decision” in the letter.

21. Be attentive to the signals coming from the addressee. Pay attention to the writing style of your interlocutor, to how he addresses you. Remember the psychological rule of the mirror. It's great if your letter reflects his style (but not misspelled, of course). If he mentions any personal information, take note of it. Be polite and correct, reflecting joy, sympathy, participation, congratulating on the holidays.

22. Speaking of holidays. If your business correspondence takes place around the dates of official holidays, then congratulate the interlocutor on the past / upcoming ones. Important clients and those with whom you maintain a lengthy business correspondence according to the rules of etiquette should be congratulated in a separate letter. It will be useful to know when your interlocutor has a birthday - this information is usually easy to get from social networks.

Manage your individual client base and professional contact base. In addition to last names and first names, positions and phone numbers, links to accounts in social networks and email, write down personal data, mark projects and issues on which you have already crossed paths in business correspondence.

23. The ethics of business correspondence and elementary courtesy say: do not forget about the words of gratitude. For congratulations, advice, clarifications, invitations, informational notes, prompt response from your interlocutor in business correspondence.

Milena Just

Success in the activities of any organization, commercial firm or enterprise is inextricably linked with a culture of behavior and etiquette. All actions of the manager, employees must certainly take into account the rules of good taste and correspond to the situation.

One of the most important parts of etiquette is business correspondence.

It is estimated that almost 50% of the time at work falls on familiarity with papers and mail. But this is necessary, since competent business correspondence can significantly increase the company's turnover, speed up the interaction of different services and departments.

Of course, there are certain patterns here, and they will definitely be discussed in this article. The rules of business correspondence have long been standardized. The existing GOST R.6.30-2003 will help to correctly place the text on the sheet, tell you what indents, margins, fonts to make. Business correspondence is characterized by the uniformity and repetition of speech turns.

However, every letter is different. A big imprint on it is left by the identity of the sender, his position, situation and addressee. To some extent, business correspondence is a combination of creativity and painstaking work.

Types of business correspondence

Document flow is carried out on paper and via e-mail.

All correspondence in the enterprise can be conditionally divided into the following groups:

Official / unofficial correspondence;

Internal and external.

Official correspondence includes commercial offers, letters of thanks and guarantees, trade agreements, orders for the enterprise, job responsibilities, requests, requirements, claims.

Informal correspondence is various congratulations of business partners, customers, employees; condolences, apologies, invitations and thanks.

Internal documents circulate only between departments of one enterprise, while external documents go beyond it.

Business Correspondence Rules: Inside Content

The main requirement is brevity and capacity of the letter. Do not stretch the text over several pages. Your best bet is to stick with one.

The rules of business correspondence involve the exclusion of complex, incomprehensible, foreign and highly specialized words and expressions from the text. All sentences should be short, with the main thoughts of the author and without "water".

Avoid double interpretations in the letter, otherwise, if disputes arise, it will be more difficult to defend your point of view and prove what you meant by a certain phrase.

The rules of registration of business correspondence oblige the writer to call the addressee by name and patronymic, before which to indicate the appeal "Dear (s) ...". And always on "You", even if the recipient of the letter has a good friendly relationship.

In the introduction, in addition to indicating the surname and name, the main purpose of the message is prescribed. Examples of business correspondence know enough templates and stamps for such cases: “In connection with the previous letter ...”, “We remind you ...”, “We inform you ...” and others.

Soften the answer that is unfavorable for the recipient (refusal of the offer, refusal of cooperation) with the phrases: “Unfortunately, we will not be able to use the proposed conditions ...” or similar.

External paperwork documentation

Any business letter must be written on company letterhead with company details and all contact details.

Be sure to enter the exact date of the document.

The upper right corner of the sheet is occupied by the initials of the addressee and the address of the recipient company.

Break the text into semantic paragraphs so that it is easier for the reader to understand and perceive it. No more than 4-5 lines.

Writing all words in capital (capital) letters is a bad form.

Documents may be attached to the letter. In this case, they are listed on a separate line in the lower left part of the sheet. As a matter of business etiquette, a response to a letter must be received within 10 days. If the problem requires more time to solve it, the addressee must notify about it.

