How to Write a Professional Email

Unless you have been living in a cave for the last 20 years, you will appreciate that email is an essential part of your work life. 

The problem is there might have been a slip in standards of late. The casual nature of instant messaging often creeps into our more formal emails, and it is not a great look. 

And with 300 billion emails sent daily, we need to ensure our professional emails stand out as polished and impressive. 

Through this article, we will brush up on the basics – the things you should and shouldn’t be doing –  ready for you to use as a template for killer professional emails. 

And remember, there is no official rule with this. My suggestions are based on 20 years of experience sending and receiving (what feels like) millions of business emails and are a guideline only. Feel free to adapt and change as you see fit!

1. Find the Right Tone

You should aim for a tone that is appropriate, respectful, and to the point, for all professional or formal emails. That said, try not to be overly formal; you are not a lawyer addressing a judge, so keep it as plain speaking as possible. 

There isn’t much room for anything of a jocular, playful nature in a professional email, so don’t attempt it unless you are confident the recipient will appreciate it. Mild humor is fine when appropriate but tread carefully.

You wouldn’t use the same tone for a university professor as for James in Marketing, whom you have known for nine years and once dated briefly. James, that is – not the university professor. Both are considered professional, but both require a different feel in terms of tone.

So, anything formal like a job application, for example, or the university professor I mentioned, play it safe with a sensible tone.

For anything informal but still within the realms of professionalism (James in marketing, for example), you have the license to add a little warmth and color to the tone of voice if you want to.  But if you are emailing genuinely professionally, don’t get too carried away.

Example of Tone Shift

Got it? The notion is quite simple, but for anyone who isn’t clear, let’s demonstrate the two different tones with these examples below. Both are asking for a meeting in a professional capacity:

Dear {Name}, I would appreciate the opportunity to discuss this matter in person. Please confirm if you are available for a meeting next week. Kind regards, {Name}.

Hello {Name}, I thought maybe we could have a quick chat next week. Will you be around? Any day is fine, just let me know. Best, {Name}.

As you can see, the first is quite formal, while the second is more relaxed. The difference isn’t huge in terms of word selection, but with just a couple of subtle differences, you will note a shift in tone between the two examples.

2. Use the Correct Greeting

If you don’t know the recipient, “Dear Mr/Ms/Mrs.” is good for anything highly formal. You might be contacting a lawyer regarding a pretty serious subject, for example. For most emails, “Dear First Name” or “Hi First Name” is the go-to. 

If you are unsure of the person’s name, go with a simple “Hello.”

Context comes into play with the greeting because the tone depends on your familiarity with the recipient. You could be emailing a friendly work colleague, for example, in which case the greeting is wide open, and you can afford to be more casual with something like a simple ‘Hey’ or ‘Hi.’

For multiple recipients, you could try something like “Hi team” or “Hi department.”

3. Write a Great Subject Line 

The subject line is another crucial aspect of a great first impression. Be clear, to the point, and avoid long sentences; don’t try to squeeze in as much as you can. 

Be punchy and attention-grabbing without being excitable.

Let’s look at professional email subject line examples under the scenario of a job application for a software engineer. 

Instead of using a long, wordy sentence like “Contacting you to enquire about a job vacancy,” use something crisp and straightforward such as “Engineer vacancy.”

The subject line isn’t a title case, so don’t treat it as one – capitalize the first word only. 

A/B Testing Subject Lines

If you are sending the same email to multiple volume recipients, you could actually use this as an opportunity to test your subject line and determine which one has the best response rate. Going forward, you could use the winner for all similar emails. This is known as A/B testing.

Obviously, you are not restricted to subject lines for A/B testing. You can also compile multiple emails with slight variables to determine which variant gets the best response.

This only really works for serious email marketing – if you are sending half a dozen emails to potential prospects, it won’t be worth it. 

If you want to go one step further, you could use email marketing software to fully analyze A/B tests in huge detail. MailChimp offers a free service which usually includes basic versions of testing, with more detailed analytics and features through their premium plan. 

