Email Etiquette: 10 Ways to Respect Your Customers’ Time

Email etiquette for customer emails

While all email marketers must abide by broad guidelines like the General Data Protection Regulation and CAN-SPAM rules, excellent email etiquette means paying attention to more subtleties. Consider the following email marketing best practices to ensure professionalism and show subscribers how much you respect them. 

1. Reread your emails before sending them.

The first principle of email etiquette is to reread your emails before sending them. This is essential for several reasons: 

• Spotting typos: “Before hitting send, I always take a moment to proofread. Those small typos and grammar slip-ups? They matter more than you might think,” cautioned Haley Snider, strategy director at Zilker Media, a digital marketing agency. “A polished email shows you care enough to get the details right.”
• Ensuring clarity and politeness: Rereading your emails isn’t just about correcting typos. Grammatical errors can be embarrassing public relations mistakes that send the wrong message, but tone and clarity are just as important. For example, sometimes, we write messages that others perceive as rude when rudeness is the last thing we intended. No one wants to alienate customers and prospects. Give your outgoing emails a read-through and consider whether your recipients could be confused or offended by anything you included. If possible, have a trusted colleague read your message to ensure it’s clear, accurate and polite. 
• Avoiding jargon and poor tone: Victor André Enselmann, an email marketing expert and founder and CEO of digital marketing agency Modeva, emphasized the importance of rereading email drafts to catch tone issues like unnecessary jargon or overly long sentences. “Encourage your team to share feedback on each other’s emails, focusing on how understandable and considerate the tone is,” Enselmann advised. “Over time, you’ll refine your style and learn to communicate efficiently while still sounding human.”

Clarity and tone are also crucial when sending emails to colleagues, vendors or anyone else you communicate with. Taking the time to reread your emails is an excellent way to respect your recipients’ time. If you can’t understand your message or tone, neither can your recipients.

2. Understand (and cater to) your audience.

Proper etiquette measures can fluctuate by recipient. Various audiences have unique preferences and perceptions. Cultural differences, recipient ages and more can significantly impact what is and isn’t considered appropriate. 

Snider stressed that email etiquette starts with knowing your audience. “You wouldn’t write to a long-time client the same way you’d email a new lead or chat with a colleague,” Snider explained. “It’s all about tuning into who’s on the other end of that email and what works best for them.”

Here are some tips for assessing your audience: 

• Match their energy: Analyze how the recipient speaks to you in your email communications. Matching energy is always a safe bet. Snider weighs several factors. “Does this person prefer formal language or a more relaxed tone? Are they someone who wants all the details or do they just need the highlights?” Snider said. “Some folks appreciate a friendly hello and a bit of chitchat, while others want you to get straight to business.” 
• Read the room: Depending on your industry or the subject matter, you’ll want to “read the room,” so to speak. For example, you shouldn’t be too casual when communicating with, say, the owner of a law firm. However, if you’re conversing with a social media director at a creative startup, a more conversational tone might be more appropriate.
• Match your brand to the situation: A “professional” tone can vary greatly by target audience. If your business has a fun and sassy brand voice, your email marketing subscribers would expect this attitude in your messaging. A stilted tone would feel out of place. But if you email a corporate chief financial officer about finances, you’d stick with a clear and succinct tone and avoid frivolities like emojis in business communications. 

3. Train new employees to communicate with proper etiquette.

While your new employees will learn many skills on the job, investing in employee training is critical when it comes to email etiquette. Communication training is particularly important when managing a multigenerational workforce with various ideas about what is acceptable. 

Because communication platforms, styles and methods change frequently, you may need to update and refresh your training periodically to address texting, phone calls and social media messaging as well as email. For example, you may want your representatives to incorporate a casual text message marketing style and a relaxed social media marketing tone.  

4. Respond to emails promptly.

You may be busy, but responding to customer and prospect emails promptly is critical ― especially if successful lead conversion is your goal. If you know you won’t be able to address a lengthy email for a while, send a quick reply to let them know you’ve received their request and will get back to them at a specific time. If the matter is urgent, consider delegating the query to another team member to ensure a timely response. 

Like many of the tips on this list, prompt email responses should be your goal in all email communications ― not just with customers and prospects. Responding promptly to emails from vendors, co-workers, industry peers and more is a best practice that shows competence and respect. Even if you receive an email that wasn’t meant for you, replying with that information and helping the sender find the right contact demonstrates professionalism. 

5. Don’t write emails when you’re upset.

There may be times when customer emails are upsetting and rude and you’re tempted to fire back a response that puts them in their place. You may feel justified in saying what’s on your mind and handling the matter immediately. 

While writing emails when you’re upset can feel cathartic, it’s almost always a bad idea when dealing with customers, prospects or anyone else you’re communicating with via email. Take some time to cool off and calm down and write a more measured response when you have a clear head. Consult a co-worker or manager and refresh your understanding of company policies to ensure you approach your response with accurate information and a professional tone. 

