We've probably all heard the expression “Don't sweat the small stuff,” and it applies to many aspects of life. But when it comes to emails, every little detail matters.
The rules of email and mail etiquette indicate what is appropriate and what is not when a person sends a message to a potential client, business partner, colleague, manager or acquaintance. They help avoid mistakes and misunderstandings.
Why is postal etiquette necessary?
Research shows that mistakes have a significant impact on how others perceive a person. In one experiment, participants who read an email with grammatical errors thought the writer was less conscientious, intelligent, and trustworthy than those who read the same email without the errors.
In another experience, people applied for funding and were given less favorable terms when their requests had spelling errors.
This is not surprising. When a person reads a letter full of errors and typos, he thinks about one of two things:
- The sender does not know basic spelling and grammar rules.
- The sender doesn't care enough about the message to check it before sending it.
None of this will be a good basis for a relationship. To avoid these mistakes, here are some email etiquette tips that every professional (especially those who interact with clients) should know and follow.
Punctuation
Punctuation is subtle when used correctly and obvious when used incorrectly. You should not spoil the impression of yourself in front of the recipients - these rules need to be remembered and strictly followed.
1. Final punctuation
Each line must end with a final punctuation mark, i.e. a period, a question mark, or an exclamation mark. If you miss this sign, it will look like the thought is not finished.
Wrong: I spoke with the finance department and they approved the agreement
Right: I spoke with the finance department and they approved the agreement.
Question and exclamation marks should be used sparingly. If there are too many question marks in one letter, it may seem like it is interrogating the recipient.
What is your status? Have you talked to your team yet? Are you available to call tomorrow at noon so we can discuss any potential changes?
And if you overdo it with exclamation marks, you can show yourself as hyperactive and overexcited.
Thanks again for the productive conversation yesterday! Good news: I spoke with the finance department and they approved the deal! Can't wait for our collaboration!
2. Semicolon (;)
A semicolon can be used to connect two separate but related clauses. This is not the same as a comma.
Wrong: She can call me tomorrow, then she can give me the answer.
Right: She can call me tomorrow; then she can give me the answer.
3. Comma (,)
One of the most common mistakes is putting commas where they are not needed. The most important rules:
A comma is placed before a coordinating conjunction (and, but, and, or, but) when connecting two equal simple sentences.
I worked with a similar client last year and their opening rate has increased by 20% per month.
A comma is used to separate items in a list.
I focused on email length, readability, and content.
4. Punctuation of the greeting
There are a few different ways to highlight the salutation (the first line of an email where the recipient is addressed by name).
If it is a formal letter, it is better to use a period.
Dear Ms. Frost.
If it's a relatively casual letter, it's better to use a comma.
Dear Aya,
And if it's a friendly letter, you can use an exclamation point.
Grammar
People who haven't dedicated their lives to learning grammar (which is actually much less lucrative than sales) will make mistakes one way or another. But no one will notice this unless they also know about this mysterious rule. You just need to avoid the main mistakes that are most noticeable, and everything will be fine.
For example, you need to know the difference between:
- To/what would
- In view/in mind
- About/on account
- Also, also/the same, the same
- -tsya/-tsya
- In general/in general (and remember that there are no words “in general” and “in general”)
As an editor, you can use tools like Grammarly, which finds all grammatical and spelling errors in real time and also sends a weekly report on overall trends.
Emoji in emails
You can understand the desire to add a smiling face to a rather harsh sentence to soften it, or to end a joke with a laughing emoji.
However, this should be avoided unless the recipient has already used the emoji themselves. Research shows that using emoticons in work emails is bad for your reputation: They make the sender seem less competent (and they don't help you appear more friendly).
Letter headers
The subject line should be meaningful and relatively short. Ideally, it should let the recipient know if he or she wants to open the email.
Wrong:"Hello"
What does the letter say? Absolutely incomprehensible.
Right:“Summary of the call about ordering a batch of pillows from 02.12”
This heading leaves no doubt about the contents of the letter.
Greetings
The punctuation used in greetings is mentioned above. You also need to choose a form of greeting, which can be formal or informal, depending on the recipient and the relationship with him.
A simple, everyday greeting is best, as it will set a friendly, calm tone and convey confidence.
Examples of everyday greetings:
- Hello
- Good morning [afternoon, evening]
- [Name]
If this is the first contact with a person, or he occupies a higher position, you should choose a more formal option.