4. Try and Keep the Body Brief and Uncluttered

Knowing how to start a professional email is important. Go with a brief introduction of who you are and why you are emailing, but be quick and to the point. You can use the email body to engage the recipient – you don’t want to lose them with a long introduction of why you are emailing.

The general advice is to keep the email body reasonably brief without being too complex. An extremely wordy style will not make you appear more professional and will probably irritate the reader. Don’t make that mistake because many do!

You should try to get to the point in as few paragraphs as possible without rambling. Try not to use complicated sentences, and just use plain language.

For example, let’s imagine you are following up on a previous phone conversation. There is no need to say, “I found our recent telephone discussion both comprehensive and enlightening,” when “Great chatting with you earlier” is fine.

Your goal is to compose an email free of fluff and filler – people tend to scan emails, so you need to find that sweet spot of brief and to the point but engaging at the same time. 

Two or three short, interesting paragraphs would be perfect, depending on the context, of course.

5. Use These Guidelines for Body

🧐 Open with intrigue. Try and open with a punchy, single sentence – something that might hook the reader. For example, Instead of beginning with “contacting you about a new advertising service we have created and thought you might be interested,” you could try “You don’t realize it yet, but you need this new service.” 

🤠 Show personality. It’s OK to show charisma, but try and do so in a classy way without being excitable. Make your point with flair and energy. That’s not possible, but you can deliver personality without being unprofessional.

🆕 New thought? Make a new paragraph. Avoid one long block of words, and use short paragraphs when you can. Write how you think by adding a new paragraph with each new line of thought. 

😩 Don’t double-space or indent. Don’t double-space between sentences. Paragraph indentation is now antiquated, so make sure you have a nice clean line break between paragraphs.

❗ Reduce exclamation points. Professional emails should not contain too many exclamations; they look amateurish and excitable. One or two is fine. But please! Don’t include with every point! It seems churlish and screechy!

🖊️ Consistent font. Sometimes, the font will be different if copying and pasting from other sources. Check for consistency, and always try to email using the same font each time. Keep it simple – Aerial, Calibri, Times New Roman, etc.

✅ Spell check. Spelling errors are painful rookie mistakes and create a terrible impression. It might be the worst thing you can do in a professional email, so please, make sure you spell check before sending.

⚫ Bullet points. Most people like to read quickly, at least with a business email. If you have lots of information to provide in a cold email, it can help to use bullet points instead of several long paragraphs. 

🤗 Polite Closing Remarks. Try and end with a compliment or mild flattery of some description. “I have long admired your advertising campaigns and look forward to being a part of it,” for example. Or maybe something less specific, such as “thank you for your time.”

👌 Appropriate closing. Best, sincerely, warm wishes, and many thanks, are all acceptable closers. You can precede this with a polite closing remark such as “look forward to hearing from you.”

👔 Be mindful. Once sent, an email cannot be unsent. Always play it safe with professional emails and leave vibrant, emotional language for instant messaging. 

6. Go With a Polite Ending

Knowing how to end a professional email will help you to leave a good impression. Let’s not undo all of our hard work with a sloppy ending! 

It’s simple, really. You might want to summarize previous points before thanking the recipient for taking the time to read your email and, if you can, provide value in some way.

For example, offering your assistance if needed.

So, something like this would usually do the trick:

“Just to reiterate, we have all of those items available in stock and would be happy to deliver free of charge. If you need anything else, please let me know, I am happy to help any time.

Kind Regards”

An email signature is always a good move, and you can, of course, create default signatures in most email account settings.

I would suggest using the following:

• Title, Full Name
• Company
• Phone
• Email
• Website Links
• Social Media Links

No need to include an address unless relevant. They can always ask if needed.

Don’t be creative with the signature! This is a professional email and not the right place for illustrious, comical fonts. 

7. Before You Send the Email

Enter the recipient’s email address as the last thing you do, then double-check the spelling, grammar, tone, and relevance. Get into the habit of doing this, and it will naturally force you to check more carefully before sending.

