Email etiquette: 20 rules of digital communications

Email is one of the most common ways we connect with clients, prospects, partners, suppliers, colleagues and wider stakeholders. Often, it’s the first impression your law firm makes – and it’s a lasting one.

On a corporate level, good email etiquette supports your professional image and fosters stronger relationships. Poor etiquette leads to miscommunication mistakes and damage to your reputation.

Top tips for optimum email performance

Good email etiquette benefits from a few practical guidelines. We’ve gathered the key rules here for superlative communications:

1. Keep your tone professional, respectful and friendly.

At the beginning of a business relationship, keep communications straightforward and professional. As the relationship develops, you may want to use more casual language while still maintaining professionalism.

It’s incredibly hard to get the right tone across over email. Don’t use slang, sarcasm or excessive humour. Think carefully about the words you’re using and how someone else would interpret them.

Avoid negative phrases (it looks anxious and irritated), cut out adjectives (it sounds overly emotional) and mirror your recipient (follow their lead). If you have concerns, pick up the phone and clear the air after any potentially fraught email exchange.

2. Write concise and clear subject lines.

Make sure your subject line clearly shows your recipient the email’s purpose. Many people decide whether to open an email based on the subject line alone. So, if it’s to the point, descriptive and actionable, your recipient is more likely to prioritise it. As a guide, stick to less than 50 characters, or six to ten words.

3. Proof-read, proof-read, proof-read.

Thoroughly proof-read your emails for typos, spelling errors, grammatical oversights, punctuation mistakes and factual inaccuracies prior to sending. (These topics are covered in further detail below.) Poor grammar and spelling compromise your image.

4. Add the recipient’s email address last.

Following on from #3, make it a standard procedure to write the contents of your email first, proof-read second and only enter the email address into the recipient line when you’re finally ready to send. This simple habit stops you from sending an unfinished message and other embarrassing mishaps.

5. Double check who you’re sending to.

There’s nothing worse than sending an email to the wrong client or company. Even more so when the contents are confidential. Double check you’ve entered your recipient’s email address properly. If you’ve emailed the contact previously, their address will show in a drop-down list as soon as you start typing it into the field. If not, take a moment to look in your database then copy and paste the address into your email software.

In the body of the email itself, use the person’s correct name. Only shorten if they’ve used this abbreviation in their own email signature.

It’s bad manners to leave out colleagues or clients from a relevant email chain. Be mindful of who needs to be informed about the case-in-progress and recognise this by entering their email addresses into the ‘to’, ‘cc’ and ‘bcc’ fields. Note: The ‘bcc’ option is useful to protect email addresses from being exposed to others.

6. Use the ‘reply all’ button sparingly.

Ask yourself whether everyone on the thread needs to see your response. No one wants an inbox full of emails on subjects which have nothing to do with them. Also, the inadvertent ‘reply all’ on private emails happens more often than you might imagine.

7. Think before forwarding.

Some emails aren’t intended or suitable for forwarding, for instance those containing sensitive information. Make sure you’re fully aware of the content of the whole email thread before forwarding.

If you do forward a long email thread, summarise what’s being discussed so the recipient knows exactly what you want from them, rather than simply stating ‘see below’ and making them do the hard work.

8. Use a professional email address.

Your email address should reflect your identity and your organisation. A popular structure is firstname.lastname@company.com. Using personal email addresses (e.g. mikec42@gmail.com) lack credibility and raise compliance concerns. Your recipient is more likely to open emails from a trusted source.

Using personal email addresses may also lead to your company’s data being stored on servers outside of your control, thereby introducing an element of risk regarding data protection which can land you in a pickle with regulators.

9. Reply to your emails.

In today’s world of heavy workloads and busy schedules, it’s not unusual to feel swamped by an over-full inbox and it’s not always practicable to respond to emails straightaway. However, it’s courteous to acknowledge receipt and let the sender know when they can expect a reply. When in doubt, apply the 24-hour rule.

10. Set up an out-of-office message.

If you’re going to be away from work for an extended period, an automated out-of-office notification lets the recipient know about your limited (or no) availability. Include what date you’ll return and when they can expect to hear from you. It’s also good to provide alternative, urgent contact(s) information for pressing matters.

11. Use a consistent sign-off.

A professional signature adds polish and clarity. Include your name, role, phone number, LinkedIn and company details. The right sign-off complements the tone and content of your email, clarifies exactly who you are, makes it easy for people to get in touch and provides a signpost for a place to go to find out more about you or your business. Since it’s the final thing your recipient reads in your email, these lines of text influence their lasting impression.

On the flip side, even if you’ve crafted the most eloquent message, a bad email signature makes you appear amateurish and undermines your professional relationships.

Your email system should allow your email signature to be automatically included at the end of each email. Your law firm may even have the ability to design email signatures centrally and deploy them across your organisation to ensure consistency and save everyone valuable time.

