Have you ever received significant number of emails, many of which are time wasters – but you still need to open them, and read them to figure out you don’t need to see them. Have you ever sent an email that you later regretted? Missteps in any business situation can severely tarnish your reputation and ruin your relationship with others.

There are many email etiquette and policies, though some differ depending on the nature of your business and the corporate culture.  Below are my Top 10 email etiquette to help convey your professional image and increase your efficiency.

“Etiquette means behaving yourself a little better than is absolutely essential”  Will Cuppy

1. Title: Make sure the title of  your email reflects what it is about – a good example of this would be rather than heading an email “Jan 2014 meeting”   it should have the name of the meeting in it so “Sales performance review  Jan 2014 ”

2. Blank title: Do not leave the subject blank, every email must have a subject heading. I know people are usually in a hurry when sending emails, the more reason why you need to think before you type.

3. Group email: When being asked if a group can attend a meeting only reply to the originator of the request (do not press reply to all). To be honest, people don’t care if you turn up or not – except you are the celebrant.

4. Replies: I know sometimes you receive an email where others are cc’d and you are required to respond. I suggest you consider if all of the people cc’d into the original email really need to see your response, if not – send email to those that are concerned.

5. Before you cc’d: Ask yourself  “do you really need to cc into an email all the people you have listed”

6. Thank you:  After receiving her lovely presents from the team, a colleague in an organisation I used to work with sent a lovely email to the whole directorate, expressing her appreciation. You can guess what happened to my inbox the next morning. When sending a “thanks” only do it to the person that you are thanking

7. Contact details: Make sure you have your contact details at the end of the email.  Your job title, organisation and phone numbers are essential in an email, especially if you are not using a company’s email.

8. Clarity: have you ever received an email and had to call the person to clarify what the email is about? Its okay to send an email asking for favour or to be signposted, but you need to be clear exactly what you are asking for and from whom in the email

9. Respect Authority: If trying to organise a meeting, and it is with a senior member of staff, executive or someone that has a PA,  then communicate with the PA (not cc’ing in the senior member of staff unless there is a problem). Even though the person is your best mate, you will be respected for observing protocol

10. Read Receipt: This is really a knock out for me. Don’t use Return Receipt or Read Receipt (RR) on every single email. Doing so is viewed as intrusive, annoying and can be declined by the other side anyway

Believe me when you practice and share the above, it will actually reduce the number of emails and the levels of stress of dealing with emails that we are all encountering.