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How to Start an Email Professionally
An effective email has numerous elements that need to be perfect if you want to get the message across. The intention and interpretation of the email should be similar otherwise it can create confusion and chaos and you don’t want that especially when it is a professional email.
While writing a professional email, you need to make sure you are being careful with the words you choose, the greetings, the ending and especially the beginning of the email. It’s hard but not impossible to perfect them. You just need a little help here and there and you can perfectly know how to start an email professionally.
And that’s what this blog is about. To help you with the little things about an email like how to start an email, the closing, the right words, and everything else.
Without further ado, let’s first start with the structure of an email that can create an impact on the recipient.
Five common ways of starting an email with greetings:
Make sure you are adding commas at the appropriate places as it can make or break the first impression of your company/brand.
You can add an opening line to the start of your email body by hinting to a common, relatable fact or point towards the purpose of your email or just share warm feelings to have a perfect start for it.
We have covered some examples and templates later in the blog for your reference.
4 email greeting lines to avoid under any circumstances
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Best examples/templates on how to start an email
1. With Managers/Leaders
Communication is the key when you are working in a team but the bets are high when you have to send a summarized MoM, an outline of the project, or the project brief to your team keeping your boss in the CC.
Let’s see how to start an email to a boss to make a killing impression:
2. With Clients
If you are writing an email to your client that means you are trying to close a deal with them and get their business which makes these emails expensive and there is no room for error.
So, here are some of the best tips we have come across on how to start an email with the clients:
Come up with an interesting subject line. And if possible, personalize it.
Send in the material like a portfolio, PPT, Rate card, etc. This will give your potential client an idea that you want to make the best of their time.
All these pointers will make your email a must read and will definitely help you close more deals.
And if you are in the sales department, always looking for some good sales email templates, then we have a curated a list of 10+ sales email templates that will definitely add to your sales number.
3. With Recruiter
Sending an email to the recruiter does not have any high bets like an email to a boss or client does. But this email can contribute to your future.
It again is the first impression that you create in front of the company that you might be working in the near future. So, you want it to be of a proactive and smart individual.
Let’s see how to start an email to a recruiter:
Best practices to follow while writing a formal email
1. Start with a proper greeting:
Starting an email in a proper way is nothing less than an art.
Always address the reader with a ‘Hey’ or ‘Hello.’ If you have a proper professional relationship with the recipient, then you can never go wrong with ‘Hello Mr. Grey’ or ‘Hello Mrs. Grey.’ Make sure that the first letter of the name is always in caps. If you have a more casual professional relationship, then go ahead and use their first name while addressing them.
2. Add a Thank You line
This line is optional and mostly depends on the situation. If you are contacting your prospect/customer for the first time, then there is no need to add such a line. But if your prospect has contacted you with an inquiry, then this line is crucial. After the greeting, add ‘Thank you for contacting XYZ company.’ Again this line will be modified according to the situation.
3. The Purpose
This part of the professional email is the most important part. The body of the email contains the message you are trying to send across. Be clear and concise with the message. Don’t beat around the bush because that would make your message blurry among so many words and won’t highlight your intent.
Follow the ‘KISS (keep it short and simple)’ method for an impactful professional email.
4. The Closing
The closing section can be divided into two parts: closing remarks and closing. The closing remarks should be something like: ‘Thank you for your time’ or ‘Thank you for your cooperation and time.’ Again this should be according to the email you just wrote and the situation.
The last part should contain a proper closing with your signature (name) and the designation. It could be anything from ‘Regards’ to ‘Cheers.’ Whatever fits in with the tone of your email.
This should be the structure of your professional email and missing out on any part of can cost you the time, efforts and a possible prospect for your business.
Now that we are done with the structure of the email, let’s go in the specifics and bifurcate the ‘how to start an email’ further into three categories according to the role of the recipient.
Do you want to know what happens after you send an email?
Conclusion:
Emails are a part of our day-to-day life. Be it personal or professional life. The emails get a lot of work done. Mastering the art of emailing is not that hard.
You just need to pay attention to the small details and shoot the email. Who knows? You might land a big client, fancy job, or get a promotion. Just because your email was perfectly crafted.
The potential of a properly written is endless.
That being said, once you start an email professionally, you’ll also have to end it professionally.
Don’t worry, we got that covered for you at — how to end an email professionally.
So, go ahead and use the tips mentioned above and write that amazing email.
The way you start an email sets the tone for the rest of the email.
What’s on this Page
How to Start an Email
Is it considered rude to start an email without any greeting? Are some of the ways to start emails better than the rest?
In this article, we will show the right and wrong ways to start an email with examples.
Start your emails the right way!
Save templates and insert them anywhere using keyboard shortcuts.
