How to write a professional email

How to write a Professional email?

A well-crafted professional email normally gains immediate attention of the recipient and chances of a positive outcome is largely high. There are a few important things you should know before sending a professional email.

       1. Are you sending a cold email

       2. If you know the recipient and recipient know you

1. Cold Email

Cold email is an email sent to a potential customer that has had no prior relationship with you. It could also be defined as the email equivalent of cold calling. You can compare cold calling to door to door sales of earlier times which was then the popular way of marketing.

Some countries like the United States have email regulations which attract fine up to $16000 if it falls into the specified spam categories. You must ensure that your cold emails are not falling in the category of spam email.

Cold Emails gets less attention if it is not properly drafted. You must consider the following points before sending a cold email.

              a.  Whom you want to write.

              b.  What are their needs and expectations?

              c.  Are you addressing your email to the right person?

              d.  Proper Subject Line.

              e.  How you are addressing the person.

               f.  Proper Sign-off

              g.  And of course, check whether the email address is correct or not

      Three things which need explanations are:

I. How to understand Needs and expectation

      Ask a few questions as mentioned below to yourself and you will get the answers for sure.

• What type of Industry/Market they are from?

• How our product or services are going to meet their needs?

• What additional services customers might need?

Your email will be more effective if you know the answers of all the above three questions. Sometimes you may need to customize your email suiting to your customer type and prioritizing the contents pertaining to the customer’s requirement than the other irrelevant things.

II. How to address the person

Any email which is not addressed properly will go into the deleted item box of recipient’s email system. Wrong addressing probably will hurt ego, emotions, sentiments etc of the recipient. Following points may be noted before addressing the email to your recipient:

It will be a good idea if you catch the attention of your recipient by including specific about them in your email. Nothing gives more attraction than addressing us by the name. 

You can address the recipient with a simple “Hi” followed by his/her First name followed by a greeting like “Good Morning !”, “Greetings from XYZ Co !” etc.

You can also address by calling Mr. or Ms. if you know the gender of the recipient. It would be a good idea to avoid addressing Mrs.

The body of the email shall be properly drafted by considering the points mentioned above like the recipient’s need and expectation, prioritizing his area of requirement etc.

III. Sign-off

As you started the email with a greeting, it is obvious to end with a goodbye. This is the place where you can try to build the trust and show your sentiment. Normally we sign-off by writing “Best regards”, “Thanks and Regards”. But if you are emailing to a stranger, please try the following :

• Looking forward to meeting you

• Looking forward to a mutually satisfied business association

• Looking forward to hearing from you

• Eager to work with you etc

2. If you know the recipient and recipient know you

If you and recipient know each other, it is easy to communicate. You can address the recipient based on his designation or as per your understanding. If he/she is very senior to you, you can address by calling "Dear Sir / Madam", if he is of your hierarchy level, you may call just as “Dear Sara/Sam” etc. You can sign off by saying “Thanks”, “Regards” etc.

In the end, you should have your signature mentioning your name, designation, company name, and contact number

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