E-mail has become a major means of communication for most of us. For e-mail usage to be productive and meaningful, we need to adhere to some etiquette. Below is my compilation of some e-mail best practices.
Response Time
It is professional courtesy to acknowledge receipt of emails in a timely manner. Always try to reply within 24 hours. If unable to reply within 48 hours, do send a short note like “looking into the matter and will get back to you soon” to inform the sender that the email was received and noted.
Subject Line
Subject Line should be unique and meaningful. Let the recipient know at first glance what this email is about.
E-mail Topic
Only discuss one topic per email. This way emails can be filed properly.
CC (Carbon Copy) and BCC (Blind Carbon Copy)
Use CC to courteously show with confidence who you have copied the e-mail to. Use BCC to prevent everybody from seeing everybody else’s e-mail address when e-mailing to a group.
Chain Letters
You may enjoy chain letters, but people are busy and do not have the time to participate in such schemes.
Virus warnings
Verify with reputable antivirus websites before sending out virus warnings. Although people appreciate real virus warnings, they do not appreciate hoaxes.
Virus Protection
Please have some form of antivirus on your computer. You will be the partner in crime if your computer or e-mail program is being used for criminal activities.
Email Signature
Include your contact information with website and phone numbers in your signature. Most people are using mobile devices to check e-mails these days, so do not include unnecessary graphics to clutter up the small screen. Graphics signatures were cool in the past, but as the Internet matures, simplicity is the best practice.
Forwarding
Forward only appropriate text; so clean up and remove anything that isn’t necessary.
White List
To avoid legitimate e-mails from going to the spam folder, always whitelist addresses you would receive e-mails from.
E-mail Subscription
Record your e-mail subscriptions to better manage them.
When you report spam on emails received from your subscriptions, you are sabotaging the sender’s sending reputation, which in time will cause the sender’s email delivery rate to go down.