Email Reply Etiquette: Rules for Responding to Emails

Why Follow Email Etiquette When Replying to an Email?

First, what is email etiquette? It’s a bunch of formal rules you and your business or workplace need to follow when communicating with others via email. It keeps up a good brand name, ensures you have positive relationships, and helps your business progress further by holding a good reputation.

It may sound intense; however, it's simple to follow email reply etiquette rules. You can’t follow the rules for writing a message, and then not bother when it comes to your response!

If you suddenly come across as rude and blunt everything may not go to plan, your deal may be lost, or the recipient might not want to respond to you.

By using email etiquette replies, you can avoid any confusion and potential insults. Keep this new relationship moving forward to benefit yourself, your business, or your workplace.

Keep reading to see some email etiquette reply examples and the rules you need to follow.

13 Email Reply Etiquette Rules

Here are 13 email reply etiquette rules you should be following when responding to important emails.

1. Use a friendly/professional tone
   When communicating via email you should always use a friendly and professional tone. Sometimes humour can be taken the wrong way and seen as an insult. So, keep it concise, to the point, and easy to read!
2. Follow email etiquette reply times
   Don’t leave them waiting. Respond before the end of the day, or at least within 5 days. Otherwise, they may give up on hearing from you, or forget what your initial message was about.
3. Use correct grammar and spell check
   If you want to be professional, always use the correct grammar within your emails, and spell check at the end. Proofread the whole message before sending it. Sometimes reading an email out loud can help or have someone else check it for you. If you can’t notice something wrong, someone else always will! Use dedicated online tools to correct sentences online, improving punctuation and style. These tools will assist you in spotting and addressing mistakes you may miss.
4. Remove “sent from iPhone”
   It looks rather careless if you leave a little note at the end of a message when sending it from your mobile. Remove this and input your own ending. Read more on how to end an email professionally.
5. Use their name!
   If they have given you their first name or title within their message, be sure to use it when greeting them. It’s polite and shows you have fully read and taken notice of their initial message.
6. Don’t use abbreviations or slang words
   Never use the shortened version of words, or slang words that may have a different meaning. This is because it can be taken the wrong way, misunderstood, or just cause confusion.
7. Use a friendly greeting and thank them for the email
   Although you are responding to a message, you still need to include a salutation and a friendly greeting. This is to keep your relationship positive and seem like you are thankful for their message. Learn more about what the best email greetings are from our Blog.
8. Only include relevant or needed attachments
   If you need to include a document, image, or other attachment, just include what they have asked for, or what’s relevant. Emails with too many attachments can be flagged for spam, meaning your response may go unnoticed.
9. Acknowledge the email if you can’t fully respond just yet
   Sometimes you might be too busy! If you cannot respond right away, you can always send a “Thank you for your email, I’ll get back to you shortly” response. Then don’t forget to send the proper response.
10. Stay on the subject or start a new thread
    When responding to a message, don’t start talking about something else on your mind. Keep within the subject of the message or start a new email thread concerning a different topic.
11. Check you are responding to the correct email address
    Make sure you aren’t sending a message to either the wrong address that’s spelt incorrectly or the wrong person within the email thread.
12. Don’t always use ‘reply all’
    Your response may not be relevant to everyone within the email thread. Only reply to the relevant person, otherwise, the rest may get annoyed, and you’ll be filing other mailboxes for no reason. Read more about what Reply All email etiquette is and how to use CC in email.
13. Include other forms of contact
    An email isn’t always the best response, sometimes picking up the phone or meeting face to face may be better. If this is the case, always include other forms of contact when sending your message.

Get more information about email etiquette tips and tricks.

What To Avoid When Responding to Emails

Of course, there are things you should avoid when trying to follow proper email response rules.

Here are some VERY unnecessary email replies:

1. Not taking any notice of what they have said.
   It would be rude to ignore the points they have made in their initial message. Always take notice of what they have said and respond appropriately. Even if you disagree!
2. Don’t be too blunt if they have misunderstood you.
   Sometimes information can get lost in translation, if you have been misunderstood in an original message or further up the email thread, don’t be rude or blunt about it. Simply change your approach and explain your points differently.
3. Don’t send them through the thread to find missed attachments.
   If someone within the email thread says they have missed a certain document or attachment, just resend it. Don’t send them back through the thread, this is annoying and unnecessary.

Read more about bad email examples.