Examples of formal greetings:
- Dear [name]
- Dear Mr./Ms. [last name]
And examples of greetings that cannot be used even as a joke:
- Hey!: Too informal and impatient
- [Name]!: Too unprepossessing
- Good day: people don't talk like that
- To all concerned: Too impersonal
- Dear Sir or Madam: Too old fashioned
- Hello friend: Too scary
- Gentlemen: Too old-fashioned
- All: Too cool
Ending
A proper ending complements the tone and content of the letter. Since this is the last line the recipient reads, it influences their final impression.
If the letter is written in a light tone, it can end with an informal, warm signature.
For example:
- Thank you
- Thanks again
- All the best
- Have a nice [day of the week]
- Good weekend
- See you later
- See you [tomorrow, Wednesday when you get back]
- Looking forward to our cooperation
- Looking forward to our next conversation
- I'll be happy to hear your opinion
If the tone of the letter is more reserved, the signature should be appropriate.
For example:
- Thank you
- Thank you for your time
- Have a nice day [weekend]
Here are the final lines that should not be used:
- Sincerely: Too old-fashioned
- All the best: Too unfriendly
- From the bottom of my heart: Too intimate
- Hearty: Too unnatural
- — [Sender Name]: Too rude
Receiver name
You need to triple check if it is written correctly. You can open this person’s profile on social networks and compare.
And don't shorten a person's name unless that's how they sign their emails. If he signs "Misha", you can use a shortened name; if “Mikhail”, then you need to address him accordingly.
Capital letters
When sending SMS, on social networks or chats, many people do not use capital letters. But when writing a business email, it is necessary. In other words, you need to capitalize the first word in a sentence and in proper nouns.
For example: Dogs are welcome at HubSpot.
Letter tone
It's incredibly difficult to set and maintain the right tone in an email. Research shows that people significantly overestimate how often their recipients correctly determine whether their tone was sarcastic or serious.
While they believed recipients would get it right 80% of the time, the actual figure was closer to 56%.
Does this mean that half of the emails will be misinterpreted? No. But this means that you need to choose your words carefully and think about how the recipient might perceive them.
First, you need to avoid phrases and words with negative meanings. They can make a person appear more anxious, irritated, or agitated than they actually are.
For example: Mistakes, problems, failure, delay, crisis, trouble, bad luck.
Secondly, don't use sarcasm. There is a high probability that the recipient will not understand the joke, and the impression of the sender will be spoiled.
For example:“I would ask my team to look at it tomorrow, but you know, no one actually does the work they get on Friday.”
Thirdly, it is necessary to exclude adjectives and adverbs with evaluative meaning. They make the letter seem overly emotional when the goal is to appear calm and professional.
Examples: Very, really, extremely, highly, seriously, deeply
Fourthly, you can imitate the style of your interlocutor. Following his example will ensure that the author does not accidentally offend him. If he writes short and direct messages, you need to respond in kind. If he's trying to strengthen the connection by getting personal (for example, “I saw you were in Bermuda; I hope you had a great time”), it's worth doing the same.
Fifth, if in doubt, it is better to call. Any time you have a potentially tense conversation, it's a good idea to call or Skype, or meet the person in person.
Fonts and Formatting
Do you want to hurt the recipient's eyes? Quirky fonts, bright colors and original formatting help.
Yes, this will make the letter much more memorable, but at the same time it will show complete ignorance of communication norms.
You should always use a standard font. No colors except black. Standard font size only. Do not bold or italicize more than one word (or series of words) in one letter.
When you copy and paste text, you need to clear the formatting. (Command + \ on a Mac, Ctrl + Shift + N on a PC.) If you don't do this, the passage will look different from the rest of the letter.
Hyperlinks
Inserting a full URL into an email takes up valuable space and looks messy. Instead, you can create a hyperlink or insert a shortened URL.
Wrong: Take a look at this: https://site/
Right: Take a look at.
Applications
You need to indicate somewhere in the letter that there is an attachment so that the recipient did not miss it.
A simple “I have attached [document, spreadsheet] for X” will suffice.
And you need to make sure to re-attach files when someone is added to the mail chain, or they won't be able to see them.
Signature of the letter
A bad signature can be really bad for your reputation. Even if you write the most eloquent and persuasive letter in the world, with a bad signature it will look amateurish.
It's worth remembering that smaller is better; the signature should be relatively small, simple and limited. There's no room for a favorite inspirational quote, a portrait, or a complete list of contacts. Ideally, the signature should include the name, position, phone number and/or website of the company.
