10 Useful Tips for Email Writing in Malaysia – Word Philocaly
In our day-to-day communication, we extensively use email, both professionally and personally. At Word Philocaly, we also receive and send massive emails every day. It is a fantastic medium, as long as it is used for the right purposes. For example, sending information to several people simultaneously works well, but it is not efficient when it is used to have a conversation.
Employees spend, on average, a quarter of their working week sending and reading emails. So, it’s time to take a critical look at how email writing or email business writing works!
1. BE CLEAR THE SUBJECT OF YOUR EMAIL WRITING
Ensure that the reader immediately knows what subject this email is about; if you have more than one subject, put this in the subject line. If a customer number or reference number is known, please be so kind as to mention it.
The email programs contain a search function. Naming the suitable topics, therefore, saves a lot of searching.
Good example: Customer number 1234 – Question about a subscription
Bad example: Question?
2. THE RIGHT SALUTATION IN YOUR EMAIL
Today, people in organizations have many different roles. If an email goes to several people, send it to a specific group such as “Dear management” or “Dear members of the project team.”
This way, everyone immediately knows from which role the email should be read, which saves the reader a lot of time to find the proper context. Of course, starting a business email with “Yo!” is out of the question unless you’re applying to a hip-hop record label.
3. PURPOSE OF YOUR EMAIL IN THE FIRST PARAGRAPH
The first paragraph should be immediately apparent for what purpose the content is intended when writing an email. Do you want to inform, convince or require a specific action? An example could be: “With this email, I want to inform you about Project ABC” or “I ask for your help with Project ABC.”
This way, the reader immediately knows what the email writing is about, and you avoid wasting time and causing confusion.
4. USE OF BULLETS IN THE FORM OF NUMBERS
If you use bullet points in an email, use numbers instead of bullet points. This makes referencing in the recipient’s answer a lot easier.
5. A CORRECT EMAIL SIGNATURE
Make sure that the sender can see who the email is from. In any case, make sure that the following contact details are in your signature: your full name, position, name of the company, and contact details such as landline telephone number, mobile number, and possibly a reply email address if this is a general mailbox. If you send something from your mailbox and work part-time, mention this as well.
Nowadays, we also increasingly see a small photo of the sender in the signature of an email. This is a positive addition because it allows digital contact to appear more human. Make sure you have a suitable business photo, preferably in a style that the rest of the company also uses.
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6. ATTACHMENTS IN THE EMAIL
Do not start an email with the sentence “You can find report X in the attachment.” Research has shown that more than 80% open the attachment directly without reading the email. Therefore, only include a reference to the appendix in the last sentence.
Also, indicate the names of the attachments and what the recipient can expect from them. As with the subject line, use clear titles in your attachment. So not “Report” but “Report of outstanding debtors – week 4”. This saves a lot of searching if you need it yourself.
Before sending, make sure you check again whether you have included the promised attachment. Some email programs rightly warn you when you use the word “attachment” in your text, but no attachment is present. It is very unprofessional to send an email with the mention of an attachment but with none of it presents.
7. REVIEW THE TEXT OF YOUR EMAIL
Fortunately, most email programs have a spell check feature but don’t rely on it blindly. Read the email carefully again and look carefully at the sentence structure. Can you manage with fewer words and sentences? Fine, then you should do this immediately.
We also often see colloquialism in emails, which is very unprofessional. Be aware that email communication is different from when you have a face-to-face or telephone conversation with someone. It’s hard to read emotion and sarcasm in the body of an email. Therefore, make sure that your message cannot be misinterpreted.
Also, pay attention to the details: is the font of the text the same? Is it the same color? Do the logos look good? Did you use paragraphs?
8. ADD EMAIL ADDRESSES: TO, CC, AND BCC
Finally, add the email addresses. This ensures that you don’t accidentally send half an email to a person or group.
Also, consider who should receive this email. A big annoyance is when you are added to a group email when you have nothing to do with it; the emails keep coming in.
Do you use multiple email addresses from people outside the organization? Then use the “BCC” function and set your email address to ON. This way, other people can’t see your customers’ email addresses, but they do have the option to respond.
The BCC function is also proper when you inform someone that you have sent a specific message. This way, you prevent that person from being included in all future correspondence.
9. REPLY ALL FUNCTION
A handy feature, when used correctly, is the reply-all function. As mentioned before, no one wants to be in emails they have nothing to do with. Also, be careful if you only want to send an email to one person that you do not use this function but only press reply.
Sound simple? Unfortunately, things go wrong all too often, sometimes with serious consequences.
10. DOUBLE CHECK YOUR EMAIL
Go through the above points one more time to ensure everything is in order. This sounds cumbersome, but it saves a lot of processing time afterward. The recipient will also appreciate your professionalism and respond even faster as a result.
EMAIL WRITING IN MALAYSIA WITH WORD PHILOCALY
At Word Philocaly, we write many emails on behalf of our customers. Not only do we have to deal with our reputation, but more importantly, that of our customers as well. Clear instructions and a checklist are, therefore, part of our procedures. Ready for your next step in your business productivity and effectiveness? Please get in touch with us.
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