To start an email professionally, consider the following email greetings:
Insert a professional greeting based on time of the day by using Text Blaze:
How to Start a Business-Casual Email
When it comes to business-casual emails, the idea is that the recipient of your email is already familiar with you. And, as such, you can select an appropriate way to start the email with the right greeting.
Some of the most commonly used greetings to start a business casual email are:
Insert a business-casual email greeting based on the day of the week by using Text Blaze:
Depending on how casual you are with the recipient and how much you know about them, you can use your writing style to start a business-casual email better.
How to Start a Casual Email
Now that we know the right ways on how to start an email, let’s take a look at how you shouldn’t start your email in the next section.
How Not to Start an Email
There are many good ways to start an email. Unfortunately, that means there are plenty of things not to do as well. Keep on reading for some examples of what not to do when starting your emails.
Misspell Your Recipient’s Name
Misspelling your recipient’s name in the greeting or body of your email is never okay. Like other papers or important documents, spell-checking your emails is crucial. If you manage to misspell someone’s name, it’s a clear sign that you failed to edit your email closely, and suggests you lack attention to detail.
Begin With, “To Whom It May Concern…”
This greeting is outdated and impersonal. It suggests that you didn’t care to do your research and personalize your email.
Nowadays, it’s relatively easy to find out where and to whom your email needs to go. If you’re sending a business email, we suggest looking over the staff bios, or contact lists to identify the person to the position you are trying to email.
If you are sending an email to a generic address, like “customersupport@emails.com”, any of our suggested greetings from the top list are better than, “to whom it may concern”.
Using Nicknames
In most cases, using nicknames should be avoided. Nicknames can be personal, and if you haven’t built rapport with someone yet, utilizing their nickname is a good way to overstep your boundaries.
For example, if someone signs off their email with “Michael”, don’t follow up your response with “Dear Mike,…”.
You will know when it’s okay to use a nickname. If in-person, you use a shortened version or nickname with a person, then it’s probably okay in a personal email. However, in group messages or formal emails, the full name of your recipient should always be used.
6 Bad Examples to Start an Email
There are some additional examples of how you shouldn’t start any of the emails, some of them are:
Final Thoughts
Starting emails should feel like second nature. We recommend you keep a couple of go-to greetings in your repertoire that you can always have ready for practically any scenario. Then, you can have some less common, but effective greetings for specialized communications. After a while, your emails will be polite and to the point.
And if you’ve got an email drafted in your outbox right now with one of our examples of what not to do, you’re welcome for the tip!
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19 Ways on How to Start an Email (Examples w/ Templates)
If there’s any good that the global pandemic has done, it has made the world a more connected place.
2021 has seen the rise of the work-at-home workforce, and along with that, the rise of virtual communication.
Online video meetings became the norm. Slack became the most used app on our phones, and paperwork was completely and perhaps irrevocably shifted to excel sheets and Google Sheets.
But amid all these new ways of communicating, what probably did not lose its former status as one of the most professional and effective ways of virtual communication is electronic mail, better known as e-mail.
Good Ol’ Email
As a literature student, I have always been smitten by the written word. And it is a lesser-known and even lesser-acknowledged fact that people who love to read want to write. They want to be heard and seen, and felt through writing.
If you do not agree with me, just look at the captions and posts people put up on social media. Who would have thought there were poets and writers among us had we not been exposed to social media platforms!
So, when I did not get to be a writer but got into the strange world of online projects and eventually into management, I thought my only chance to prove my flair for writing was through email.
I was wrong, but I was right.
I’ll explain the paradox, but let me first state what went wrong with my concept of email writing.
What is a Proper Professional Email?
A professional email is an electronic medium where we send formal letters electronically to our clients, team members, seniors, and other professionals associated with our work.
We use formal emails to communicate with vendors and virtual teams of our clients and sometimes of our clients’ clients.
A professional email is one that dominates the workplace as the one major way of communicating within and among team members.
The 3 marks of a great email are in a proper format, formal tone, and brevity (FTB). Remember this code the next time you start composing an email.
Let us see how these 3 aspects are important for a great email :
Email writing is an art. It can be mastered. You can teach yourself to write emails that get answered and acknowledged almost every time.
And one of the better ways to make sure that your emails are being opened and read is to make sure that it has the following features :
In the next section, I will provide you with 19 ways to start an email that are foolproof, no-fail, amazing ways to get people to read and respond to your emails.
To make sure that you are using these starting lines properly, I have also given examples of scenarios that go best with these starting lines. Let’s get now to the exciting part.
19 Ways to Start an Email
Before we dive into the ways to start an email, let us understand why the start of an email is so important.
The first 3 things noticeable in an email are the sender’s name, subject, and snippet of the email’s opening line. Here’s how an email in Gmail looks:
In Microsoft Outlook, it looks something like this:
On Yahoo, it looks like this. I did not use Yahoo after my long-back created account was deleted by Yahoo. So I created one to show you how emails look here.