12. Use the apt level of formality from the word ‘go’.

Pick a pertinent greeting for your emails, which can be formal or informal, depending on whom you’re emailing and your relationship. For instance, begin with ‘Dear [Name]’, use ‘please’ and ‘thank you’, and always end your email with the suitable phrase, ‘Kind regards’, ‘Sincerely’ and so on.

13. Keep emails concise and to the point.

Enormous chunks of text are off-putting to busy people in busy businesses with busy personal lives. Respect the recipient's time by being concise and direct in your communication. You can always follow up on the matter later or suggest they give you a call if they have any queries. Start each paragraph with the most important information. If you’re worried about information excess, use bullet points or numbered lists to bring more structure to your writing.

It’s worth remembering that people tend to read emails on their mobile devices. If your email is too long or doesn’t display correctly on a phone, it will get instantly deleted. Brevity really is everything.

14. Don’t type a whole letter in the body of an email.

Typing the body of a letter in its entirety directly into an email does not deliver positive impact. As stated in #13, your emails should be succinct. Keep in mind that emails are often printed out to be handed around in meetings. A plain email body can look unprofessional and inconsistent with your brand. It’s preferable to include your letter with the email as an attachment in branded format. Take it one step further and have Word automatically brand your letter by topping and tailing it with your letter heading, adding your signature, converting it to PDF format and attaching to an email.

That’s where Integrated Office Solutions comes in. Our wide-ranging services encompass designing document templates in your corporate style, incorporating ‘wet-look’ signatures and setting up Word to action tasks automatically – so you can put together brand-compliant letters and emails within a few mouse clicks. (Our ‘Brand guidelines: A how-to guide’ blog is a useful steer.)

15. Call out email attachments.

Continuing the theme of #14, indicate somewhere in your email the inclusion of an attachment so your recipient knows it’s legitimate and doesn’t overlook it. A simple ‘I’ve attached a [document, spreadsheet] for X’ is sufficient.

Another point regarding attachments is not attaching large files like videos as it can clog up your recipient’s email server and cause delivery delays. Instead, upload the files to a cloud service like OneDrive or Dropbox and provide the recipient with a link to access it, or use a secure transfer site like WeTransfer.

If you’re forwarding on an email chain to someone new and the original attachments are lost, make sure you reattach files, or they won’t be able to see them.

16. Use correct formatting.

When writing a professional email, use sentence case. Use in-house approved fonts to ensure brand compatibility as well as readability, and well-structured formatting for visual clarity. Peculiar fonts, wild colours and off-beat formatting might make your email memorable – but for the wrong reasons.

Pro tip: If you’re copying and pasting text, use the option to paste as plain text. If you don’t, the snippet may appear differently than the rest of your email. (Check out our keyboard shortcut cheat sheets for assistance.)

Your email must include a subject line, greeting, body, sign-off and signature. If you’re out and about, and sending emails from your phone, consider removing or replacing the ‘Sent from my iPhone’ or ‘Sent via phone’ tag. While it does indicate you’re away from your desk and the recipient might, therefore, be more understanding about typos or delays, some people feel it looks casual, especially in high-stakes communications. Replacing with something like ‘Sent from my mobile - please excuse my briefness’ is more appropriate. Don’t forgo a quick glance-over before you send.

17. Check punctuation.

Punctuation is subtle when you use it correctly and obvious when you don’t. Check for terminal punctuation (full stops or question marks – but not over-using exclamation marks), proper use of semicolons and commas (to separate items in lists), incorporation of apostrophes (possession and omission only – not plurals), quote marks and other points of punctuation.

Your email system will probably include some form of punctuation checker. Use this to identify missing, misplaced or unnecessary punctuation – so your writing is clear and polished every time.

18. Check grammar too.

In the same vein, try not to make basic mix ups with your grammar, or your recipient will catch you out. Unless you’re a grammar geek, occasional mistakes are inevitable. Grammarly (an English language writing kit) and other such tools are readily available – to scan your writing for grammatical and spelling mistakes.

19. Resist using too many emojis – or any at all.

In some industries, adding emojis here and there is a nice touch. In the legal sector, where professionalism is everything, less so. Unless your recipient has already used emojis, or you’re sure it suits your brand's image, resist the temptation.

20. Shorten URLs.

Pasting entire URLs into your email takes up space and looks messy. Instead, create hyperlinks using single (or a few) word(s). You do this by highlighting the word(s) in your email, clicking on the link button in your top toolbar, choosing ‘Insert link’, entering your URL and selecting ‘OK’. Your email system may differ slightly from this functionality – but it’ll be along these lines. Another option is inserting a shortened URL. Popular URL shortening tools are TinyURL and Bitly.

Professionalism, precision and politeness in every message

Whether you're using email for communication, marketing or other purposes, best-practice email etiquette sets you apart and cements professionalism in your relationships. We hope our Ps and Qs will empower you to use email effectively, side-step blunders and yield better results from your messages.

If you’re seeking expert support from specialist developers, trainers and consultants for the legal market, look no further than the Integrated Office Solutions team. From building document templates, to customising the Microsoft 365 suite, to training your employees in optimal use of technology, we’re here to help with email etiquette and much more besides. Let’s talk.