How To Start A Professional Email

Email Opening Lines That Boost Ego

Start with a compliment. Show your admiration for something your email receivers or their businesses accomplished.

Email opening line examples that boost the recipients ego:

• Congratulations on . . .
• I loved your recent . . . . It . Im contacting you regarding . . .
• Im impressed with the way you . . .
• I would be very grateful for your advice on . . .

How To Talk About Covid Rsum Gaps

Whether you got sick, had to take care of your kids after daycare closed, felt unsafe going to your in-person job, or working from home led you to rethink your lifestyle and join the Great Resignation, many peoples jobs were impacted by the pandemic. Plus, by October 2021, there were 4.2 million fewer jobs than there were in February 2020, around the onset of the pandemic, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

In other words, youre definitely not alone, and there may be a silver lining: According to LinkedIn, 79% of hiring managers would hire a candidate with a career gap on their résumé, so it seems the stigma associated with employment gaps is fading.

When it comes to discussing a COVID-related gap, its completely acceptable to say that the gap in your work history is a result of the pandemic. The key is to contextualize that detail with information thats useful to an interviewer. In that way, its just like talking about any other résumé gap, and the tips below will help you understand how best to frame things.

It Helps You Pass The Right Message

A simple, clear and concise start to an email helps to establish a direct communication line between yourself and the recipient eliminating all forms of ambiguity from the beginning and establishing the right connection with the recipient. Furthermore, it allows you to pass the exact message you intend. This is often because the way you start sets the tone and manner which the reader approaches your email with.

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Underlying Reasons For Passive

There are many reasons people communicate passive-aggressively. This type of behavior can arise when someone doesnt feel comfortable or capable of expressing their feelings in an open, honest, straightforward manner. Some people struggle to communicate clearly and directly or dont feel equipped to articulate their feelingsor equipped to articulate them without blowing up.

A person may be unaware that theyre being passive-aggressive. This doesnt mean its OK to be passive-aggressive in the workplace, or elsewhere, but its helpful to understand what might be at the root of the behavior.

The Best Email Opening Lines If You Are In A Formal Mood

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Thank The Recipient If You Are Replying

Your email should start with a line of thank you if you are responding to a clients inquiry. For instance, if someone had reached out with a question about your company, you could say something along the line of thank you for contacting XYZ Company.

If someone has replied to one of your emails, you need to say thank you for your prompt reply or thank you for getting back to me/us. It will make you appear polite and considerate and puts your reader at ease.

The Best Email Opening Lines If You Want To Lift Spirits At Work

Offices have become synonymous with words like boring, life-sucking, parasitic, soulless, and many more superlatives of horrible.

Be the elusive cool office .

Even if youre on a WFH setup, stand out and have your team brimming with laughter and smiles as you add on these best email opening lines to send to your growing email list to keep their mood groovy at all times.

After all, a happy employee = better performance!

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A 4 Salutations To Avoid

An inappropriate or outdated greeting will set the wrong tone for your email right from the start. Here are some salutations you should stay away from:

1. To whom it may concern

This greeting is seen as too stiff and vague to be used in business emails. It gives the impression that you were too lazy to find out to whom the email should have been addressed.

As you would when writing a formal letter, try to find out the persons name before you send your email. Alternatively, opt for a warmer opening sentence.

For example, lets say youre emailing company XYZ regarding their job application, and you cant find the name of an HR team member. Instead of using To whom it may concern, you can use something like To Team X or Dear Hiring Manager at Company XYZ.

2. A misspelled name

A misspelled name is up there with the worst greeting you could write.

Always double-check your emails to see if you have the correct spelling of your recipients name. If the persons name seems complicated, just copy and paste it from a good source.

However, if youre not confident about the correct spelling of the name, remove it and stick with a greeting like Hello. This is somewhat rare but might happen at events where an attendee sent you a company or team email instead of handing you their business card.

Although using Hello might be considered an impersonal opening, its always better than a serious breach of email etiquette like misspelling a persons name.

3. Dear sir

Craft Your Subject Line

Keep your subject line to seven words or less for optimal open rates, and dont try to dazzle your reader with extreme subject line wit at first email. Before you write your subject line, ask yourself three questions:

Short, clear, and concise is the best way to open formal correspondence. Here are some examples:

• “RE 6/8 demo call with HubSpot“
• “ recommended we chat”
• “Meeting RE: demo call with HubSpot“
• “Follow Up RE: Phone call with HubSpot“
• “Question about “
• “A for “
• “We have in common“

Want more great subject line inspiration? Check out this list, guaranteed to get prospects to open, read, and respond.

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How To Start A Professional Email

To clarify, a professional email in this context includes business email, academic email, and any other instance that calls for some level of formality. As a rule of thumb, when in doubt, opt to go the professional route.