In all 3 images, you will notice that apart from the sender’s name and the subject of the email, the first 8 – 15 words of the email (including the salutation) show up in the email snippet.
We can roughly liken this snippet to the meta description of a page in Google.
Just like the snippet in Google search results gives us an idea of what the page includes, the snippet of the first few words of your email should interest the recipient (if you are sending a sales email) or give your recipient an idea of what is about to follow.
Specifically for a sales email, these snippets MATTER. A better comparison would be that of YouTube ads. Just like advertisers have 5 seconds to grab your attention, to watch the full advertisement and get excited about wanting to buy the product, your email snippet has only a few words to hold your recipient’s attention.
With YouTube, you have the visuals to help with the audio or written content of the ad, and with your email snippet, your subject line can be the ‘make-it-or-mar-it’ factor.
However, unlike a google search result snippet, which has the sole purpose of explaining, in short, what the page is about, an email snippet might not always need to explain what’s going to follow.
Sometimes it’s just a matter of writing well and putting your message across as clearly as possible.
I can probably go on with my similes, but it’s time to put forward the information you are here for – the 19 Ways to Start an Email in 2021.
P.S. – I have used fictional names for the recipient and my real name for the sender.
EMAIL STARTING NO. 1
Hi Ashley,
My name is Rima, and I got your contact details from ……..
Scenarios where you can use this opening line:
Why does this opening line work?
EMAIL STARTING NO. 2
Hi Ashley,
Do you think we can meet sometime this week on Zoom? Do let me know!
Additionally, I would like to ……
Scenarios where you can use this opening line:
Why does this opening line work?
EMAIL STARTING NO. 3
Hello Ashley,
Apologies! Your last email got buried in my inbox pile.
Would you still be interested…..
Scenarios where you can use this opening line:
Why does this opening line work?
EMAIL STARTING NO. 4
Dear Ashley,
Many thanks for the response.
Please find the information below…
Scenarios where you can use this opening line:
Why does this opening line work?
EMAIL STARTING NO. 5
Hi Ashley,
Hope this email finds you well.
Scenarios where you can use this opening line:
Why does this opening line work?
EMAIL STARTING NO. 6
Dear Ashley,
The invoice for the 2nd part of the project is attached along with this email.
For any assistance, please feel free to write to me.
Scenarios where you can use this opening line:
Why does this opening line work?
EMAIL STARTING NO. 7
Hello Ashley,
I was wondering if you got my last email/ my last few emails. If not, here is what I sent –
Scenarios where you can use this opening line:
Why does this opening line work?
EMAIL STARTING NO. 8
Hi Ashley,
Hope you have had a nice weekend gone by.
Scenarios where you can use this opening line:
Why does this opening line work?
EMAIL STARTING NO. 9
Hi Ashley,
Sorry if I am intruding on a busy day/week for you, but I really need this information to get the project started. Do you think you can….
Scenarios where you can use this opening line:
Why does this opening line work?
EMAIL STARTING NO. 10
Speaking about your account with us….
Scenarios where you can use this opening line:
Why does this opening line work?
EMAIL STARTING NO. 11
Hi Ashley,
It is nice to be writing to you again. Hope you have been well all this while 🙂
Scenarios where you can use this opening line:
Why does this opening line work?
EMAIL STARTING NO. 12
Hi Ashley,
Sorry for the unsolicited introduction email, but I think our services are what you have been looking for.
Scenarios where you can use this opening line:
Why does this opening line work?
EMAIL STARTING NO. 13
Hi Ashley,
Thank you for contacting us.
Scenarios where you can use this opening line:
Why does this opening line work?
EMAIL STARTING NO. 14
Hi Ashley,
Thank you for your email reminder. Much appreciated!
Scenarios where you can use this opening line:
Why does this opening line work?
EMAIL STARTING NO. 15
Hi Ashley,
It is just a gentle reminder that we are awaiting your confirmation on the template design to start with the development.
Scenarios where you can use this opening line:
Why does this opening line work?
EMAIL STARTING NO. 16
Hi Ashley,
How are you? Hope well.
Scenarios where you can use this opening line:
Why does this opening line work?
EMAIL STARTING NO. 17
Hi there,
I would love to explore opportunities to work together. How best can we collaborate?
Scenarios where you can use this opening line:
Why does this opening line work?
EMAIL STARTING NO. 18
Hi there,
Quick question – are you accepting guest posts?
Scenarios where you can use this opening line:
Why does this opening line work?
EMAIL STARTING NO. 19
Hi Ashley,
Hope this has been a good week so far.
Scenarios where you can use this opening line:
Why does this opening line work?
Bonus: EMAIL STARTING NO. 20
Hi Ashley,
Hope you are having a great day.
