If you spend a lot of time texting or using social media, you are probably used to writing quickly. You may also use abbreviations and short forms, such as BTW for “by the way” or simply the letter “u” for “you.” And then there are emojis, which are fun and even practical in personal communication.
But these shortcuts have no place in business e-mails, according to U.S. career coach and productivity expert Carson Tate. “You may not realize it, but you might be e-mailing in a way that makes you look immature and unprofessional,” Tate writes in her blog. Here are some of her tips for writing e-mails that will impress your business partners.
Watch the emojis
In fact, don’t use them at all unless you know your business partner well. “E-mail often lacks context,” Tate explains. “People don’t always know how to interpret a message when it’s just words on a screen, rather than spoken by a person they can see and hear. “Humor and sarcasm doesn’t always come off well, especially if you haven’t spent a lot of face-to-face time with the people you’re e-mailing,” she adds.
But I really, really need an emoji!
No, you don’t, Tate says. “If you think that a section with an emoji is absolutely necessary, ask yourself: Should you really be communicating this over e-mail? You should maybe pick up the phone instead of sending that e-mail,” she advises. “That will give the recipient more context based on your tone of voice, etc.”
Be careful who you cc
You want your colleague or someone from another department to support you on a project, but you think the other person will be reluctant to help. Should you cc your boss or your colleague’s manager? Probably not, says Tate. “Carbon copying (cc’ing) a third party on an outgoing e-mail to a coworker or work associate can be passive aggressiveness at its finest,” she writes. “When you think about it, this is similar to what you did as a teenager: manipulating your parents by playing them against each other. You did it because you thought it was the best way to get something you wanted.”
Surely, you remember me…
Don’t expect your business partner to recognize your name, Tate warns. “Even if you just met the e-mail recipient yesterday, you never know what that person has going on in their life,” she writes. “If someone doesn’t remember who you are, they will delete your e-mail immediately. At the beginning of your e-mail, tell your recipient who you are and where you met them. Give them concrete details that jog their memories and open them up to whatever you have to say.”