So I’m typing a work email and I’m kind of confused as how to start? So it’s to
Susan, should I say, Dear Susan or HI Susan or I don’t know, I’m confused.
Hello and welcome to yet another lesson and today’s lesson is about, Common mistakes in Business
Emails. That’s right, we all know, how important it is to make your email, look good and
sound good in order to get your work done. And there are so many people out there, who
actually struggle with writing business emails and there are many many mistakes that are
common. I’m gonna address a few of them today and you know maybe you can actually
double check, whether you’re making some of these and make sure then that you start
avoiding them. So the first one on my list is, well now this one though it sounds kind
of really really atrocious. A lot of people do this forgetting to greet. Now imagine
if you receive an email that just starts with a subject matter like, Well according to our
conversation. I have decided to send you the presentation right away. But who are you?
A and who are you talking to? Is this email for me? Is it for the person in my team? It
gets very very confusing. So it’s very important to address the email with a Hi, Hello or Dear,
followed by the person’s name and to also close it with your name, so a greeting and
a closing are both very important. Otherwise it’s very difficult to find out, who the
email is addressed to and who has written the email and that can lead to a lot of confusions
at work. So this one is something that you really want to avoid. So make sure you remember
to greet the person that you are writing the email to and also remember to actually close
the email with your own name, you know with say maybe a thanks or a regards, followed
by your own name. And that makes it very very clear as to who the email is going to and
who has written it. Now the next thing that a lot of people do and you don’t want to
be the one to do this is being too formal. Now the way you write your email or rather
the tone of the email has to reflect your personal relationship with the person you’re
writing to. So for example, if I have been working with Jack for the past ten years and
we have a friendly working relationship, but I write the email to him saying something
like, Respected, Mr. Jack White. You know suddenly Jack is gonna be like, why is she
talking to me, like she’s talking to me for the first time. We’ve been interacting
for work for the past ten years and she could have said something as simple as, Dear Jack
and that would have made more sense. So you know addressing people with respect to your
relationship with them is very important. So for example, if you’re writing to Susan
for the first time, you could actually address her as, Dear Mrs. White. But once you get
acquainted with her, that’s when you can actually drop the, Mrs. White and come down
to first name basis and say something like, Hello Susan or Dear Susan or HI Susan and
that would be appropriate. So make sure you’re not being too formal, coz that can make the
tone of the email very very business like and very heavy and not a very friendly tone.
The next thing you can do is being too informal. Now let’s remember we are writing business
emails. Business emails are for work and professional purposes. They’re not a chat between you
and your best friend. So sometimes I’ve seen people in emails they get too informal
and too soon. So imagine you’ve met a client one month back and instead of you know addressing
him as Mr. John or John. You actually write to him saying, hey Johnny boy or hey buddy
boy. How do you think, he’s going to react to that? Hey Johnny boy, hey buddy boy. Trust
me it’s a big no, no. That’s right, so make sure, you’re not being too informal.
So avoid nicknames or endearments. Like for example, if you’re talking to Martha, you
can’t always keep saying something like, Martha Darling, Martha sweetie, please reply
to my email quickly. Martha is not your best friend from school. Martha is somebody, you
work with, so it’s very important to maintain the professionalism and that degree of formality,
which appears appropriate. So you know using nick names or endearments, getting too informal,
too quickly in a business email is not recommended. Moving on now this is something that forgetful
people do, but it’s a huge jarring mistake, forgetting the subject line or worse till
forgetting to change the subject line. So imagine you’ve written a previous email
to somebody and then you’re kind of writing another email to somebody else, but you forget
to change the subject line. Now that could actually prove to be very expensive, coz you
know, it’s very rude, in polite and it may show your client or your boss that how careless
and casual you are about writing a business email. So that’s one thing that you shouldn’t
do, so forgetting the subject line is not recommended, make sure you mention the subject
always. So your subject line could be as simple as regarding the quarterly presentation. So
what happens, when you mention a subject line that is crisp and to the point? The person
whose viewing your email, actually comes to know what your email is regarding in brief,
in short and then they can actually prioritize or chose not to prioritize that email depending
on their time. So if I have a full inbox of emails, I’m gonna look at the subject line
and see which one to address first and which one to keep for later. So the subject line
is a very very important thing, forgetting to write the subject line or forgetting to
change it is definitely not the correct way to go about it. Moving on this is something
that can really irritate you, your colleagues and your bosses. It’s called hitting reply
all. This is a complete no , no , coz imagine if your boss has written to you and he has
Cc some others in your team, but you want to address certain doubts, certain queries
and those are of a personal nature by hitting reply all, the first thing that you’re doing
is disturbing others at the same time, you know over sharing. So there may be certain
details, you know which you need to share only with your boss. By hitting reply all,
what you’re doing is you’re sharing it with a lot of other people, when it is not
required. It can you know actually prove to be a nuisance and disturbance to other people.