After writing, be sure to carefully check the text again for errors, both spelling and grammatical. If you have time, you should put the letter aside and return to it again later. As a rule, inaccuracies will be discovered that were not noticed at first. This advice is most important when responding to a customer complaint. You should not annoy a person even more with an illiterate letter.

When the document is written and checked a couple of times, print it out on A4 paper. This size is standardly used for any correspondence, even if the text itself takes up only half of the page.

Check the ink in the printer before printing to avoid smudges and sloppiness.

In some cases, you can attach your business card to the document, and attach the printed sheet itself to a transparent file.

A corporate envelope with the company logo is also considered good form.

The rules for conducting business correspondence in an informal plane are often more emotional than in business papers, and less stamped. Abbreviations are appropriate here, the use of colorful adjectives, for example, in congratulations: amazing, sympathetic, kind.

business emails

The fact that you do not send correspondence in an envelope through the postal network should not relax. The rules of business correspondence apply in these cases as well.

Competent and correct electronic business messages create a positive image of both the enterprise and the individual. Reputation in business is worth a lot!

Basic rules for e-mail correspondence

Use your work email address only for its intended purpose.

Pay attention to the name of the mailbox. Do not allow incorrect names such as "baby", "superman" when working, even if they are indicated in the English transcription.

Always fill in the "subject" column, otherwise your letter may end up in spam. Descriptions like "plan", "list", "offer", "report" will not work. There may be quite a lot of similar letters in your recipient's mailbox. Be as specific as possible about what your message is about. Do not use more than five words. Write the subject with a capital letter. You don't need to put a dot at the end.

If you are replying to an email you received earlier, be sure to remove the "Re" in the subject line.

Communication style

Keep the business letter format. Remove the threatening, begging, commanding tone.

The rules of electronic business correspondence do not allow the use of emoticons, a large number of question or exclamation marks in the text.

Be polite. A mandatory greeting at the beginning and farewell to the interlocutor at the end is a good form. For example, "With respect ..." or like this: "Sincerely yours ...".

Business e-mail and its "golden rule": do not mix several different topics in one message. It is better to send a series of letters.

An email should be twice as short as a paper one.

Working with attachments

If there is too much information to send, do not put it all in the body of the letter, but attach it as separate documents in an attachment.

For the convenience of the recipient, rename the documents you have prepared to names that are understandable to him. This will show your interest and win you over. Think about how many working folders the recipient has on his computer and how he will search for your letter among them.

Be sure to tell the recipient about the files you are sending so that he does not consider them an accidental virus. Archive large documents.

And it is best to send too large attachments (from 200 kb) in other ways, for example, via an ftp server.

Format such as COM, EXE, CMD, PIF and a number of others, some mail servers do not allow and block.

If there were several recipients of your letter, do not be too lazy to delete all evidence of mass forwarding each time. Such extra information is not needed by the addressee at all. The "blind copy" command will help you.

The rules for conducting business correspondence by e-mail involve informing the second party about the receipt of correspondence. If at the moment it is not possible to answer, notify the interlocutor about this. Save the history of correspondence to avoid further questions and proceedings.

If the response is important and urgent, it is allowed to additionally notify the addressee by phone, Skype or ICQ. If even after this a positive result could not be achieved, remind yourself again.

It is not uncommon for a request for a document to return an empty letter with an attached file. It is unacceptable. Examples of business correspondence require the mandatory placement of relevant information in the body of the document. For example, this: "I am sending the necessary data to your request."

Do not forget to indicate the coordinates at the end of the letter: all available means of communication, position, company website, links to social networks.

When writing the contacts of the organization, give as much information as possible - a phone number with an area code, an address with a zip code. After all, your communication takes place not only with the inhabitants of your region. If you have all the data, it will be easier to contact you.

And the last rule: whoever started the correspondence must end the electronic dialogue.

Conclusion

Business writing is a delicate matter. Sometimes one glance is enough to form a definite opinion about a person and the organization he represents. Knowing the rules of business writing can go a long way in your career.