Effective Email Communication Tips

Today email is primary medium of communication for most of us. Whether it is business or personal, communicating via email is both effective and also efficient. Email is used for wide variety of purposes like communicating with your office colleagues, with your friends, with your business partners, customers, sending out e-newsletters, business magazines, etc. Most of the time we do not give much importance to email etiquette which is very important to build the lasting relationship with others.  

Here are few tips for effective email communication: 

1. Write in a good mood: First and foremost thing you need to keep in mind is never write an email when you are angry, frustrated or in bad mood. Writing or replying a mail when you are in this mood will not help you to respond rightly but also reflect this in your email from your words. This will cause the reader to have a bad impression of you. Always write or reply to a email when you are good mood, this will stimulate your brain to think right and efficient.
   
   
2. Use the right Subject line: Always use the relevant subject line for your email. Never use a subject like ‘Hi’, ‘Hello’ or other general words which does not convey the essence of your mail in few simple words. Also do not send a mail with no subject as this will not give any idea of your mail to the reader and he needs to open it to find the contents of it. This will not only wastes his time but also sometimes annoys him. Use only few words as subject relevant to your email purpose from which the user must get a little idea of what the mail is about and its priority.
   
   
3. Body or Content: Ensure the content is relevant, straight forward and simple. Use right salutation for addressing your readers. You may use Hi (Firstname) or Hi (Mr.Lastname) or Dear (Firstname) or Dear (Mr.Lastname) for addressing the person reading your email depending upon how well you know. For business purposes, keep it professional, by using Hi or Dear (Mr.Lastname). Provide the links where appropriate so that the user can click those links to read and learn more. Do not write long emails as readers will most probably don’t like to read long emails. Try not to put any graphics in the body of the email as some email providers on the reader’s computer do not support embedding graphic images with in the email. Once you are done writing the email, re-read it and check for grammar and spelling mistake. Use a spell checker, if needed. Most of time, it is built in the email software you use.
   
   
4. Attachments:Most of the organizations have some limit on the size of the attachments as this will eat up their email server space. So ensure you do not send big attachments and if possible use some file compression software like Winzip to compress the files on your computer before attaching them to your emails. Also some organizations do not allow some kind of attachments due to fear of viruses. So, in addition to compressed files, it is a good idea to provide them a link to download them in case the email software strips the attachments you have sent. Ensure you do not upload any viruses via attachments.
   
   
5. Signature: Your signature represents you and/or your organization. So, keep it that way. Under your name, write your position in your organization, so that the reader knows with whom he is communicating with. Provide your contact details, if needed. Also provide your email address in the signature as it is not possible sometimes to find your email address from the address you have sent.