Scenarios where you can use this opening line:
Why does this opening line work?
A little about salutations
Should I write Hi or Hello?
If you think that people are fussy about whether you write a Hi in place of a Hello or that they might get offended for calling them dear – you’re probably wrong.
Most people are not bothered by the differences between Hi or a Hello.
Is writing Dear [Name] alright in professional emails?
It should be absolutely alright! I personally like it when people write Dear as it is an endearing term, and a little affection virtually never did anyone any harm.
Is writing Hey [Name] too casual?
Well, perhaps it is more casual than a Hello. Again, most people are okay with salutations as long as you write the correct spelling of their names.
Should I address by First Name or something like Mr. and Last Name?
Both should work well. Though culturally some countries prefer first names and some others prefer a more formal way of writing like Mr./Mrs/Ms. and the Last Name, virtually people are a lot more tolerant to either first or last names as long as the email is polite and courteous.
If there’s a middle name, should I include that with the first name when addressing it?
Ideally, no. If you are writing to a certain Ashley Renee Graham, refrain from using ‘Hi Ashley Renee” in your salutation.
Should I use Hi there or something more formal like ‘To Whom It May Concern” where I do not know the name to address?
‘Hi, there’ is much, much better.
Before we conclude, let’s quickly see some red flags when it comes to opening lines. Please try avoiding using these as your opening sentences in emails, however short you are of time.
To end, I’ll go back to the paradox. Email is not literature but has literature of its own. I was right that I could develop my writing skills but was wrong in equaling the genre of email writing with any other kind of writing.
When you write, write in a conversational way. Make it look like you are speaking to them.
Be in the habit of regular reading and get your vocabulary to a point where you know how to converse with the right words and phrases.
You may also like to read our guide on how to write landing page copy that converts.
Did you like our tips?
Have they helped you?
And if you have some interesting opening lines that are an ice-breaker, send those to us in the comments.
How to Start an Email: The Best Salutations & Opening Lines
Starting an email with a proper salutation and a compelling opening line is crucial to making an excellent first impression. (And yes, I know “salutation” feels very formal, but “greeting” felt too informal… so I went with “salutation.”)
It sets the tone for the rest of your message and increases your chances of receiving positive responses from the recipients.
In contrast, if you start on the wrong note, your email could be heading straight to the trash folder.
In this article, I’ll show you how to start an email, including the eight best salutations and opening lines to use. I’ll also mention which ones to avoid.
Then, I’ll explain why the beginning of your email matters and offer five actionable tips to help you write better emails.
Finally, I’ll cover the best way to test your openings to figure out what works best for your specific audience.
This Article Contains:
(Click on the links to jump to a specific section)
How to Start an Email
Many people think the subject line is the only important part of an email (or, at least, the most important part) because it determines whether your email will be opened or not.
However, you’ll also need to start with the proper salutation and opening line — so after someone does open your email, they want to take action.
After all, if you want your professional email to be taken seriously, you can’t start it the same way you’d begin a personal email. You’ll need an engaging start that also strikes the right professional tone.
To help you start your emails the right way, I’ll go over a few pointers on writing suitable salutations and effective opening lines.
8 Salutations to Use
The greeting or salutation is an integral part of any email.
Whether it’s a business email, marketing email, or a cover letter, the greeting you choose will set the tone for the rest of the message.
Here are some salutations you could use for a professional email:
1. Dear [Name]
This greeting is appropriate for formal emails. For example, if you’re writing a cover letter, you can address the recipient using their last name, like “Dear Ms. Blair” or “Dear Mr. Brown.”
Always avoid honorifics like “Mrs.” that imply someone’s marital status. However, always use traditional honorifics that indicate professional status, such as “Dr.” or “Dear Professor.”
If you don’t know the recipient’s gender (or their pronouns), you can use the gender-neutral honorific “Mx”.
Alternatively, if your recipient is your age or younger and doesn’t outrank you professionally, you can open with “Hello Taylor.”
This is an acceptable generic greeting in countries where formality isn’t mandatory, like the U.S.
However, if your recipient is in a country where formality is common (such as India), you can use their full name. For example, “Dear Ajay Goel”.
2. Hi / Hi There
While you wouldn’t use these email salutations in a business letter, they are perfectly acceptable for professional emails.
The most popular version among these is a simple “Hi (Name)”.
This greeting is usually appropriate for a personal or business email unless it’s a very formal email.
Although the greeting “Hi there” is often used in marketing campaign emails (to newsletter subscribers, for example), people are more likely to read an email when you mention their first name instead of a generic greeting.
(If you’re a GMass user, you can use our easy personalization features to add that first name — GMass can even automatically detect a contact’s first name by analyzing their email address.)