Letter fields
To whom: This area is simple: the email address of the person you want to contact.
Copy: If you want to connect someone else, you need to add their address here. It basically means, “Hey, read this, but you don't have to respond.”
This option is needed when the email contains relevant information or you need to connect another person with the actual recipient.
Blind carbon copy (BCC): This feature also copies the contact to an email address, but no one other than the recipient will see that they received the email. In other words, if you send a letter to Michael Scott and Bcc Jim Halpert, Michael will not know that Jim also received it.
Why use BCC?
To hide email addresses. This feature can be used to keep someone's email secret from others. For example, if you're sending emails to a group of people about an upcoming event, you might choose BCC for all emails so you don't have to share other people's email addresses without permission.
For general information: BCC allows a person not included in the thread to see the message.
Good form: BCC allows you to politely remove people from email chains. For example, if a boss is introducing a person to someone, it would be good form to BCC the boss back. This shows that the person responded without flooding the inbox with a stream of emails back and forth.
"Reply" vs. "Reply All"
Answer: This option allows you to directly reply to the person who last emailed. If you reply directly to the first message, the reply will go to the original sender of the email. But if you reply to someone else's email in the chain, the reply will end up going only to that person.
Reply All: When you select this option, the response is sent to everyone whose addresses are in the “To” or “Cc” fields. This is useful for communicating information that concerns everyone.
If in doubt, it is better to select "Reply". You shouldn't be an annoying person.
Forwarding letters
To maintain postal etiquette, you need to follow several rules when sending:
Some emails are not intended to be forwarded. If a contact is sharing personal or sensitive information, such emails should be forwarded with great care.
When forwarding a long email thread, it is good practice to summarize what is being discussed in the emails so that the recipient knows exactly what is wanted from him. There's nothing worse than receiving a 50-email chain with a note that simply says “look below.”
To make a forwarded email start a new mail chain (instead of being part of the current thread), you simply need to include your own comment in the subject line.
New thread topic line: Look at this! Fw: notes from Tuesday
Response time
Everyone has overflowing inboxes and busy schedules, so it's not always possible to respond to an email right away. The appropriate response time varies from person to person:
Direct team members: Reply within 12 hours. The team must work quickly and efficiently; In addition, most letters concern operational issues.
Common colleagues: For all other employees the response time is 24 hours. Unable to respond within this time frame? You need to inform them that the letter has been read and the answer will be ready by time X.
External contacts: Unless an email is marked as urgent or something that needs to be answered as soon as possible, the appropriate time to respond would be the end of the week in which the email is received - for example, if it is received on a Tuesday, you must respond by Friday of that week. For high value contacts, response time is 24 hours.
Answers when away from work
If an employee is unavailable for an extended period of time, an automated OOO (Out-of-Office) response will let you know that they are unable to respond to a message before their return to office date.
Good and bad options for LLC answers:
- Good: Communicate how long the employee will be unavailable.
- Bad: Create an LLC response for one day.
- Good: Suggest another employee to contact for urgent matters.
- Bad: Not informing this colleague that he was included in the LLC response.
- Good: Include "LLC" in your email subject line so people can easily identify the automated response.
- Bad: Include more details than necessary, such as where exactly the employee spends his vacation.
If an employee is taking leave for an extended period of time, it may be helpful to leave a channel for communication in situations that are truly urgent and require attention.
Sending from your phone
You should not add “Writing from my phone” or “Written on my phone - please excuse any typos.” Many people use this as an excuse for laziness, so as not to re-read the letter again before clicking “Send”.
How to write email letters correctly - Email etiquette
5 (100%) - 2 ratingsI recently got this working, so although I would share:
Sending all outgoing mail to Sent folders with postfix and cyrus imap.
Do postfix send copies of copies of all outgoing emails to a special "sent" email account. Use a sieve on this special account to redirect all emails to the Sent folder associated with the account.
Create an email user account for sent
The easiest way to do this is to create a new unix account for senders, setting the shell to /bin/false so that no one can log into:
Host$ sudo useradd sent host$ sudo chsh -s /bin/false sent
Configure imap for sent user
Using cyradm, we create a new mailbox (i.e. user) and let that user add access to all of our Sent Items imap folders:
Host$ $ cyradm -user cyrus localhost Password:
Create a sieve script for the submitted account
This script redirects all incoming email to the sent account, to the Sent folder in the senders inbox.
