17 absolute no-gos in emails: It’s not just smiley faces and greetings with “Dear” that are problematic

• Emails are an important means of communication at work and in private life.
• But even the wrong wording can quickly make a bad impression.
• You should definitely avoid these 17 no-gos in your emails.

More and more communication takes place via WhatsApp and smartphones. However, emails are still one of the most important means of communication, especially at work. But the mailer is also regularly used for private emails to your service provider, to authorities and similar institutions. But when you write and send an email, you can do more wrong than you might think.

In fact, there are a lot of no-nos that you should avoid when writing formal emails. It is not uncommon for the recipient to misunderstand your message or you even make a bad impression.

In professional life, the negative consequences can even go so far that the recipient breaks off contact with you at some point. This not only reflects on you, but also on your employer in everyday working life. So that you can avoid such mistakes in the future, we will show you some of the biggest no-gos and how you can easily avoid them in the future.

The problematic salutation “Dear”

To appear particularly serious, many people begin their emails with the salutation “Dear” followed by a formal “Mr” or “Ms.” This is okay for first contacts, but for regular communication partners it can seem stiff and old-fashioned. It’s better to use casual greetings like “Dear”, “Hello” or – if that’s too casual for you – “Hello”.

Which attachment?

Especially in everyday working life, many emails are sent with attachments. These are of course also referred to in the email. It’s just stupid if your recipient searches in vain for the promised attachment. Especially when things get hectic, emails tend to be rushed and are of course useless to the recipient without attachments. Just before sending, look at the attachment again and if an emergency arises, send the attachment in a second message as quickly as possible and briefly apologize for the oversight.

Cryptic file formats

In professional email communication, everything must always be as quick as possible. You should also be able to download attachments as quickly and easily as possible. As long as they are in the common PDF or DOCX format, this is not a problem. You should avoid less common formats in attachments if possible. This way you can be sure that the recipient doesn’t have to search for a suitable program online and download it in order to open your attachment.

Abbreviations disrupt the flow of reading

People like to use abbreviations so that they don’t have to write so much in emails. However, constant letter abbreviations make a text illegible. You can’t assume that the recipient can decipher all the abbreviations as easily as you can. This is especially true if you use common abbreviations like “etc.” uses abbreviations such as “ASAP”, “AOB” or even breaks down company names to their initials. It’s better if you write out such abbreviations. Then everyone knows what is meant.

Nobody has time for long emails

In professional life, emails are intended to enable quick communication. That doesn’t work if your emails drift into endless gibberish. If the recipient has to wade through a whole wall of text, this wastes their time unnecessarily. Therefore, try to keep your emails as long as necessary but as short as possible and get to the heart of the most important thing in a few sentences.

Some structure, if you may ask

If it can’t be avoided and your emails get a little longer, the next faux pas is already lurking here. The longer a text is, the more important the structure is. An email should therefore never take the form of a huge block of text, but should be structured by paragraphs that are both substantive and visual. Since your recipient could possibly read the message on their cell phone, a paragraph should not contain more than three to four sentences to make it easier to read.

Smileys: OK in chats, a no-go in emails

Smileys are the epitome of “casual” communication and although this can sometimes be an advantage in the wording itself, smileys have no place in business emails. On the one hand, they can be irritating because you don’t know whether the recipient can even interpret them correctly. On the other hand, there are many smileys and emojis that seem anything but serious. If you avoid smileys, you avoid misunderstandings.

Not all of your emails are “important”

Many email providers allow you to mark sent messages as “important”. However, you should not use this function carelessly. Imagine if everyone did that. Then the inbox would quickly be full of “important” emails and the really important messages would quickly get lost in this mass. In addition, you are asking your counterpart to act or respond quickly with an “important” email. You should only apply pressure where it is appropriate.

Bold, italic and underlined: Please use sparingly

If you want to emphasize particularly important information in emails, you can underline a word or bold it. Maybe even a whole sentence. But please only do this if it is really important information and above all: don’t do it every two to three sentences. An email with lots of bold, underlined or even italicized words is not only difficult to read, it also seems anything but serious.

Only link where it is really necessary

Sometimes you can’t avoid including links in emails. For example, if you want to draw the recipient’s attention to certain websites or products. However, you should only use a maximum of three links in an email, as these can visually distract from the content. We live in a time where people are reluctant to click on links in emails due to attempted fraud. Ideally, you don’t put the links in the middle of the text, but list them separately as sources and thus separate them from the actual content.

Use circular emails sparingly

You can send emails not just to one person, but also to “all” people in a selected group (e.g. work colleagues). But nothing is more annoying than having messages load up in your inbox that don’t concern you at all. So only send circular emails if you are sure that they are relevant to “all” recipients. Otherwise, you should select the recipients of your email individually.

Please be clear, friendly and without irony

It goes without saying, but in your emails you should always be as clear and simple as possible in order to quickly get to the point. A friendly tone is also important, especially in business correspondence. You should avoid irony completely. It is hardly recognizable in written form and can quickly cause misunderstandings.

Inappropriate email addresses and their consequences

Fortunately, employers usually specify a certain form for business email addresses. But in some professions this is not the case and if you send a private message to authorities or service providers, you are also free to choose the address. But your email is unlikely to be taken seriously if it comes from a sender like “[email protected]”. Particularly raunchy or offensive email addresses can even give the recipient a catastrophic impression of you.

The subject line is the flagship

What is the first thing the recipient of your email sees besides the address? Of course the subject line. This should not only give an impression of what the email is about, but ideally also contain information about your company name (if available) and any dates. Make sure that the subject line is not too long so that it is displayed completely in the inbox. E-mails with uninformative subject lines are quickly overlooked or annoy your recipient because they first have to look for the reason for your concern in the message.

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Consider the broadcast time

If possible, you should send business emails in particular within normal office hours of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. A little earlier or later is okay, but you should avoid sending your messages in the middle of the night. This makes a strange impression on the recipient and seems as if you only have work on your mind 24/7. In addition, some recipients will feel under pressure to respond to you in the middle of the night. And who wants to do that?

Misspelled names

Do you know what makes a particularly bad impression when sending emails? Misspelled names. What should the recipient of your message think if you don’t even spend five seconds checking it when you write your email. This almost conveys a certain disrespect, especially with important emails. So do you keep a special eye on it?

Spelling mistakes have been out since elementary school

Spelling errors and letter transpositions are unpleasantly noticeable in every email. They either give the impression of a lack of spelling knowledge or sloppy proofreading. It gets particularly bad when there are so many errors throughout the text that the person you are talking to can no longer decipher it. Anyone who has difficulties with spelling should therefore proofread (or have proofread) several times and use spelling programs on the Internet, such as Duden.

If you send your email to friends or acquaintances, they probably won’t hold these mistakes against you. Then you can formulate it a little more loosely and use a smiley or leave out the salutation. But here, too, you should stick to some of the rules mentioned above to show the recipient love, such as a meaningful subject line.

For everything else, a disposable address is worth it

In addition to one or more business and private email addresses, you should always get a disposable address. This is ideal if you want to log in or shop somewhere, but want to avoid your regular email account being cluttered up with loud advertising.

This is also extremely practical because some providers literally bombard you with spam. And if you have registered with a not-so-reputable portal, in the worst case scenario you may even receive dangerous emails. A disposable address is also very practical for this reason.

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