3. Hi everyone
When addressing a group, it would be way too awkward to list everyone’s name in the greeting. Instead, you can use a greeting like “Hi everyone” if you’re emailing a group of people, like your work team.
“Hi everyone” is preferable to “Hi guys” because the latter has a gender connotation.
On the flip side, if you’re emailing just two or three people, you could list their names, separated by commas. For example, “Hi Lee, Mary, and Ann”. These greetings are more appropriate than the abrupt “Hi all” greeting, which sounds like it’s part of some generic email template.
4. Greetings
This is a popular salutation you can use when sending an email to a large group of people or just one person.
Additionally, you can use “Greetings” when you’re sending a professional email to a business email account and don’t know the recipient’s name.
For example, “Greetings” is an appropriate opener when you’re sending business emails to an email address like [email protected](companyname).com.
Let’s look at a few more greetings that work well in professional email messages.
Additional Salutations
Here are a few other greetings you could use in your emails:
Important: Use Fallbacks When Including Names on Mail Merges
When you’re sending mass emails using a mail merge, you might not know everyone’s first name. So if you use a salutation like “Hello [Name]”, you need to cover your bases if you don’t know the contact’s name.
When you’re setting up your personalized mass emails with GMass, make sure to set a fallback value. So rather than only using Hello
8 Opening Lines to Use
Once you’ve chosen the perfect way to greet your email recipient, you’ll need to add an intriguing opening line next. This will motivate the recipient to read the entire email.
No matter the type of professional email you’re writing, the best email opening lines meet one or more of these four requirements:
The key to choosing the right opening line is deciding which of these four you want to accomplish with your email. Once you do that, you can move on to picking the best opening line for your message.
Here are a few opening lines you could choose from:
1. Allow me to introduce myself
You wouldn’t walk into a business meeting and just start talking, especially if you’ve never met the other attendees before.
Then why do it in an email?
If you’ve never emailed or met the person you’re emailing, it’s polite to introduce yourself first before moving on to your message.
But remember, you should keep the introduction short — don’t use this as an opportunity to talk about yourself, your company, or your qualifications in great length. Just a quick introduction will do.
2. I hope you’re doing well
This opening line is one of the most commonly used ones, as it’s a safe bet.
Although this phrase probably won’t win you any points for originality, it’s an acceptable and cordial way to start a professional email. “I hope you’re doing well” is something you’d say to someone you don’t know very well but you have some connection to, like a work colleague.
3. I’m reaching out to you about
Chances are, the person you’re emailing receives tons of emails each day.
You can make it easier for them to decide your email’s importance by mentioning why you’re emailing them right at the start.
This opening line is effective because it gets straight to the point, which busy professionals will value. For example, you could use this opening line when applying for a job, emailing a prospective client, or requesting a phone call with a company representative.
4. I hope you’re having a great day (or week)
This opening line works well if you know the person you’re emailing (for example, a work colleague, family member, or friend). It conveys a sense of friendliness and may prompt the email recipient to start a conversation about their day (or week).
But keep in mind that this isn’t an opening line you’d use when emailing someone you’ve never met, say for a job interview or a prospective customer.
Why? It can come off as disingenuous to say this to someone you don’t know. It may also seem like an intrusion into the recipient’s personal life if they’ve never even met you.
Additional Opening Lines
Here are some more opening lines you could use:
Now that you know the best ways to start an email, I’ll cover the salutations and opening lines you should avoid.
How You Should Not Start an Email
Have you ever received emails that began so awkwardly that you didn’t bother to go through the whole thing?
If you received an email starting with the following greetings or opening lines, you probably wouldn’t give it your attention, and neither will anyone you’re emailing.
A. 4 Salutations to Avoid
An inappropriate or outdated greeting will set the wrong tone for your email right from the start. Here are some salutations you should stay away from:
1. To whom it may concern
This greeting is seen as too stiff and vague to be used in business emails. It gives the impression that you were too lazy to find out to whom the email should have been addressed.
As you would when writing a formal letter, try to find out the person’s name before you send your email. Alternatively, opt for a warmer opening sentence.
For example, let’s say you’re emailing company XYZ regarding their job application, and you can’t find the name of an HR team member. Instead of using “To whom it may concern”, you can use something like “To Team X” or “Dear Hiring Manager at Company XYZ”.
2. A misspelled name
A misspelled name is up there with the worst greeting you could write.
Always double-check your emails to see if you have the correct spelling of your recipient’s name. If the person’s name seems complicated, just copy and paste it from a good source.
However, if you’re not confident about the correct spelling of the name, remove it and stick with a greeting like “Hello”. This is somewhat rare but might happen at events where an attendee sent you a company or team email instead of handing you their business card.
Although using “Hello” might be considered an impersonal opening, it’s always better than a serious breach of email etiquette like misspelling a person’s name.