My script is called sent.sieve and looks something like this:
# Sieve script for sent. If outgoing email is bcc"ed to this account, # this sieve script will redirect it to the sender Sent folder require ["fileinto"]; if address:is:localpart "From" "userx" ( fileinto "user.userx.Sent "; ) elsif address:is:localpart "From" "usery" ( fileinto "user.usery.Sent"; ) elsif address:is:localpart "From" "userz" ( fileinto "user.userz.Sent"; )
You will need to enter an entry for each of your users (userx, usery, userz in the example above). I couldn't find a better way to do this. Suggestions are welcome [email protected]
Set up the sieve script like this:
Host$ sievshell localhost -user=sent -a=cyrus Password:
Configure bcc mapping for postfix
In the postfix directory (/etc/postfix on debian) create a file called bcc_map that looks like this:
# copy all locally sent mail to the sent account @yourdomain.com [email protected]
Compile this into a postfix hash file using:
Host$ sudo postmap bcc_map
Add the following configuration to the postfix main.cf configuration file:
Sender_bcc_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/bcc_map
And make postfix reload its configuration:
host $sudo/etc/init.d/postfix reload
Testing and Debugging
Send the email and check that it is copied to the Sent folder.
In case of problems you should check the cyrus and postfix logs (all logged to /var/log/syslog on my debian host). Typos and incorrect access permissions usually result in some hints being sent to logs.
Remember how in the good old song they sing “Wait for the letter in the envelope - don’t tear it up...”? Many will immediately say in response: “So when was that? Now it’s email!” Of course it is. Actually, it is impossible to “tear” or perform any other physical actions on a virtual message. But these are just nuances. E-mail, like its older brother, the post office, regularly delivers “news” to recipients all over the world - funny, sad, thoughtful, interesting and, of course, romantic.
Still, it’s a sin not to use such technology, you must agree! Only, of course, if there is no manic obsession to write letters to the addressee exclusively with a ballpoint pen and certainly in small handwriting. Although there are only a few of them these days.
So, dear reader, this article will help you send an email using popular services on the Internet - Gmail, Yandex and Mail.ru. You will also learn from it how you can send an anonymous letter and send a document directly in the Word text editor .
How to send a letter correctly?
To send email, regardless of the service you choose, you need to perform almost the same set of actions. Yes, and don't forget! You must have an account registered on the mail website. If there is none, check out our website for guides on creating an e-mail. This procedure is easy and simple.
Gmail
Dispatch
1. On the profile page, in the upper left corner, click the red “Write” button.
2. On the first line of the form, type the recipient's mailbox address. You can also select a user from the address book (list of saved addresses) by clicking the word “To”.
3. In the second line, sign the letter: indicate your name or initials so that the recipient immediately understands who the online message came from.
If you want to attach a statement or any document stored on Google.Drive to the text, click its icon in the bottom panel, go to the storage and select the required file. But if, for example, you need to download scanned text in PDF format from your computer, then click “paperclip”.
You can also edit the text of the message, give it a beautiful look (Important point! Especially if you are sending out a commercial offer with a link or archive!). To perform this procedure, press the “A” button (the very first one in the panel, on the left). And then in the additional block, select the required function - “bold, italic”, “font settings”, “list creation”, etc.
to write an answer
When a letter, archive, application or any other document has been received and you urgently need to send a response to the addressee, click once with the left button under the text of the message in the “Click here...” field and fill out the form as described above.
You can also send electronic “news” to Gmail using Checker Plus for Gmail, an add-on designed for monitoring incoming correspondence. This is done like this:
1. Click the checker icon in your browser.
2. In the panel that opens, click the “pencil” button.
3. Fill out the fields of the submitted form that opens.
Yandex
Dispatch
1. In your Yandex.Mail profile, in the row of buttons above the list of messages, click “Write”.
2. In the “To” line, type the recipient’s e-mail; in the “Subject” you can create the title of the letter.
3. Type the text and, if necessary, edit it using the functional panel above the field (font, color, alignment, emoticons).
Advice! If you made a mistake while typing, click the left arrow button to cancel the operation.
4. To send an archive, video or audio file stored on your PC with a letter, click the “Attach” button and upload the necessary content. To download data from Yandex.Disk storage, click the “Flying Saucer” icon next to the same button.
5. When everything is ready, click “Submit” (you can click any of the buttons at the top and bottom of the form).
to write an answer
Click the field under the received message, and a form with the specified addressee (the author of the letter) will immediately open on the display.