Your email communications ― as well as social media comments, business texts and more ― represent your company and can affect its brand reputation. Staying cool and measured is always a good idea.

6. Segment your email lists properly.

Market segmentation is an effective way to send relevant messages to your email subscribers. You can segment your email list by demographics, interests, past behavior, purchases and more. This practice ensures your subscribers get helpful information relevant to their needs. 

However, sloppy email segmentation can backfire and render your email marketing campaigns ineffective. For example, say you own a restaurant and have used your point-of-sale system to gather significant customer data, such as the meals they order and the times they tend to dine. If you were to send an email blast about your early-bird special to late-night diners, it would be, at best, ineffective and, at worst, intrusive and unhelpful. By the same token, sending kids’ coupons to customers who have never brought children to the restaurant would be a waste of time.

7. Keep your email marketing communications simple.

Keeping your email messages simple is an excellent way to respect your customers. Your subscribers get dozens ― if not hundreds ― of daily emails. The last thing they need is a long, convoluted message without a clear point. 

“Good email etiquette starts with respecting the customer’s time,” noted Benjamin Tagg, lead marketing strategist at Newbird, who manages email campaigns and flows for 16 SLA [service-level agreement] clients. “Keep it clear, concise and to the point — no one wants to read a novel in their inbox.”

Avoid wasting your customers’ time by creating email marketing messages that offer valuable information or a helpful offer without unnecessary fluff. “Keep your sentences short and direct but friendly enough that you sound like an actual person and not a bot,” Enselmann recommended.

8. Include accurate subject lines.

Accurate email subject lines are essential. If you write misleading, unclear or irrelevant subject lines, you’re wasting your subscribers’ time and may come across as unprofessional.

“Your subject line can make or break your email’s success,” Snider warned. “Think about it — if it’s unclear or doesn’t grab attention, your email might sit unopened in someone’s inbox.”

Ensure your subject lines are clear, concise and as specific as possible.

9. Personalize your emails whenever possible.

Email personalization is a powerful tool that can increase recipient engagement, boost sales and help your customers realize how important they are to you. Personalization tactics can include using the subscriber’s name, mentioning previous purchases, discussing products they’ve shown interest in previously and much more. 

“It’s always important to address customers personally and reference any prior conversations or orders to show you’re paying attention,” Enselmann advised.

Personalization is particularly crucial in follow-up emails ― more than one attempt is usually necessary to close a sale. You can use coupons to drive engagement in personalized follow-ups and offer other incentives that speak to the potential customer. 

10. Know when to ‘reply all’ ― and when not to.

Understanding proper “reply all” etiquette is critical for marketing emails and all email communications in a business or personal setting. Replying to everyone on a thread can create an infinite loop of useless messages that waste people’s time. This practice can needlessly fill up inboxes and cause frustration. 

The “reply all” function can be helpful in specific circumstances. However, use it sparingly to avoid annoying your recipients. 

Why is etiquette important in customer emails?

There are countless reasons why email etiquette is important and most of them fall under three main categories.

Email etiquette improves your brand reputation.

Your brand reputation is your selling point. If your customers know you to be professional, trustworthy and respectful of their time, you’re likely to retain loyal customers and attract new ones.

“Email is often the first line of contact and sets the tone for every other interaction that follows,” Enselmann explained. “When you write with respect, clarity and genuine concern for their time, customers feel heard and appreciated. It establishes trust early on and positions your brand as professional, reliable and easy to do business with.”

When customers feel they can trust and rely on you, they’ll be more willing to continue investing in your brand.

Email etiquette helps increase open rates.

If you’re sending emails to customers, vendors, colleagues or strategic partners, you’re likely including valuable information. You’ve spent time and effort researching and crafting your message — but it will all go to waste if your recipients don’t even open it.

Practicing email etiquette, such as using straightforward subject lines and personalizing your messages, will likely increase email open rates.

“Customers appreciate communication that’s professional, respectful and actually useful. It shows that your brand values their time and attention, rather than just pushing out another sales message,” Tagg explained. “Thoughtful emails get read; spam gets deleted.”

Email etiquette boosts engagement.

Communicating with subscribers via email is a great way to personalize their experience and keep in touch with them — two essential strategies for attracting and retaining loyal, engaged customers.

Snider emphasized the value of email etiquette as an engagement-boosting tool. “No one wants to waste time deciphering a vague or overly complicated email and they definitely don’t want to feel like they’re just another name on a mass list,” Snider explained. “Good etiquette — like clear subject lines, concise messaging and a professional but approachable tone — shows respect for the recipient’s time and makes it easier for them to take action.”

Snider added that customers are more likely to engage with well-structured, relevant emails and take actions like completing a purchase or responding to an offer.

Sammi Caramela contributed to this article.