3. Dear sir (or madam)
Like “To whom it may concern”, “Dear sir or madam” is a stiff and often ceremonial salutation which in the past was reserved for formal letter writing. However, these days it can come across as slightly outdated for modern business writing.
Moreover, it shows you didn’t bother to check the recipient’s name.
This email greeting is still used in business letter writing in countries where men and women are called “sir” and “madam”. However, these types of formal salutations don’t suit an email.
Using a less formal way of greeting the recipient (like “Hello”) would be a better option.
4. An informal greeting
While several informal salutation options may be acceptable in certain formal greeting scenarios, a straight-out casual greeting is not encouraged in business emails.
This includes any informal greeting like:
Remember, correspondence through a professional email address is not the same as a message on social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter, where an informal salutation is expected.
Using a nickname, exclamation point, or any other informal salutation can make you seem unprofessional and should be reserved for informal emails and social media.
However, some offices encourage such a casual culture.
You may casually communicate with your work colleagues internally. But be mindful of any external business correspondence you send to clients, prospects, or anyone with a professional email address. They may not have the same work culture as you do.
As a result, it’s safer to stick with a simple and slightly formal greeting when you start your emails.
Bonus: A broken mail merge
If you try to send an email using a mail merge on the salutation, but the merge fails, you’ll tank the email almost every time.
At GMass, we’ve taken several steps to help you avoid mail merge disasters.
First, our mail merge tags pop up in the Gmail compose window as you type — so you don’t have to try to remember them or manually type them yourself.
Second, GMass has an easy-to-use fallback system for mail merges, so you don’t have to leave blank spaces before commas.
And third, with GMass you can save your emails as drafts before you send — which gives you a chance to look them over to make sure all merges worked properly.
Now that we know which greetings to avoid, let’s also look at some opening lines to stay away from.
B. 4 Opening Lines to Avoid
It can be challenging to decide on the perfect opening lines that segue smoothly into your email messages. To make it a little easier, here are the opening lines you should steer clear of:
1. It’s me again!
While this opening line may be acceptable for informal emails, it’s too informal for a professional email.
Sure, it may seem like you’re reminding the person about a previous conversation or email you’ve sent them in a light-hearted manner, but you may come across as a nuisance.
The recipient may feel like you’re bugging them and ignore your email altogether. Additionally, it’s too unprofessional for any form of business communication.
2. I am sorry to bother you by popping up in your inbox
You may think you’re polite with this email. But it sounds insincere and immediately undermines your credibility. Because if you were actually focused on not bothering them, you wouldn’t have sent the email at all.
Instead of this opening line, it’s best to get straight to the point, mentioning why you’re emailing them — the recipient will appreciate your honesty.
3. I know you’re busy but
When you’re sending a professional email, this is an opening line you should avoid because it’s too presumptuous.
Whether you’re emailing a person within your organization or a perfect stranger, how do you know that they’re busy?
This opening line is bad news for your engagement because it comes across as too familiar for business correspondence. As a result, it’s best to avoid it.
Instead, if you know the person you’re emailing is busy, choose an opening line that explains your reason for emailing them.
4. I want to ask a quick favor
Keep in mind that the fundamental purpose of every email is to establish and maintain a connection. To do that, you need mutual respect, which you probably won’t gain if your first time communicating with the recipient involves asking for a favor.
To increase the chances of your email being read, you need to make them feel like you’ll be doing them a favor and not the other way around.
Next, I’ll briefly explain why the start of a professional email is so important.
Why Does the Beginning of Your Email Matter?
Emails are generally considered a more formal way of communicating.
That’s why you must create an excellent first impression when you contact people through email, especially when reaching out to a potential client or a prospective partner.
A good email with a strong opening sentence helps create a professional impression that shows your message is worth the recipient’s valuable time. This way, there’s a far better chance your recipients will read the entire email and respond.
But how exactly do you write the perfect email?
I’ll go over some practical tips you can use to write the perfect email.
5 Actionable Tips for Writing the Perfect Email
Knowing how to start professional emails is critical, but that’s not everything you need to know to write better emails.
Let’s take a look at five tips that will help you write the perfect email:
1. Choose Your Style
Before you write an email, consider who your target audience is. This will help you choose the proper salutation and determine whether you should follow a casual or professional tone.
While many businesses used to communicate through a formal style of writing, contemporary companies and startups prefer a more casual and friendly business writing approach. This is because a formal style of writing emails can seem stiff and unfriendly.
But how do you know when to switch from formal emails to a less formal style?
Look out for these indicators that tell you when to switch styles:
You should avoid using excessively formal salutations when you know the recipient well, as it would be awkward to address a close colleague or friend using honorifics.
However, if you’re contacting them for work, you’ll have to use a somewhat professional tone.
