Formal emails can be useful in a multitude of ways. Most of the times you write
such an email when you need to contact someone who you are unfamiliar with or
who is in some way higher in the social hierarchy. It is preferably used in business,
politics, or while negotiating something in general. The question is how to write a
formal email that yields the results? As some people might struggle to write such an
email, we are going to discuss the best practices that will help you to avoid
mistakes and be professional.
Formal email format
A good idea is to divide your formal email into paragraphs to make it easy to
comprehend. Consistency in formatting is a must and you should avoid typos and
grammatical errors at all costs, especially when it comes to people's names. A
sloppy email full of errors is not something you are aiming for.
The first step is to use a clear and concise subject line. Not using the subject line at
all is a big mistake as it may be ruled out as a spam. You should provide general
information about your inquiry while keeping it reasonably long. A good example
might be.
Required staff meeting - November 11th, 10:15 am
As you can see it gives you the necessary information, while not overbearing the
recipient.
Another very important part is the salutation. It should address the person you are
writing to. In cases you do not know, it is fine to use a something general, such as:
“To whomever it may concern.” In any case, try to avoid informal greetings such as
“Hey” or similar.
Our first real paragraph might be called introduction and you should provide the
reader basic information about yourself and briefly elaborate on the topic. Such as
what will be the staff meeting be about. Let us say you wanted to call a staff
meeting about current product margins.
Next comes the body of the email. It is our second paragraph and here you should
provide all the necessary background information. You will assign tasks here
regarding the margins and provide any further information. Basically, this part of
your formal email is meant to explain why are you writing in the first place and
possibly answer all the questions that your recipients may have; such as the
location of the meeting and the estimated duration of the meeting.
Closing is the last part and should be treated with high attention to detail as it is the
last thing your recipients see and can leave a lasting impression. It is a very good
idea to have a consistent and professional email signature. You can check our blog
for further information.
Formal email these days
We would like to show you here how using eM Client, can be beneficial to your work
and routines. In case you are using formal emails on a regular basisregularly, it is a
good idea to set up a template, so you always have a message prepared in advance
that you can just quickly edit. Templates can be created in Menu > Settings >
Mail > Templates and Signatures. You can also add and edit your email
signature here. eM Client can serve as a full stacked text editor, so your templates
or signatures can be adjusted to your liking. Also, it can automatically check your
messages for possible errors. Therefore, proofreading becomes a breeze. No matter
the task, eM Client is here to assist to always leave a good impression.