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Writing and sending out an email is one of the easiest ways to instantly communicate with either individuals or groups of people within the company. This is why efficient businesses all over the world regularly correspond with each other, their customers and other companies, which with they work using email. Although you usually want to send out your messages as quickly as possible, it’s best to take your time to ensure that the emails adhere to the unspoken etiquette rules of email writing. If you often use email at work, take a look at these tips that should help any entrepreneur to develop the proper business etiquette for writing emails.

Subject Lines

Make sure that you are using a short, yet descriptive subject line for your email in order to give the recipient an idea of what’s inside. If you don’t input a subject line, some of the email recipients may not even open the message without knowing what it is about. Adding a subject line also lets you draw attention to certain time sensitive information or other important matters. As a matter of fact, an editorial in the business section of The Huffington Post actually compares the subject line of your email to the headlines in a newspaper. The article also provides a few examples of effective business email subject lines.

Salutations

You always want to start off your email with a proper salutation to set a professional tone. For example, begin emails you send early in the day with “ Good Morning” followed by the correct title (Mr. Mrs. Ms.) and his or her name. If sending the email to a group, you could instead address them by writing “Good Morning All”. Keep in mind that you’ll also want to end your email with sign-off phrases such as “Sincerely”, “Best Regards” or simply “Thank You”.

Fonts

Remember that the font you use in your email is a direct representation of you or your business. This is why you want to make it a point to use a professional font that is easy for your email recipients to read. Stay away from bubble letters, cartoon fonts and squiggly ones too. Instead opt for a sleek standard font such as Times New Roman, Arial or Sans Serif.

Formatting

It’s best to refrain from using any type of formatting within the body of your business emails. This is because most formatting or embedded images in emails often get flagged by spam filters and you of course don’t want your emails to end up being delivered to spam folders. Not to mention, people use all kinds of devices to check their emails so you don’t necessarily know if your message will be easy for everyone to read.

Email Addresses

One of the biggest mistakes you could make when sending out business emails is to use your personal email address that may not be so professional. It’s important that you use an email address that displays your professional name so the recipients know who the emails are from. To give you or your business an added boost of professionalism, you should set up an email using your website’s extension. For example, instead of using a Gmail or AOL email address, you could set one up that is your name @ your website.com.

Proofreading

Before you send your business email out, you’ll surely want to make sure that there are absolutely no spelling or grammar mistakes within the content. To do this, it’s a good idea to thoroughly proofread your email prior to pressing ‘send’. Don’t forget to also use the spell check feature of your email writing program to check for common spelling mistakes. Just keep in mind that the spell check is based on general language rules, so it isn’t necessarily always correct. If you have a coworker or business partner who is experienced in proofreading, why not have him or her give your really important emails a final look over to point out any spelling or grammar errors.

As you can see, there’s a great deal that goes into writing professional business emails. Next time you’re drafting an email to send to your business partners, employees or customers, remember to refer to this basic guideline of business etiquette for writing emails.