While reading through emails recently, I stopped to think about proper etiquette when emailing - and how we really don't put present the type of business impression, when communicating via email, that we do when we meet someone in person!  So I thought I would give just a few short suggestions related to email etiquette in concern to the business world.

•  Your "from" name: Be sure to actually have your correct name in the From field.  It should also be properly formatted.  When a customer receives a message from "johnny" instead of "John S. Appleseed", it just isn't as professional.  Also, it should be "John S. Appleseed", not "john s. appleseed".

• User proper greetings: Be sure to use common courtesy.  Use Hello, Mr., Ms., Mrs., Dear, etc. until the contact tells you to call them otherwise. Referring to someone too casual, without first having some sort of relationship with them, may not sit well with the other person.

• Addressing: If you send an email to multiple recipients, especially recipients that do not know each other, address the message to yourself - and then add the other addresses in the BCC field.  This protects the identity of the other recipients, and keeps their email addresses safe from potential spammers.  The BCC fields stands for "Blind Carbon Copy", addresses in this field will receive a copy of the message but it will not show their address anywhere in the header (in the "to" field).

•  Spell Check: There is nothing worse than receiving business email that is full of spelling errors.  It doesn't give the person that you are emailing a good impression of you!

• Attachments: Only send attachments if they are requested or if it is vital to the message you are sending. Business people do not like to have their inbox full of large messages that they did not request and that they do not want to be bothered with.

• Replying: When replying to an email, remove the portions of the old email that no longer apply and post your replies right under the relevant sections, this links your thoughts with theirs.

• New Emails: When you are sending a new email to someone that you previously had an email conversation with, unless it is related to the previous conversation, don't "reply" to an old email.  This looks unprofessional when the other person receives it.  If you do start the message by replying to an old message, remove the body of the old message - and don't forget to change the subject!

• Signatures: Keep your email "signature", which is the text at the bottom of the page that is automatically inserted on each email, keep those short and sweet.  Don't go too far beyond your name, title, company information, and contact info.  Quotes are ok as long as the other person agrees with it, if they don't, you may cause them to question whether they need to do business with you.

We often forget that when we email someone for business, that it can be just as important as when we are meeting them face to face!  So next time you start typing out that email, just remember these steps above and you will ensure that you project the same image through email as you do in person!