I’ve made a habit of doing this when addressing PR departments in companies and I’d like to think that this is why I get such a high success rate when I ask for certain things from companies. In essence, I am practicing common courtesy in email, a form of communication that many deem to be informal at its core. But the truth is that email is now quickly becoming the preferred mode of contact between you and a stranger or a particular company. Gone are the days of actually writing snail mail to voice your opinion on something or to get information about it. It’s all electronic now, and because people still tend to think of email as an informal communication device, they forget about the proper way to address someone via an email (whereas they probably wouldn’t do that if they were writing a letter).
Liz Danzico of Bobulate has written a great article on the level of formality that is assumed when corresponding with someone you do not know via email. It’s a must-read if you use email (chances are that if you’re reading this online, you use email) and it’s great to see that she’s even broken down the kinds of email salutations in the chart above to show what is ok to use as the number of emails increases.
Of course, this chart is just a reference and the actual proper salutation really depends on the response sent back to you. But trust me, get this concept of properly addressing people in email down as habit, and you’ll be happy with the results all around — no matter what it is that you’re writing an email for.