The Yandex browser extension for reading letters has exactly the same “Write” button as in the profile on the site. Click it and enter all the necessary data: recipient's address, message and, if necessary, upload files. And if you have a question, “Why isn’t the message being sent?”, check the form to make sure it’s filled out correctly, perhaps you entered your e-mail incorrectly, and also look at your Internet connection settings.
Mail.ru
Dispatch
1. Go to the “Mail” section.
2. Click “Write a letter” (the button located above the correspondence sections).
3. Fill in the “To” (e-mail address) and “Subject” (email title) fields.
4. Print the letter and edit it using the functional panel located above the field.
To send a file (for example, a scanned report), click the “Attach” option to download data from a PC or the “Cloud” icon to provide a link to documents located in the Mail.ru remote storage.
5. Click "Submit".
to write an answer
To promptly send a response to a received message, click the “Reply” button above its text. Then fill out the form in the order described above.
Click the Mail.ru addon icon. In the list, click the letter you want to respond to. In the tab that opens, use the “Submit” option.
How to send a text document in Word?
This operation can only be performed if an email client is installed on your computer (for example, Thunderbird, eM Client, Windows Live Mail, etc.).
Method number 1: fast sending
- Right-click on the Word document.
- In the context menu, select: Send → Addressee.
- In the client, specify the recipient and activate sending a text file.
Method number 2: choosing a format
1. Open the prepared document in Word.
3. Select format:
- “Send as attachments” - a full copy of the document as an attachment;
- “...as PDF” - the text document is sent in PDF format;
- “...as XPS” - an attachment in XPS format with formatting settings saved.
How to anonymously send a message to an addressee?
If you want to hide your e-mail, use a special online service. On the Internet you can find a huge number of sites providing this service, but we will consider the most popular ones in this article.
(send-email.org)
Each message is sent from a different e-mail (automatically generates addresses). But it still provides the user with the opportunity to indicate their “coordinates”.
(http://www.theanonymousemail.com)
To make an anonymous newsletter on this service, you must register and indicate your real e-mail (it will not be displayed in the message).
(https://www.guerrillamail.com/)
The site provides the user with a temporary e-mail for a period of 1 hour. You can send and read messages in it. You can delete your mailbox at any time.
Have a comfortable and safe stay online! About, .
According to various sources, from 50 to 95% of all emails in the world are spam from cyber fraudsters. The goals of sending such letters are simple: to infect the recipient’s computer with a virus, steal user passwords, force a person to transfer money “to charity,” enter their bank card details, or send scans of documents.
Often spam is annoying at first glance: crooked layout, automatically translated text, forms for entering a password right in the subject line. But there are malicious letters that look decent, subtly play on a person’s emotions and do not raise doubts about their veracity.
The article will talk about 4 types of fraudulent letters that Russians most often fall for.
1. Letters from “government organizations”
Fraudsters can pretend to be the tax office, the Pension Fund, Rospotrebnadzor, the sanitary and epidemiological station and other government organizations. For credibility, watermarks, scans of seals and state symbols are inserted into the letter. Most often, the task of criminals is to scare a person and convince him to open a file with a virus attached.
Usually this is an encryptor or a Windows blocker that disables the computer and requires you to send a paid SMS to resume operation. A malicious file can be disguised as a court order or a summons to appear before the head of the organization.
Fear and curiosity turn off the user's consciousness. Accounting forums describe cases where employees of organizations brought files with viruses to their home computers because they could not open them in the office due to the antivirus.
Sometimes scammers ask you to send documents in response to a letter in order to collect information about the company, which will be useful for other deception schemes. Last year, one group of scammers was able to deceive many people using the "request to fax papers" distraction trick.
When an accountant or manager read this, he immediately cursed the tax office: “There are mammoths sitting there, oh my!” and switched his thoughts from the letter itself to solving technical problems with sending.
2. Letters from “banks”
Windows blockers and ransomware can hide in fake letters not only from government organizations, but also from banks. Messages “A loan has been taken out in your name, please read the lawsuit” can really be scary and make you want to open the file.
A person can also be persuaded to log into a fake personal account, offering to see accrued bonuses or receive a prize that he won in the Sberbank Lottery.
Less often, scammers send invoices for payment of service fees and additional interest on the loan, for 50-200 rubles, which are easier to pay than to understand.
3. Letters from “colleagues”/“partners”
Some people receive dozens of business letters with documents during the working day. With such a load, you can easily fall for the “Re:” tag in the subject of the letter and forget that you have not yet corresponded with this person.