So make sure, when you are replying to a business email. You know exactly, who you want to reply
to and you can add that person or if there’s more than one person, you can add those persons,
but absolutely and completely avoid hitting reply all, coz you don’t want fifty people
receiving your email. And you don’t want to cause a huge nuisance. Well, that’s all
about hitting reply all. And the next one, now this is a habit that starts when you’re
very young, probably in school and then goes on and multiplies and grows and becomes a
huge problem, when you’re working. So well that is all about not punctuating. Punctuations
like commas, full stops, semicolons. These are all very very important punctuations,
coz if you don’t put a comma in the right place or if you don’t end your sentence
with a full stop or you don’t use the semicolon. You could actually change the meaning of what
you’re writing and it could get very confusing for the person, whose reading your email.
So make sure you’re punctuating properly. In fact I would say, make sure your punctuating
absolutely, perfectly while writing a business email. It actually shows how organized and
you know to the point and crisp you are, if you punctuate well. So we looked at some common
mistakes that people make while writing business emails and we are gonna look at some more.
The first one on my list is including too many personal details. Now you have to understand
that your email is a business email. It needs to be crisp and to the point. It’s not really
a chat group, where you just keep talking about your personal life. Like for example,
if I’m asking my boss for a leave on one particular day. I can just say, I request
you to grant me leave. I don’t have to actually go and explain to him, things like for example,
Well you know now that my daughter is in first grade and it happens to be her annual day
celebration, where she happens to be playing the cub in the lion king. I have then decided
to go to her school and attend the annual day function. Trust me your boss is not interested
or I would say not that interested in your personal life. So you have to keep it brief,
to the point and formal. Because if you include too many personal details, you can be viewed
as unprofessional. Now that’s not an impression that anyone wants to create at their work
places. Moving on I have the next one. Now this one is something, I’ve seen a lot of
people do, mostly lazy people. They do this; they forget to correct their typos or their
errors. Now there’s lot of errors that can happen, when you’re writing a business email.
There could be spelling mistakes, you know spelling errors or punctuation errors or probably
the information that you wanted to share. The technicality of it, maybe there is a discrepancy
there. But some people don’t take the time to actually review their entire email. They
just hit the button send and then that email with a lot of mistakes reaches either your
boss, client or whoever that you’re sending it to. And that’s not really professional.
That shows how relax and careless you are about sharing the information. So it’s very
important to correct spelling, punctuation and other details. Before you hit send, because
your email needs to be word perfect to make a good impression. Well moving on I have some
traits that I have seen in people who are very very curious. So lot of us have a lot
of queries, lot of questions and doubts that we want answers to, but be careful, when you’re
writing an email, it’s okay to ask questions and clear your doubts. But make sure you do
that just once. There are lot of people I have seen in emails, who like to repeat the
same query, the same question over and over again. Probably I don’t know what they are
hoping for? A different answer maybe or a clearer answer. So if you’re confused and
the first answer is not sufficient for you. You could say something like, Well I’m glad
you addressed my query, but I am still not clear. Can I please request you to clarify?
Rather than writing the same question all over again, coz that can appear very rude.
So repeating questions is a complete no, no. Make sure you actually address your queries
and doubts without repeating the question. And moving on I have the last one on my list.
Now this one’s a pet pee with many bosses, because a lot of employees especially the
younger employees are seem to be using emojis in their emails. Now for those of you, who
don’t know what emojis are, they’re actually these really cute icons. Which are available
nowadays on the emojI app? It could be like a smiley face or it could be an angry face
or it could be someone crying. So we have a lot of these really cute emojis. You know
different symbols like, All the best and ill punch you and all of those things. So since
you are writing a business email, make sure you stick to formal method such as writing
the full word, not using short forms and punctuating correctly, rather than punctuating with an
emoji. So make sure emojis are avoided. Save all the emojis that you want to use for your
watsapp chats with your friends. Coz I’m sure they will be much more appreciated and
much more welcome over there as against using them in your business email, because if you
use emojis, you’re gonna come across as too casual, unprofessional and over friendly.
So well these are the mistakes that I have seen a lot of people making, while writing
business emails. If you know of some more mistakes, feel free to write to me in the
comment box below. And make sure you keep subscribing to our lessons by subscribing
to our channel. It’s time for me Rima to actually you know make sure that I don’t
make any more mistakes in my business email. Because remember I was typing a business email.
I’m gonna go finish that and I’m gonna catch you very soon. Till then take care.