E-mail is, at first glance, the ideal means of communication within the company.
It is much faster and more convenient than endless phone calls or walking from desk to desk, from floor to floor. It would seem that there is nothing difficult to write a letter, but many people forget about the obvious rules of business correspondence.
How do I write letters?
The oldest mail transfer agent, Sendmail, conducted a study in which it was found that business messages often cause rejection, tension, clutter and other negative effects at work for 64% of employees. How can you avoid this effect and set up corporate correspondence?
The average office worker receives about 80 emails a day. With this volume, there is a chance of missing out on individual important messages. Here are a few rules of corporate correspondence which, if followed, will ensure that your e-mail will not be lost and will not cause a negative reaction.
Don’t abuse e-mail
A large number of e-mails takes up valuable time. Help those around you: before you write another email, stop and ask yourself how necessary it is. Sometimes a phone call works more effectively than endless emails.
Don’t forget about security! Don’t share confidential or personal information.
It’s better to give bad news in person than a callous reply. Be aware of intonation – you can misinterpret the tone of the sender when reading. In face-to-face communication, you can always smooth things over and explain yourself.
Write normal headlines
The subject line should be clear and informative, appropriate to the content. Write it briefly and succinctly. If you’re sending a weekly project report, you might want to include the date as well – so the recipient can search or sort your messages with ease.
A well-written subject line gives the recipient all the important information, so the email is handled efficiently without the recipient opening the email.
Example of a bad subject line:
Subject: Meeting
Example of a good subject line:
Subject: Scheduled meeting at 10 a.m. Feb. 25, 2021
If you are sending a very short message, put it entirely in the subject line. Use the abbreviation “KS” (end of message) so that the recipient understands that all the information is contained in the subject line. Of course, this only works if the recipient is aware of the meaning of the abbreviation
Example:
Subject: Please send a sales report for February. Thank you! CS
Write concisely and succinctly
Structure your message, write to the point and as concisely as possible to make your business correspondence effective. Don’t make the recipient suffer and wade through the maze of complicated sentences and jumping from one topic to another.
For large companies, it’s a good idea to institute rules for corporate email correspondence. Email organization should be direct and informative – optimize.
If you are writing to one person, but touching on several different topics, it is better to write on each topic separately. That way it will be easier for the recipient to absorb the information and write a response on each subject.
A bad example:
Subject: Changes for the sales report
Mark, Good afternoon!
Thanks for sending that report last week. I read it yesterday and it seems to me that the second table needs
more definitive information about our sales volumes. I think the tone could have been more formal.
Also, I wanted to let you know that I have scheduled a meeting with the public relations department this Friday
regarding the new advertising campaign.
It will take place at 11:00 in the small conference room.
Please let me know if you can make it on time.
Thank you!
Alex
Good example:
Subject: Changes for the sales report
Mark, good afternoon!!!
Thanks for the previous report. It seems to me that the second table should include the exact amount of our sales.
The tone of the report should be more formal.
Please make changes accordingly.
Thank you for your work!
Alex
It is important to find a balance, because bombarding someone with dozens of letters is not reasonable, sometimes it is easier to combine several close topics into one. Make a list of points, well-organized information is easier to digest.
Be polite
People think emails can be less formal than traditional emails. There is a certain ethic to corporate correspondence that reflects your professionalism, values and attention to detail. Unequivocally, formality is necessary.
Informal language and slang can only be used to address fellow friends who are sure to understand you correctly. Smiley faces in work correspondence are acceptable, but ideally only with those you know well.
When talking to a person in person, it’s easy to understand what they mean because we can read body language, tone, and see facial expressions. An email takes that away from us, so it’s important to eliminate the chance of being misunderstood.