2. Be Mindful of Your First Sentence
Many people make the mistake of writing a bland or unimpressive first sentence.
Just like the greeting, the first sentence of your email message determines whether your recipient will read your email or ignore it.
For this reason, you shouldn’t be afraid to dive straight into the point with your opening line.
If you share a mutual contact with the recipient, start your email by referring to that person or organization. This could help your email develop a connection with your recipient sooner. But then get directly to the point of your message.
3. State the Purpose in the Subject Line and Body of the Email
It’s always a good idea to state the purpose of your email when you start writing it, as it allows the recipient to get a clear idea of what to expect.
Remember to keep your sentences short since people like emails to be as clear and brief as possible. To maintain a professional image, you should also check for spelling or grammatical errors before sending your email.
4. Remember to Thank Your Recipient
Usually, when you’re writing a reply to an inquiry, you can start with something like, “Thanks for getting in touch.”
However, most people don’t realize the importance of thanking a recipient in outgoing emails too. Not only is thanking your recipient a polite gesture, but it also increases your chances of getting a reply.
Once you’re done writing the body of the email, be sure to add a line at the bottom thanking your recipient.
5. Add a Closing Remark
Your closing remark can just be a simple thank you or something additional like, “Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any concerns.”
This is usually followed by an appropriate sign-off, such as “Best regards”, “Sincerely”, etc.
While it’s tempting to add this sign-off to your automated email signature, it’s best not to do so. Embedding your parting phrase in the signature panel is impersonal and tells your recipient you don’t send genuine or sincere regards.
However, avoid using a closing with a simple term like “Cheers” at the end unless you are good friends with the recipient.
So now that you’ve learned some techniques for opening your emails, it’s time to figure out what works best — and gets the highest engagement from your targets.
How to Test Your Salutations and Opening Lines to Figure Out What Works
You’re reading this article on the GMass blog and, if you aren’t familiar with GMass, it’s a powerful email outreach and marketing tool that works inside of your Gmail or Google Workspace account.
GMass is a fantastic way to send personalized mass emails (our 200,000+ users and 6,000+ positive reviews give us the confidence to say that) — whether those are cold outreach emails, marketing newsletters, automations, or anything else.
But we’re not going to dig into all the features of GMass in this article (you can learn more about them through the GMass tour, or just by downloading the GMass Chrome extension to try GMass for free).
Here, we’re going to focus on a great feature for you — that is, someone who’s doing thorough research on email openings.
GMass’s A/B testing feature is one of the easiest to use in the entire email marketing industry — and the perfect way for you to test different salutations and opening lines to figure out which brings in the best results.
Testing step 1: Create your email featuring two (or more) variations
The first step in setting up an A/B test is figuring out what, exactly, you want to test. Ideally, you’d only test one variable at once (i.e., you’d only test salutations or you’d only test opening lines, not both) — that helps you better attribute performance differences to one and only one change.
GMass’s A/B testing system is set up to make it dead simple to compare two or more variations. With spintax commands, you write one email (including all the variations). Then GMass sends out different variations of your email to equal samples of your list.
In the example above, I am testing a softer opening (“I hope you’re having a great week!”) versus a more direct one (“I’m reaching out to you about…”) You can see in the screenshot how I’ve included both opening lines in the same email, inside of the GMass spintax commands.
Testing step 2: Make a few key decisions about your test
Once your email is ready, head to the GMass settings box (click the little arrow next to the GMass button in the Gmail compose window).
Go to the Advanced section of the settings, and check the box next to “A/B Test: Send different emails to see what works best.”
From here, you’ll choose the options for your A/B test.
Testing step 3: Evaluating, learning, and adapting
GMass makes A/B testing very easy — since testing is built right into your natural email sending flow. We hope this encourages you to continue testing and learning.
Let’s say you found one opening line led to a significantly higher percentage of replies than another opening line. Now try testing a few salutations with the winning opening line. After that, keep refining — try new opening lines but use GMass’s mail merge features to personalize it.
Keep on testing and learning from your results. The better your opening lines, the more success you will have. And we want to provide the data to steer you toward that success.
Get started with GMass today for fast A/B testing inside your workflow — you can try for free and you’ll be up and running in mere minutes.
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Final Thoughts
How you start an email plays a significant role in whether recipients will respond to your email or simply ignore it.
Use the tips I mentioned here to ace your email opening and craft the perfect email. And once you pair it with a powerful email tool like GMass, you can easily streamline your outreach efforts.
Ajay is the founder of GMass and has been developing email sending software for 20 years.
How to Start a Professional Email: 7 Greetings to Use and 10 to Avoid
How do you start an email? Is it better to address a person by their first or last name? Do you still need «Dear Sir or Madam»? Should you bother about greetings at all? Don’t overlook the power of email salutations. Your email greeting sets the tone of your communication, influences how a recipient perceives you, and even defines if a person reads your message or instantly moves it to Trash.
