Your Emails Anatomy

Even your email has predefined anatomical structure!  Most e-mail services have the same basic set up so you can be sure there is consistency.  The trick is how to truly use the structure appropriately and more importantly what are the rules of email etiquette.

It begins with the To line which you use to enter one or more e-mail addresses for the receivers of your email.  Typically multiple recipients are separated by semicolons ; or commas.

Next is the Cc line which is for the email receipients who you determine should recive whats known as a courtesy copy aka carbon copy.  This is widely misused in business today.  I urge you to consider two things before using utilizing the Cc:
#1: Is the e-mail urgent for the cc'ed recipients, do you expect a response?
#2: Are you using it to ensure your boss is aware of what you are doing as a means to prove you've completed a task?

The Bcc line is next in the structural layout.  This allows you to send a blind courtesy copy to designated recipients.  The Bcc is not visible to other recipients only to the sender and the Bcc recipient. This is potentially another misused feature which can be misconstrued as a means to tattle on others.  More appropriately a forward to the appropriate recipient with a note in regards to why you are forwarding.




Next up is the Subject line which contains a short description of what the purpose or content of the message is. This should be brief but enough to grab the recipients attention, this determines whether they open your email or not.  A good article I came acrossed suggested to treat it like a news headline.  See the article for other good advice http://www.lyris.com/email-marketing/108-Email-Subject-Lines-15-Rules-to-Write-Them-Right


Attachments or the Attach Line will contain the filenames for any attachments you have chose in the message.  A good tip is to keep these brief as well. 


The meat of your email structure is the message body which contains the message you are sending.  Treat this as a formal letter when using for business.  All to often people treat email as a casual interaction.


Finally the signature file is the closing of your email.  You can set up an automatic signature which contains all of your business information.  Additionally we use the signature to promote anything new and exiting we want all customers to know.  Most organizations have a pre-determined format, here is an example of my business signature file:


Amy Cronin

Bosch Security Systems, Inc.
Supervisor - Pre-Sales, Customer Service, Key Accounts & Sales Support (ST/SCS1-AM)
130 Perinton Parkway
Fairport, NY 14450
www.boschsecurity.us

Tel.: 1 (585) 678-3751
Mobile: 1 (585) 719-6790
Fax: 1 (585) 223-9180
mailto: amy.cronin@us.bosch.com

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