by Kristen Bevilacqua

Created on: September 20, 2009   Last Updated: September 24, 2009

Five Necessary Parts to Business Emails

Email is the most widely used form of communication in business. Unfortunately, with email's growing familiarity, business communication has lost some of its sophistication and professionalism. Perhaps with social emails this is acceptable, but with business communications it is not.

There are five necessary parts to a business email. Your productivity will increase when you begin writing emails as outlined below. In addition, your clients, boss and colleagues will regard you as polished, organized and absolutely professional.

Subject

Most importantly, include a subject title that is informative and relates to the purpose of your email. Your name, the date and subject line are the only details that show in the recipient's inbox. They are your email's "first impression", so make it count!

Greeting

Begin your email by addressing the recipient by name. Opening an email with "Hey", "Hi there", or the like is unacceptable for a business email. Make the email more personal and significant by addressing the recipient. If email is intended for a group of people, a greeting referring to the group is still essential. Reference the department or the project team. For example, "Hi Accounts Team", or "Project Redesign Folks", etc. No matter how short your email, include a greeting.

Details and Background

Next, it's time to get into the purpose of your email. This is where you want to include the the information that you need to share or the issue that you need addressed. Specifically if your email is regarding a problem that the recipient needs to handle or to be involved in finding a resolution for, make sure that you include as much background information as possible. Nothing is more frustrating that being handed a problem at work without any supporting details that could help with finding a solution.

Be as specific as possible. Include dates and reference emails if necessary. If there is a lot of information to communicate, divide the details into sections using headers for each. This will help you organize your thoughts and will help the recipient better understand the information.

Next Steps

Now that you have described the purpose of your email, make sure you follow through on its intention. Before signing off and hitting send on the email, outline what the next steps should be now that your information has been communicated. Are there tasks that need to be added to project? Or what is the procedure you would like followed for resolving an issue? Be clear about your expectations; don't keep the email recipients guessing about what you expect from them.

Signature

Always sign off your emails professionally, with a closing sentiment and your name. Whether your closing is Best, Regards, Thanks, or a similar manner, it is more personal than just typing your name, or even worse nothing but just your auto-signature to close your email.

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