If you’re as old as The Guru you’d have been around when
Ray Tomlinson sent the first email. You’d have also seen how email went from being used solely by academics to the global phenomenon it is today.

As a business tool, email is extremely important, however no-one is actually taught how to write their email. People new to email often learn the subtle nuances slowly and painfully over time.

So to help everyone start sending better email communication here is our every growing list of the unspoken rules of email etiquette.

1. Our first run, and probably the most important. Keep your emails as short as possible. Remember less is definitely more when it comes to email messages.
2. Bullet points are awesome. If you need to get some simple points across use bullets or numbered lists. They much easier to skim read than paragraphs
3. Make better use of the subject line by being more descriptive.
4. If your email is urgent use the subject line and also indicated in the body what the deadline is.
5. If your email is just information put FYI in the subject and body of the message so that it’s clear that you’re not expecting a reply.
6. If you need to ask a specific question put this clearly in the opening sentence or even subject.
7. If you receive an urgent email yourself, try to reply as soon as possible, if you’re unable to provide a full response let the sender know when you’ll be able to get back in full to them. It will save a lot of “follow-up” emails.
8. If you email someone who you know if often busy, it’s not rude to follow-up with them after a week or so. Many busy people often need 1-2 follow-up emails before they reply. If after the third follow-up you’ve not got a reply then try using the phone instead.
9. Don’t follow up an email too quickly, leave it at least 5 days. if it’s really important then switch to instant messaging or the phone.
10. Don’t use bold, never ever, even if you think something is super important. That goes for CAPITAL LETTERS too.
11. Use web safe fonts, and keep to standard black text.
12. Be respectful to who you CC within your emails, remember the more people on the thread the less likely you are to get a proper response.
13. Same as CC, be respectful when using the “Reply All” option. If necessary move people to BCC who are no longer required in the conversation. Remember to say that you’ve moved them to BCC within the first line of the email.
14. Don’t reply to a thread with “Me too.” or similar. If your colleagues have a tendency to do this try using the Mute Conversation feature in Gmail.
15. Make sure you have a clear email signature.
16. If you receive an aggressive or angry email from someone, don’t reply. Use the phone instead, angry emails are often not as bad when they are speaking with someone.
17. Don’t worry about sending emails late at night. Did you know that the majority of emails are opened between 8pm-11:59pm, closely followed by 12am-4am.