An official email is an email that you send to someone (or a group of people) who you don’t know. Most times, these emails are sent to someone in a position of authority, for example, your boss in the office, or to the Hiring Manager in a company in which you submitted a job application.

Because of this, such emails are professional, polite, straight to the point, and free from grammatical errors.

What are the components of an official email?

Typically, official emails would contain the following:

• Subject-

This is a broad description of what the email discusses. It could be a new subject topic or a reply to an already established topic. For example, you may receive an email concerning a scholarship you applied for and the subject may be “YOUR APPLICATION TO OXFORD REACH SCHOLARSHIP”.

• Sender-

The email description would provide brief details concerning the sender of the email.

• Recipient-

This is the intended recipient of the email. The sender would have specified the recipient or recipients of the email before it is sent.

• Salutation, Body, and Closing-

The email would include a proper salutation, relevant information for the email (which makes up the body of the email), and a proper closure of the email.

• Attachments-

Although this is not a compulsory requirement, it is most times included in work emails or in other situations where files also have to be sent via the official email.

Generally, official emails are unlike unofficial or informal emails which may have one or a few of these components missing.

What does an official email look like?

With the typical components of an official email in mind, an official email would look like this:

‘Subject: YOUR APPLICATION TO TOWER INC.

From: Tower INC.

To: David Shina

Good day, Mr David

This email is a confirmation of the receipt of your credentials and other supporting documents of your application for the position of Assistant Marketing Manager.

We will inform you of the success of your application in due time.

Kindly be patient with us.

Best Regards.’

In this scenario, the company has sent an official response email to acknowledge that some prior files and documents have been received from the applicant.

What are the official email writing etiquettes I should follow?

This section of this article highlights 12 rules you should follow when writing official emails.

1. Do not include emojis in your emails: Emojis generally have an unofficial and informal expression, which is against the tone of official emails.
2. Ensure that you employ a consistent email format: This would act as a form of control to keep you from deviating.
3. Never use shorthand typing or writing: Especially when communicating with your superior or some other person in a position of authority.
4. You should strive to be as brief as possible: However, the main purpose of the email should be properly communicated.
5. Ensure you proofread your emails before sending them: This is to help in eliminating errors you probably were not aware of.
6. Stay away from sarcasm: This overrides your tone of professionality in the email.
7. Do refrain from using highly negative words: For example, terrible, etc in your emails even when discussing adverse situations.
8. Include appropriate salutations in the introduction of your email: Here, it may be necessary for you to know the gender and position/designation of the recipient.
9. Use proper sign-offs at the end of the email: For example, you may use ‘Warm Regards’, ‘Best Regards’, or ‘Have a wonderful day ahead. Proper sign-offs at the end of the email matter. It is another avenue to showcase your professionalism in the email. Use sign-offs like ‘Warm Regards’ or ‘Best Regards’.
10. Ensure the intended recipient's name and email address are correct: The last thing you want to do is to send your email to the wrong person.
11. Your subject line should be short and specific: Remember your subject line gives the purpose of the email at a glance.
12. Never respond to official emails when you are emotional: This would cloud your judgment and also the tone of the email and give the wrong impression to the reader.

Conclusion

How you structure your official emails shows your level of professionalism as well as how you perceive the recipient. Therefore, there is a need to carefully reorganize your emails.

SmartSMSSolutions can help you with your work emails and also in sending them to your clients, customers, or other individuals through SMS. You can start sending your SMS with ease just by simply registering with us.

To Register with us:

• Visit our website.
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If you enjoyed reading this article, do check out our other article on how to write better emails at work.