Pay careful attention to everything – have you included attachments, if required? Check before you send. Having to email back moments after sending the first saying, “Sorry, forgot to attach,” always looks a bit awkward and unsystematic.

Do you have everyone cc’d? Is there another party who might prefer bcc out of privacy? 

8. Be careful with Grammar!

Ok, people, let’s lighten things up with a quick joke. In doing so, I can make a short point about grammar at the same time. 

Ready? Here we go…

A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, draws a gun, and proceeds to fire it at the other patrons.

“Why?” asks the confused, surviving waiter as the panda makes towards the exit.

The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder. “Well, I’m a panda,” he says. “Look it up.”

The waiter turns to the manual and, sure enough, finds an explanation. “Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal native to China. Eats, shoots, and leaves.”

Sorry about that! It makes a great point, though. Good grammar is essential, and thanks to social media and the speed at which we create messages these days, we have become lazy with our commas, apostrophes, and general sentence structures. These bad habits are beginning to seep into professional emails; it’s not a great look and can even lead to misinterpretation. 

Think of how the recipient perceives your message. First impressions are everything, so make double sure of perfect grammar and put your best foot forward!

If you don’t trust your grammar powers, you might want to think about a service like Grammarly or Hemmingway. They are subscription services that will check everything you write for correct grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure and will even make alternative suggestions for hard-to-read sentences.

9. Don’t Overkill Emojis

I shouldn’t need to say this, but you should never include emojis in a highly formal professional email. 

Emojis are another aspect of emailing where context comes into play, really. If you are emailing your boss – an old-fashioned type of CEO who sits behind a large desk on the 96th floor and rarely makes an appearance to his third-floor minions, don’t use a smiley face to ask for a raise.

If you are emailing James in Marketing (good old James again!) asking if he could help you out with a spreadsheet you are stuck on, it’s fine to use an emoji.

It’s fine to use with people you are unfamiliar with, also. If you think it will be well received. But why take the risk? It’s better to play it safe and keep your professional guard in place with people you have had no interaction with before.

Examples of Professional Emails

With the guidelines covered, let’s now demonstrate what a solid, professional email should look like. I am going to provide two examples, using imaginary characters from earlier in this article – the university professor (quite formal), and James in Marketing (less formal). 

Dear Professor Green,

It was a pleasure meeting you yesterday. Both my Son and I appreciate you finding the time to provide a campus tour.

We both feel this university will be a great fit and have decided to move forward with the application process; taking great comfort knowing that you will assist with the application, should we need your help.

I will advise by email as soon as the documents are submitted, which should be towards the end of this week.

Thank you again for both your time and your guidance. You answered all of our questions perfectly, and we enjoyed the tour immensely. 

Kind regards,

Susan Smith

And now for a less formal, professional email:

Dear James,

It was lovely meeting you yesterday, I appreciate you squeezing me in for a quick chat!

You made some really useful suggestions regarding the campaign. After some thought, I think I will move forward with the second creative you mentioned, as that will sit nicely with our branding on this.

Just to be sure, I will run the idea past Steve to see what his views are, although I guess they will be similar to your own.

Let’s catch up closer to launch, when I have everything ready to go?

Thanks again James, you really have been brilliant! If there is any way I can return the favor, be sure to let me know.

Best,

Karen

10. Stay Focused

Overthink this, and the email might appear awkward and clumsy. Stay calm, try not to be too uptight, and your words will have a more natural, less forced intent.

And that’s all you need to know to send a killer email that will knock’em dead. The most crucial elements are relevant tone, excellent grammar, and keeping it to the point.

Speaking like a 17^th-century poet might impress at the local drama center, but don’t do it on a business email—no need to say “nudiustertian” when “two days ago” will suffice.

That’s a real word, by the way. Nudiustertian. I was going to write “cattywampus” as an example but couldn’t figure out how to use it.

So, we hope you find this article useful. If you have anything to add, go ahead and suggest it in the comments – we would love to know your methods, tips, and general opinions about professional emails.

Any funny stories to share about email mishaps? Again, let us know. Keep it clean, though!