The way you structure your email matters. It not only makes it easier to read and understand but also reveals you as a professional in the interlocutor’s eyes. There are some essential parts of the business introduction email you should stick to:
According to Convince & Convert, 33% of people decide whether to open an email or not based on a subject line. An effective subject line performs the below-mentioned functions:
Mentioning the subject line “Request for a Quick Call with our Sales Manager,” we can refer to the following business email example, offered by SuperOffice:
- It may evoke interest in the email’s content.
A subject line can help you attract the recipient’s attention in the inbox overwhelmed with emails and motivate him/her to open yours. In a subject line, you can mention a solution that may be useful for a receiver like in this example: “ECommerce owner? We know how to grow your eCommerce business.”
You can also make a subject sound humorous, but once again, don’t overdo it! Good examples are here:
“Please Touch Me! Get Enterprise Delight via Multitouch” (Multitouch)
“Deals That Make Us Proud (Unlike Our Nephew, Steve)” (Groupon)
- It helps get your email prioritized in the inbox.
A subject line can motivate a recipient to prioritize the email because of its urgency. You can see it in the following subject line examples: “Requesting A Business Meeting On Wednesday,” “Last Call To Join Our Conference: Free Coffee, Bad Apples & the Future of Currency.”
* Subject line tips for a business email
1. Keep it short and sweet.
Laconic subject lines are more likely to trigger an email opening. Keep in mind that people often check their inbox via their mobile phones, so make sure you optimized a subject line (as well as the email itself) to mobile. Subject lines over 25-30 characters are truncated if you scan an email on mobile.
2. Keep it catchy, but don’t promise anything you can’t offer.
If people see the title “Apples,” they expect to see at least one apple inside. So, don’t cheat by saying something in the subject line that does not actually correspond to the email content. Otherwise, you risk losing the recipient’s trust.
3. Avoid filler words.
Your space is limited. Use it wisely!
4. Don’t overdo punctuation and caps.
Capital letters are often associated with a feeling that somebody is shouting at you. Nobody likes to be shouted at. Excessive punctuation, as well as all caps, may look amateurish and trigger spam filters, so be cautious using them.
5. Use the below-mentioned principles to motivate people to open an email.
People open emails with subject lines that include curiosity, urgency, offers, personalization, relevance and timeliness, cool stories, and name recognition. Using phrases that express these concepts, you can significantly increase your email opening rates.
Start an email like a pro
Are you sure that you know how to start a business email competently? The secret lies in a nice salutation. You can use informal greetings like “Hi” or “Hello” with a recipient’s first name if you know this person well and communicate regularly.
If you need to make your business introduction email sound formal, use the first name followed by a surname. In case you don’t know a name at all, you can refer a person using “Sir/Madam” or the name of the department (like “Editorial Department”).
Write the email body like a marketer. Find the right approach
Smart and unobtrusive marketing should flow in your blood when you are writing a body for your business email. Try to evoke the recipient’s interest when explaining the purpose of your email in the most concise way possible.
Be empathetic and put yourself in the recipient’s shoes. Imagine you are a very busy person who has received someone’s email. What do you expect to see inside?
First of all, you expect an email to be as short and clear as possible. Likely, you don’t have much time to read it. You want to understand who is writing to you so it is logical to start an email with a short introduction. State your name, job position, the company you’re working for, the place where you’ve met, or anything else that would be helpful to let the recipient know who you are and why he/she should continue reading the email. Don’t talk too much about yourself (2-3 sentences will do).
Further, you wonder why this person is writing to you. When writing the email body, try to move right to the point by announcing the purpose of your letter. We subconsciously understand that the sender values our time if an email is short and very specific. It is very important in business.
In this business email example from NinjaOutreach, you can see how a good body should look:
Close a business email with style
The final sentences above your signature are important. This is the right place to set a kind of emotional connection with a recipient implying further collaboration.
The email closing should be genuine and realistic. You can wish a person something pleasant on your part. And you also can use a call to action letting the reader understand how he/she should respond to your email. Don’t assume that people understand by default what the next step is.
Don’t forget about a digital signature below the closing remark. Better to follow a specific template including the common closing phrase (like “Best Regards,” “Kindest Regards,” “Best Wishes”) and contact information (full name, title and company, website, phone number, and email address).
Here is a good digital signature example:
Business Email Format: Rules And Recommendations
The details of the email, such as font, text size, alignment, etc., really matter. I hope that these business email format tips will be helpful to you:
- Try to break your text into shorter paragraphs, lists, and bullet points to streamline information. Apply headings 1, 2, and 3 to distinguish the concepts and make it easier to perceive an email. To emphasize important text, you can also use text in bold. It catches the reader’s eye and makes it easier to scan the email. Italics is a bit softer way to bring emphasis to a certain area of text.
- When it comes to font, San Serif is the best option since it is easy to read on-screen. Gmail uses Sans Serif as the default. It is an element of the email classics, as well as the left-text alignment.
- Make the text size no less than 12 to ensure that it’s well-readable, even on small screens.
- Don’t insert any pictures, as it immediately creates the feeling of getting a promotional email. The exception can be a conceptual letter where the image is an integral part of the message.
- Better to avoid multiple colors in the email text and underlined phrases as they may be easily confused for links.
- The choice of an email hosting services provider also plays a crucial role in effective business communication.
Here’s an excellent business email example with a proper format created by Vijay Khandekar, a growth marketer at SERPed.net, that you can learn from:
Conclusion
The business world is busy and overwhelmed with emails. It means that your letter is under tough competition with others who likely are sending similar requests in their emails. So, to stand out and struggle for the recipient’s attention, you should know how to write a business email that will reveal you as a polished professional and can help you make a deal.
In this article, I overviewed the proven practices on how to start a business email, how to write an effective and unobtrusive email body, how to close a business email, and important formatting rules that might be helpful to you on the way to establishing clear and effective business communication.
And what are your most efficient business introduction email writing techniques? Share your experience with our community.