Especially if the poisoner field indicates “Alexander Ivanov”, “Ekaterina Smirnova” or any simple Russian name, which absolutely do not linger in the memory of a person who constantly works with people.
If the goal of scammers is not to collect SMS payments for unlocking Windows, but to cause harm to a specific company, then letters with viruses and phishing links can be sent on behalf of real employees. The list of employees can be collected on social networks or viewed on the company website.
If a person sees a letter in the mailbox from a person from a neighboring department, then he does not take a closer look at it, he may even ignore antivirus warnings and open the file no matter what.
4. Letters from “Google/Yandex/Mail”
Google sometimes sends emails to Gmail account owners saying that someone has tried to log into your account or that Google Drive has run out of space. Fraudsters successfully copy them and force users to enter passwords on fake sites.
Users of Yandex.Mail, Mail.ru and other mail services also receive fake letters from the “service administration”. The standard legends are: “your address has been added to the blacklist”, “your password has expired”, “all emails from your address will be added to the spam folder”, “look at the list of undelivered emails”. As in the previous three points, the main weapons of criminals are fear and curiosity of users.
How to protect yourself?
Install an antivirus on all your devices so that it automatically blocks malicious files. If for some reason you do not want to use it, then check all even slightly suspicious email attachments for virustotal.com
Never enter passwords manually. Use password managers on all devices. They will never offer you password options to enter on fake sites. If for some reason you do not want to use them, then manually enter the URL of the page on which you are going to enter the password. This applies to all operating systems.
Wherever possible, enable password confirmation via SMS or two-factor identification. And of course, it is worth remembering that you cannot send scans of documents, passport data or transfer money to strangers.
Perhaps many of the readers, when looking at the screenshots of the letters, thought: “Am I a fool to open files from such letters? You can see from a kilometer away that this is a setup. I won't bother with a password manager and two-factor authentication. I'll just be careful."
Yes, most fraudulent emails can be detected by eye. But this does not apply to cases when the attack is aimed specifically at you.
The most dangerous spam is personal
If a jealous wife wants to read her husband’s mail, Google will offer her dozens of sites that offer the service “Hacking mail and social network profiles without prepayment.”
The scheme of their work is simple: they send a person high-quality phishing letters that are carefully composed, neatly laid out and take into account the person’s personal characteristics. Such scammers sincerely try to hook a specific victim. They find out from the customer her social circle, tastes, and weaknesses. It may take an hour or more to develop an attack on a specific person, but the effort pays off.
If a victim is caught, they send the customer a screenshot of the mailbox and ask them to pay (the average price is about $100) for their services. After receiving the money, they send you the password for the mailbox or an archive with all the letters.
It often happens that when a person receives a letter with a link to the file “Video compromising evidence on Tanya Kotova” (hidden keylogger) from his brother, he is filled with curiosity. If the letter is provided with text containing details that are known to a limited circle of people, then the person immediately denies the possibility that his brother could have been hacked or that someone else is pretending to be him. The victim relaxes and turns off the antivirus to hell to open the file.
Not only jealous wives, but also unscrupulous competitors can turn to such services. In such cases, the price tag is higher and the methods are more subtle.
You should not rely on your attentiveness and common sense. Let an emotionless antivirus and password manager protect you, just in case.
P.S. Why do spammers write such “stupid” letters?
Carefully crafted scam emails are relatively rare. If you go to the spam folder, you can have a lot of fun. What kind of characters do scammers come up with to extort money: the director of the FBI, the heroine of the series “Game of Thrones”, a clairvoyant who was sent to you by higher powers and wants to tell you the secret of your future for $15 dollars, a killer who was ordered to pay you off, but he sincerely offers to pay off .
An abundance of exclamation marks, buttons in the body of the letter, a strange sender address, a nameless greeting, automatic translation, gross errors in the text, a clear overkill of creativity - letters in the spam folder simply “scream” about their dark origin.
Why do scammers who send their messages to millions of recipients not want to spend a couple of hours composing a neat letter and spare 20 bucks for a translator to increase the response of the audience?
In a Microsoft study Why do Nigerian Scammers Say They are from Nigeria? the question “Why do scammers continue to send letters on behalf of billionaires from Nigeria when the general public has known about “Nigerian letters” for 20 years” is deeply analyzed. According to statistics, more than 99.99% of recipients ignore such spam.
But one in 10 thousand is being targeted and this person is an ideal victim who is completely out of touch with reality and does not know how to use search engines. At risk are mentally ill people and people who suffer from severe drug addiction and alcoholism.