The beginning of a professional email can be thought of in 3 parts:

Below, well break down each of these parts along with some of the most common phrases for each

Follow Proper Business Etiquette

Start and end your email with a courteous greeting to show professionalism and to be polite. Always respect the recipient’s time. For example, show your respect for the recipient’s time by not sending emails after hours, while they are on leave or over weekends.

Related:Key Attributes of Professionalism in the Workplace

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Check Your Email Address

If youre not sending an email from your work alias, revisit your personal email address to make sure its professional and reflective of your current life stage.

If youre still rocking that address, consider updating to one that includes some combination of your first and last name. This ensures your first impression is authoritative and adult — and not the early 2000s equivalent of a trucker hat.

Give A Brief Introduction About Yourself

Your email body should always begin with an introduction about yourself after the salutation. You can skip this part if youre emailing someone who already knows you, as it may seem redundant.This is significant, especially when youre emailing someone for the first time or using a different email address to communicate with people who know you. It plays a vital role in business emails because if the recipient doesnt know who you are, it will be fairly complex for them to get back to you or find any motivation to respond.This can be a small paragraph of 1-2 sentences about you, which aligns with the purpose of the message. Keep it short and sweet.

Here are some standard points to keep in mind:

• Avoid adding irrelevant information that doesnt relate to the emails core message.
• Restrict your introduction to 1-2 sentences.
• Keep it straightforward, and dont get into the details.
• Consider hyperlinking your name to your website or LinkedIn profile so they can gather more context about you.
• If youve spoken to the receiver earlier, are familiar with the company, or have met before, you can briefly talk about the instance to find a common touchpoint.

Avoid overcomplicating the introduction, and keep it minimalistic. Heres an example of a business email opening.

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How To Start A Professional Email Best Greetings For Every Situation & Salutations To Avoid

A step-by-step guide on how to start a professional email in order to nail that ever important first impression in business communications.

Ruth Healy

Writer

It can be surprisingly easy to overthink your emailâs professional greeting, especially when youâre not very familiar with the person. Before youâve even addressed the reason for your outreach youâve already wasted time getting distracted with whether to say âHey Tomâ, âHello Mr. Smithâ, or âDear Sirâ.

That said, itâs even more surprising how many people donât think about their email greetings enough. How you start an email sets the tone for everything that follows and sets up a personâs all-so-important first impression of you as a professional.

Thatâs why weâve outlined every step, scenario and circumstance youâll need to think of when beginning any type of work email. Here are some of the best ways to start that professional conversation and some of the most crucial things to avoid when doing so.

To make this super helpful we will list out examples of good ways to start a professional email plus point out what not to do when professionally greeting someone.

Become An Expert In Messaging: Best Tips How To Start An Email

Were writing emails quite often. Theyve replaced regular mail, but still, when trying to start it, we spend several minutes thinking about the first words. In this article, we will consider how to start an email. Its very important to address other people correctly because your addressee will judge your literacy by the way you start the email.

We will offer some tips regarding correct ways and those you should avoid. Also, we will consider formal and informal ways of addressing others, as well as, present examples of the best email greetings.

In case you still don’t want to do it yourself, just ask our email writer to help you!

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Why Starting Your Email Well Is Important

Email is an important form of communication, just like phone calls and video conferences. You should treat each email as an opportunity to develop a mutual respect with your colleagues. By writing a great beginning to your email, you are more likely to make a positive first impression. Such an impression can encourage your audience to read the full message of your email and take any required actions.

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Use Case #: Starting An Email To Work Colleagues

Emailing your work colleagues and existing work contacts can be a minefield you have to have a solid understanding of the type of relationship you have with people.

You have a few options depending on whether youre emailing your desk buddy or your C-suite report.

Subject

Hey,

You may be surprised to see Hey, in our list since lots of places will tell you to avoid it.

However, we think that when youre addressing your workmates or people youve worked with before, this can make perfect sense.

Would you call over to them, Hey Raj, grab me a coffee when youre out for lunch?

In speaking to a person, we use it to get someones attention so its less unexpected in a work email when theres an existing relationship.

You could use this, or one of the other Hey email opening sentences in cold outreach if it fits with your branding to be relaxed and informal knowing your target audience and how they want to be addressed is key here.

Subject

Hey ,

Once youve got your conversation off in the right way, this opening line for an email is great to keep it relaxed.

Avoid it for a potential client, but after working with them for a while you may be able to move to this structure.

Subject

Hey !

Add the exclamation mark after the name of the person here is quite excited and open.

Subject

Just using the recipients first name can come across as quite blunt in formal settings like discussing a contract or a workplace issue.

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A Concise Subject Line

You should include a clear and concise subject line which summarizes the content of your mail at the start of your email. The subject line is what every individual sees first when surfing through their unread emails. It serves the same purpose news headlines serve and as such, it is only reasonable for them to click first on the mails with interesting subject lines. A good subject line quickly grabs the recipient’s attention.