Professional Email Writing – An Integral Part Of Project Management

“What you write shows your personality!” This is why professional email writing is given a greater importance in communication. Daily you have to interact with your colleagues, your seniors or your clients by emails. You can have a good impression of yours on all of them with a simple yet excellent email.

Let’s learn how professional email writing can help:

Who will bother to read such an email? Almost everyone will try to avoid reading these types of emails. The email does not have proper paragraphs, proper indentation, proper presentation, etc.

Here is the recipe for a bad email:

1. Long texts
2. Grammatical errors
3. Spelling mistakes
4. Incorrect names
5. Wrong emoticons
6. Lack of greetings
7. Poor fonts

All these things will cook up a perfect ‘Bad Email.’ This would have given you a clear idea of what are bad emails and what is the importance professional email writing. Let’s take a look at the major six parts of an email.

Major six parts of an email:

1. Subject
2. Greetings
3. Intro / Rapport Building
4. Body
5. Conclusion
6. Signature

1. Subject

The subject is the first statement of yours that a receiver will read. Make sure you write a perfect one and to the point. Below given are the points you need to keep in mind while writing a subject.

• Be precise
• Mention clearly what you want to convey
• Make sure, your subject line is relevant to the content inside the email.
• Mark a priority/importance if required

Examples:

• “Update regarding XYZ functionality”
• “Conclusion of the research we did”
• “Suggestions to move further on the project”
• “Ticket XY solved and it is working well”
• “URGENT: The site is down, need credentials”
• “IMPORTANT: Login credentials for your website”

2. Greetings

This is the area in professional email writing where you can have a positive image of yourself on the reader. Greet people well and make sure you greet them right. Greetings can be done as below:

• Hello Dennis,
• Hey Dennis,
• Good Morning Dennis [Ensure you are considering the time zone of the reader]

Adding an extra line helps you in rapport building with your reader. You can add something like the ones mentioned below:

• Hope you are doing good!
• Hope this email finds you in a good health
• Hope you had a great weekend
• It was nice having a chat with you yesterday
• It was a good productive conversation yesterday
• It was a pleasure talking to you yesterday
• Hope the previous functionality we developed is working well. [Before writing make sure it is working well 😉 ].

3. Introduction

Explain the purpose of email in one line or maximum two lines. This should not be same as the subject. Follow the DRY – Do Not Repeat Yourself concept here. Below given examples can help you make a good introductory paragraph.

• I am writing this email to….
• I wanted to draw your attention towards….
• I want to touch base about….
• I noticed your company recently… [For a new project]
• I was curious to know about… [Want to ask something]

4. Body

Here comes the major part of the email. You can convey the whole message here. While drafting the body for your email, keep in mind the following things.

• In the first para extend your intro part
• Make sure you make small, readable paragraphs
• Make points with numbers, not bullets [Strictly no bullets]
• While suggesting multiple options always mention:
  “Option A”, “Option B”, “Option C” or “Solution A”, “Solution B”, “Solution C”.

This will help you use these phrases to refer a particular point through the email.

Make the reader feel you are eager to work:

You can use the phrases or statements mentioned below:

• “Sure we will do this.”
• “Yes, this can be done.”
• “If XYZ is the requirement it would be a pleasure working on this.”
• “It would be an honor working on this project.”

Show your dedication:

• “We’ve researched it and came to a conclusion that….”
• “After a good brainstorming session, we came to a conclusion that…”

Ask for their opinions wherever necessary

• “Please share your thoughts on this.”
• “Please let me know if you have a second thought over this.”
• “Please take a look and share your views over this.” [Generally, for attachment or an external link]

Make them realize what extra you are giving:

• “While I was researching on this, I realized that XYZ could be an extra feature that we will add from our side.”
• “While brainstorming, we found that this extra feature might help you / make your work easy”.

Suggest well, be decisive and always give other options

• “I suggest to go with option A, however, if there is a need to go with Option B, sure, we can!”
• “I suggest to go this way, however, I would love to discuss more ideas if you have.”

Keeping these things in mind will help you draft a better body for your email. Make sure you never sound rude or sound bossy over your reader.

5. Conclusion:

Conclusion for an email is different than the conventional conclusions. Here it is not necessary to summarize the whole email in short. Here you can write an action-oriented statement, wherein you ask your reader to take some action.

Examples:

• “Awaiting for your response”
• “Please share your thought over this”
• “Let me know if there is something more interesting to discuss on this topic.”
• “Let me know if I can help you out more on this.”

6. Signature:

Signature is an important part in professional email writing. It symbolizes you, so make sure you prepare them well. You need to write your name, position, address, contact details, your photograph and your social media links.

Preparing only text based signature may look poor on your emails. Just like the below one.

Now, take a look at the below given graphical signatures.

Keep these points in mind while preparing your signature:

• Should mention every necessary detail with appropriate links.
• Use social media icons instead of long links
• If you use your photograph (recommended), make sure it is original.
• Do not forget to link the official website & FB page

Key Points To Note For Professional Email Writing:

1. Keep the tone of your email personal, friendly, helpful, informative and professional

2. Make sure that you address the recipient by their right title and spelling of name!

3. In initial emails with a new person avoid short forms like PFA, FYI.

Date – Time

1. Double check dates, time and verify the time zones.

2. While mentioning time, make sure you mention the time zone like IST, EST, etc. Prefer specifying the time zone of the client.

Final Touch To Your Email

• Highlight the portion that is important and gives subheadings wherever possible. This makes it more readable.
• Proofread, check with GRAMMARLY (Chrome Extension).
• Read it as if you were speaking to someone, you will notice your mistakes.

This is how you can draft a professional email to your colleague, your seniors or your clients. Drafting a proper email will help you build a good image of yourself on the reader.