A spammer who trades in extortion absolutely does not need relatively normal people to respond to his letters. They will not transfer the money, but will simply distract you with questions. He needs contacts of standard eccentrics who will gladly send Daenerys $500, because the squirrel in their head approves of it.
From these priceless specimens, the most solvent are selected and subjected to careful personal psychological treatment. For example, a 50-year-old woman from the Kamchatka Territory recently transferred 4.5 million rubles to an American military man who found her on Odnoklassniki, fell in love, promised to marry, but after three months
All the elementary rules outlined below relate primarily to business correspondence with your partners, colleagues, customers and performers. Using them in personal correspondence is a private matter for everyone. However, following these rules in personal correspondence will only create a good impression of you.
Ethics in business email
If you suddenly do not want to read further, limit yourself to at least the following basic rules:
- When answering, use the “Reply All” button. This will cc the recipients of the initial email so your reply doesn't get past them. I strongly recommend hiding the “Reply” button in the interface settings. If necessary, you can delete unwanted recipients manually.
- Do not leave the Subject field blank. The people you correspond with may receive hundreds of emails a day, and they use this field to quickly assess the importance and content of the email.
- Quote letters. Don't start your reply with a new email, click "Reply All" on the received email, and don't disable the quote when replying and forwarding feature in your email client settings.
- With full citation(if your answer is to the entire letter) write the text of the answer at the BEGINNING of the letter, and not at the end, below.
SHALL WE CONTINUE?
Receiving letters
- The letters received must be read. If you received a letter, it means that someone sent it for some reason (of course, spam is not considered here). If a person has letters marked as unread, and they are older than one day, he does not know how to work with mail. However, this can be forgiven if:
- the person died or unexpectedly fell ill;
- working with mail is not part of his job responsibilities (then he has no need for a service e-mail).
- If you are not a manager, check your email at least 2 times a day: in the morning and in the afternoon. Not answering a production question from you can stall other people's work and delay the resolution of issues.
- If you are a manager, your workday should start by launching an email client that stays on all day and automatically checks your email. Set up automatic mail delivery/receipt at least every 10 minutes (preferably 1-3 minutes).
- You have received a letter. If you are very busy, immediately assess who it is from, the subject and skim it - this will help you quickly decide whether the letter requires an urgent response or can wait a bit.
- If you can, please respond immediately. This is the easiest and most effective way to move things along and not collect mail.
- If you understand that you cannot answer within 24 hours, it is better to immediately write “I will answer within a couple of days” or at least “I will answer a little later.”
Fields “To”, “Cc”, “Bcc”
- Remember that there are To, CC, and BCC fields. Your further actions (and the actions of your correspondence partners) upon receiving the letter depend on them:
- “To” (“To”) - the letter and the information or questions contained in it are addressed directly to the recipient. If you send a question, you expect a response from the addressee specified in the “To” field. If you are the recipient, then you should be the one to respond.
- “CC” (“Copy”) - recipients appearing in copies receive a letter “for your information”, for information or are “invited to witness”. The recipient of the copies should not generally respond to the letter; Moreover, it is considered polite if, if there is such a need, you begin with the phrase “Sorry for interfering.”
- “BCC” (“Blind Copy”) is a field for “palace intrigues.” By indicating a recipient in this field, you “secretly” send this letter to him: the fact that the letter was sent to this person will not be known to the main recipient or those in the copies. It is also used for mass mailing so that your address book is not known to all recipients.
- When answering, use the “Reply All” button. This will save a copy to the recipients of the initial email so your response will not pass them by.
- DO NOT remove people added by your correspondent from copies of the letter. If you want to answer something personal so that other correspondents do not receive your answer, then delete everyone from the copies except the one who wrote the letter (yes, we never use the “Reply” button).
- If there are more than two recipients in the “To” field in a letter received, this means that both of these correspondents or any of them must respond. Consider that BOTH should answer - if the letter is addressed to you and someone else, answer too (even if it is an answer like “This question is definitely not for me, let so-and-so answer”).
- In turn, it is highly recommended NOT to include more than one addressee in the “To” field. To a letter sent to two, you will not receive an answer from either, since each will think that the other will answer. Not everyone read this article.
- Forwarding private correspondence to a mailing list without the consent of the participants in the correspondence is unethical!
Subject field
- Don't leave it blank.