Email greetings are all about the context of your message. What is appropriate for your friends, can cost you a job interview at a big company. What is polite and respectful for your university professor, can make you sound stiff and old fashioned for your fellow coworkers.
Answer these questions to select a proper email greeting:
Below, you’ll find the best email greetings, both personal and generic ones. A personalized salutation is your best choice. When you’re emailing someone you don’t know, always do your best to find out their name. Their company’s website or LinkedIn page can help you with this task. If your research wasn’t successful, a generic email greeting can back you up.
7 Email Greetings to Use
Hi [Name],
This simple and friendly greeting, is the best and safest choice, except for the most formal occasions.
Hello [Name],
You can use «Hello» instead of «Hi» to make your email greeting a little more formal. This salutation stands somewhere in between the cheerful «Hi» and official «Dear.»
Dear [Name],
This greeting is a more formal way to start a professional email. «Dear» is appropriate for an initial email, but it may sound stuffy and repetitive if you add it to every message in a long email chain. In subsequent emails, you can use «Hello» instead.
Dear Mr./Ms./Dr./Professor [Last name],
If you’re writing a formal email to a respectable person, use «Dear» followed by an honorific or a title and a person’s last name. E.g., «Dear Mr. Smith,» or «Dear Professor Green.» For the most formal correspondence, you can use a colon instead of a comma after the salutation. For example:
Dear Ms. Black:
[First paragraph]
When you’re not sure about a person’s gender, omit an honorific and use their full name in your salutation. E.g., «Dear Finley Brown.»
It’s also safer to avoid honorifics that imply marital status like «Mrs.» While addressing a woman, use «Ms.» instead.
If you’re going to email your professor, our guide can help you.
Greetings,
If you don’t know a person’s name, it’s appropriate to address them with «Greetings.» But we strongly recommend you to find out the recipient’s name and personalize your salutation.
Hi there,
You can use it as an alternative to «Greetings» when you’re not sure about a recipient’s name. Just keep in mind «Hi there» may not be appropriate for formal emails.
Hi everyone,
This email greeting works well when you’re writing to a group of people. However, when there are 3 or fewer recipients, you can address everyone by their name. E.g., «Hi Sandy, Tom, Mark.»
10 Email Greetings to Avoid
There’s no place for such a greeting in business emails. Just leave this greeting for your friends and close acquaintances.
Would you be happy to receive a business proposal or partnership request addressing you with «Yo»? So does your recipient.
Hi [Nickname],
If you’re writing to Jessica, don’t take a responsibility to call her Jess. At the same time, if she signs off with Jess, you should also address her that way.
To Whom It May Concern,
This email greeting sounds too cold and archaic. It also feels like you have no idea who you’re writing to and why you’re doing it at all. There’s a good chance a person who opens such email assumes it doesn’t concern them.
Dear Sir/Madam,
Just like with «To Whom It May Concern,» this salutation is a way too formal. Plus it’s extremely generic. Such an email greeting proves that you haven’t done your research to find out who the recipient actually is.
Dear [Job title],
Compared to «To Whom It May Concern» and «Dear Sir/Madam,» this greeting is a bit more specific. Anyway, a «Dear Hiring Manager» won’t be happy that you haven’t taken an extra step to find out their name.
Good morning/afternoon!
You don’t know when a person is going to read your email so such greetings are better to avoid, especially if you’re communicating with someone from a different time zone.
[Name], or [Name]!
An email greeting with just a name looks abrupt and even rude. An exclamation mark makes it even worse. A recipient may feel as if you’re about to shout at them.
Wrong or misspelled name
Always double-check a person’s name before emailing them. If you’re not sure how to spell a name, it’s safer to use a generic greeting like «Hi there.» This does far less harm than sending an email with a typo.
If you’re emailing multiple people at once, make sure you’re not writing «Hi Mark,» in your email to Johnny. Otherwise, it would be difficult to prevent disaster and recover your reputation.
No greeting
Though choosing the best email greeting can be tricky, that doesn’t mean you can omit it. A salutation is an essential part of a professional email, and it’s impolite to skip it.
We’ve looked through the best email greetings for different situations and the ones you’ll want to avoid. The choice of an email salutation depends on your relationship with a recipient and the context of your message.
Tip: Before writing a professional email to someone, check their organization’s website and social media pages to see what language they use. Try to match the tone of your email to their communication style. For example, if a company uses emojis and memes on its website, don’t make your email overly formal.
After selecting an email greeting, check our step-by-step guide on how to write a professional email. It will help you craft emails people actually read and act on.
If you want to make emailing more fun and pleasant, try our email client Spark. We’ve built it to make people love their email again and spend less time managing their inboxes.