How to Write a Professional and Effective Email/Letter?

Professional letters/emails are written and sent for work-related correspondence for several different situations like employment, interview, pay raises, or business. Professional letters/emails are written to impress potential employers, show politeness and professional courtesy or allow the recipient to understand you personally and professionally. Email is one of the widely and most used platforms for communication both in and outside of the workplace. In this blog, we are going to learn how to write a professional letter/email, so without further adieu let us go through it.

Steps to Follow to Write a Professional Email/Letter

Here are some best-listed steps you should follow to write a professional email/letter

Identify Your Goal

You must ask yourself what would the reader do and how would he reciprocate to the letter/email before writing. Once you have determined the aim of your email, you will be able to ensure everything you include in your letter/email will support this decision. If you want the reader to give feedback on an assignment/project which you have attached in this letter, let them know what that assignment is about and why you need their review, for instance. 

Consider Your Audience

When you are writing an email you must set a tone that matches the audience. This is a professional letter and it should not include any kind of jokes or puns. You must keep it strictly professional and to the point. Also, if this professional email writing is to a colleague or co-worker then you could apply a less formal tone and a friendly approach. 

Keep it Concise

As this is a professional letter, you must think of keeping it concise. You can make it as lengthy and brief as possible without leaving out small information regarding the content. But, sometimes superiors do not have a lot of time to read a letter for too long. You can use short and informative sentences to not make it longer so that it becomes easy for the reader. So, keep it to the point without elaborating a lot. While you are editing the mail, remove any point that you think is unnecessary. If this seems difficult, then pass the content through a summarizer tool to get a sweet and concise version.

Proofread Your Email

It is the most important point to follow after you are finished with professional email writing. You have to send a professional email without any kind of error because it leads to unprofessionalism. These errors could be grammatical, syntax, spelling, and many more. If this email is to a potential client then you must ask your superior to read it once before sending it. But if you feel like doing it yourself, there are several apps and websites which would help you to remove these errors. So, it is pretty important to proofread a professional email before sending it. Also, learn how to write an inquiry letter. It is necessary to proofread professional letter writing. 

Use Proper Etiquette

It seems quite respectful to initiate an email or a letter with a greeting. It looks polite and courteous. Respect leads to professionalism. Also, it is important to avoid emailing a person while they are on leave or at an odd hour until and unless the message is pretty necessary. 

Remember to Follow Up

People receive emails all the time, be it through some app, online pay, or advertisements so they tend to miss or camouflage a few. If the receiver does not reply to your email within 2-3 working days, you should send them another email for a polite reminder. You should always write up follow emails after communicating with someone. It is important after professional writing. 

How to Write a Professional Letter? 

Above, we have created a sample of professional email writing for you to understand and have an idea on how to write a professional letter:

(Your address)

If you are typing a letter on a letterhead or typing an email, do not follow this. But, if you are typing a letter on a blank page you must include your address on the top left corner of the page. Only your address would be included here because your name and other basic information would be included in the closing details. 

(Date)

Leave a line and mention the date of the day on which you are sending the email/letter. A lot of people tend to miss out on a date but it is important to put the date to be updated and informative. 

(Recipient’s name)

(Recipient’s address)

Here, you have to first put the name and then the address of the receiver. You have to mention the full name, the full address along with the street name, zip code, and landmark of the receiver. Since this email/letter is professional you should send this to his/her office. You can refer to your superior about which address to put in.

(Dear/Respected) 

This is the salutation of the letter/email. You can write the full name of the person or address them as sir/ma’am. There are several tricks to use salutation which you can refer to. 

(Body of the mail/letter)

After the salutation, you have to leave a line and start explaining the purpose of the letter and provide any relevant details. As we have mentioned earlier, the professional letter/email must be clear and concise. You have to include and mention work-related stuff. There should be three paragraphs in the body of the email. The first paragraph would start with greetings about how he/she is doing and then state why you are writing the letter. 

In the second paragraph, you must briefly state the content and all about your assignment/project. Mention all the information including your judgment and justification. Then in the third paragraph, you can end the letter with a reiteration and you shall include that you are hoping for him/her to reciprocate as soon as possible and if they need additional information then they are free to contact you anytime.

(Sincerely/Thank you,

Your signature)

At the end of the letter/mail, you must mention a professional sign-off after two line gaps of the third paragraph with ‘sincerely’ or ‘thank you’ followed by a comma and your signature in writing. Whereas, if you are typing an email, you must put your full name, the company you work at, and your full address along with the street name, zip code, and landmark.

Also learn the tricks to create a professional email signature for further reference.

Conclusion

Thanks to the speed and efficiency of the platform, people are most likely to use this platform irrespective of any position in the industry. Professional letters and emails are sent for several reasons. We hope you have had a thorough read on professional email writing and this blog helped you find what you were looking for.