- The subject line of the letter should be brief, but reflecting the main content and topic of the letter. Titles like “Question”, “Hello!” or empty headings reveal that you are a beginner who lacks basic business writing skills.
- When you respond to one of several emails with different subject lines, respond to the correct ones. Reply to the letter with the subject “Meeting on Tuesday, April 18” about the meeting and to the letter “Printing Materials” about printing materials. This involves quoting previous correspondence (see Letter Writing section below).
- If you need to periodically send e-mails such as weekly reports, try to keep the header constant, or at least part of it should be constant, so that the recipient can set up automatic rules for sorting such mail.
The importance of writing
- If the letter contains information about urgent changes, the text of the contract or other information that you need to pay attention to first, use the “high” importance, this will highlight the letter in the inbox.
- Do not use “high” importance in vain - “noisy” people are annoying, be more modest.
- For a personal letter to a business correspondent or a letter with a funny picture or link, mark the importance as “low.”
Writing letters (responses)
- Start with a greeting, it's polite. "Hello, Gria!" indicates that you are too lazy to write the person’s name. Even just “Andrey!” or “Good afternoon!” quite polite and sufficient.
- Speak the same language with the person. This applies not only to the Russian/English language, but also to the form of the text. If you receive a formal letter, an informal response to it will be disrespectful to the respondent and a demonstration of your own low culture. A formal response to an informal appeal is either a call to comply with regulations, or this is simply required by corporate rules.
- Try to always respond to the last letter in the correspondence chain, and not to some intermediate one.
- Ne ispolzuyte translit except for cases of sending letters from conditions in which it is difficult to type text differently (for example, from a mobile phone or from a computer without a Russian keyboard layout).
- If your email client does not support the Russian language or spoils the encodings, then attach the text of the response as an attachment.
- A business letter should be precise, concise and specific:
- Accuracy - be sure to include the exact details you are referring to (date and subject of another email, meeting date, meeting agenda item, file name, link to online document, etc.).
- Conciseness - some people present in three pages what could be written in three sentences. He who thinks clearly speaks clearly, and your correspondent sees this.
- Specificity - from the letter it should be clear exactly WHAT EXACTLY is required from the recipient, what actions they want from him.
- Business correspondence is not a place for exercises in the epistolary genre and not a place for expressing emotions. For this purpose, there are forums, chats and other means of electronic interpersonal communication. A laconic business text is not dryness, but time saving and precision of thought.
- If the letter contains several questions, topics or tasks, structure them and separate them into paragraphs with or without numbering. A continuous “stream of thought” is difficult to read, and it is easy to miss the main point of the letter. Moreover, some people tend to immediately throw a poorly structured letter into the trash bin (although this is probably extremism).
- Keep in mind that the answer to a request or task is “Let’s do it!” incomplete “We’ll do it by such and such a date,” “in so many days,” “after such and such an event” are more definite and accurate answers.
- If the letter is worded in such a way that it can be answered with a simple “ok”, then the answer will most likely be received much faster. For example, if there are several options for what to do, offer some default option.
- The text must not contain errors. Ochepyatki are not scary, but if you write and spell a word incorrectly in every letter, it becomes noticeable very quickly, and your “C” with a minus in Russian becomes obvious (as well as speculative further conclusions about your general level of education and culture).
- Try not to use html formatting of the letter. Unfortunately, this format for writing letters is the default in Outlook, but when using it, especially when quoting (replying and forwarding), a lot of questions arise.
- If you received a letter in html format, DO NOT change it to plain text, this breaks the sender’s perception of information when receiving your response. The more important your correspondent is to you, the more important it is to maintain an adequate perception of him. You can handle highlighting your answers in html citations using color, or you can also use the “Reduce indentation” button on the html formatting panel (although there are capricious nuances there).
- Quote the text of the original letter. What do you think this would mean? I don’t know either: To: AIST is a creative bird Subject: Re: Re: Re: Question Ok! Vasya
- Never edit another person's text when quoting it! This is a kind of forgery of letters.
- When quoting in full (if your response is to the entire letter), write the text of the response at the BEGINNING of the letter, not at the end.
- If you are answering point by point using a quotation, separate the quotation with blank lines at the TOP and BOTTOM and use Capital Letters at the beginning of sentences. Try to find the answers here: > we suggest replacing the logo with the one included, > since this very colorful background did not find the logo in the attachment > correct the inscription - instead of “fish” you should write “slave”! > otherwise we will be misunderstood, the inscription has been corrected, sorry > and the last thing...
