5 Tips to Improve Email Etiquette During Business Administration Training

Small gestures make a big difference. That’s why proper email etiquette is so important. It tells the people you work with how professional you are and whether you are somebody who takes their job seriously.

While email etiquette alone is no guarantee that you’ll get a promotion or land new clients, you can be sure that poor email etiquette won’t help. If you want to advance your career, here are some helpful tips you can use after graduation.

1. Say ‘Goodbye’ to Colloquialisms

While you may think that saying ‘Hey’ or ‘What’s up?’ sounds friendly, to colleagues and clients it sounds unprofessional. Keep the language of your emails formal, especially when you don’t know the recipient personally. As your relationship develops, a more casual tone may be appropriate.

Colloquialisms can be particularly damaging to business relationships you may have with people in different countries or who come from different backgrounds. They may consider such familiarity rude or they may simply be confused by a colloquialism that is very specific to North America.

2. Don’t Be the Office Administrator Who Doesn’t Proofread

Nobody enjoys reading an email that is riddled with typos and spelling errors. Such errors send the message to colleagues (and your boss!) that you aren’t professional and perhaps can’t be trusted with new responsibilities. Before you send any email, proofread it at least once and run it through a spell checker. Since proofreading is a learned skill, you should get into the habit of doing it during your business administration training. That way you’ll be a pro at it once you land your new job!

3. Master the Subject Line in Your Business Administration Training

First impressions are everything in business and the first impression your email makes is with its subject line, so don’t treat it as an afterthought. Keep it concise, but also detailed enough that the recipient will know what the email is actually about. For example, if you are sending an email about an upcoming meeting concerning your company’s new hiring strategy, don’t just write ‘Meeting’ as the subject. Instead, try ‘Hiring Strategy Meeting for Thursday.’ And always use proper capitalization and punctuation!

4. Smart Office Administrators Use ‘Reply All’ With Care

Responding promptly to emails is important and it makes you look professional and courteous, but slow down before you hit that ‘Reply All’ button right away! Consider whether the email you are about to send is actually relevant to everybody on the initial recipient list. If not, only send the email to those that need to read it. After all, nobody wants their inbox cluttered with emails that don’t concern them.

5. Create a Professional Signature Block

If you are unfamiliar with some of the more advanced features of email, don’t worry! You’ll learn about them in your business administration classes.

Just as you want to make a great first impression, you also want to make a great final impression. That’s where your signature block comes in handy. Most email applications today allow you to set up a signature block that automatically appears at the end of each email. Your signature block should include your full name, position, contact details, company name, and a website link. However, don’t get carried away as an overly long signature block can come across as self-centered.

Do you feel like your career is in need of a boost?

Contact Anderson College today to learn how our Business Administration Diploma can teach you the skills that businesses are looking for in new employees!