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.

How to Start an Email - 16 Email Greetings Examples

Before we jump into how to start an email - we would like to emphasize that you need to first figure out whether the email that you are writing. Is it a professional, business-casual, or casual email? Once you understand the nature of your email, you can move to the section below.

Start your emails the right way!

Save templates and insert them anywhere using keyboard shortcuts.

Add to Chrome –  It's Free! Go to Dashboard

How to Start a Professional Email - 6 Examples

To start an email professionally, consider the following email greetings:

1. Hello
2. Dear [Name of recipient],
3. Dear [Time of the day]
4. Greetings
5. Hi [Name of recipient]
6. Dear Sir/Madam

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:

1. Happy [Day of the week] - e.g. Happy Monday,
2. Hey [Name of the recipient]
3. Hello
4. Greetings
5. [Name of the recipient], - e.g. Mark,

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

Starting a casual email is easier, but if you are looking to up your email game and still need some inspiration - here are some ways to start a causal email:

1. [Name of the recipient],
2. Hey!
3. Hello again,
4. How's it going?
5. Aloha, Bonjour

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:

1. Sup dog?
2. Wassssupp
3. Hiiiiii
4. Addressing by the wrong gender (e.g. writing Dear Sir for a gender neutral-sounding name)
5. To whom it may concern
6. Hi there

Suggested Reading - Learn everything you need to know about How to end an email

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!

Want to turbo charge your work with templates and snippets? Text Blaze is the fastest way to do that.

Add to Chrome –  It's Free! Go to Dashboard