Introducing yourself in an email can be tricky. It’s hard to gauge what you should say about yourself, how much you should say, and so on. However, although introducing yourself in an email can be a challenging task, it’s a very important skill to learn, and you’ll likely have to do it many times in your life.
In this blog, I’ll be discussing how you can most-professionally introduce yourself in an email. Take a look at the following steps to learn more!
Steps for Professionally Introducing Yourself in an Email
1. Use a professional email address
The first step in professionally introducing yourself in email format is using a professional email address. And yes, this one’s important. Your email address is the first thing that people see when they receive a notification from you. If your email address is something goofy, containing colors, animals, or a bunch or numbers, that doesn’t set a great tone for helping you come off as professional. Make sure that your email address is reflective of how you’d like to be perceived, whether that entails using your personal email address or your work email address.
2. Use a clear and concise subject line
Second to your email address, the next thing that recipients of your email are going to see is the subject line. As a result, ensure that your subject line is both clear and concise, meaning that it conveys the topic that you’re discussing in your email in a way that’s short and easy to understand, yet also meaningful. The subject line sets the precedent for the email, so if you’re sending an email to solely introduce yourself, make sure your subject line conveys the fact that you’re doing so.
3. Address the recipient appropriately
Your email isn’t going to come off as professional if you’re not addressing the recipient appropriately. Make sure that you’re calling the recipient by their preferred name. This could include addressing them with a title, with a name that’s an abbreviated version of their actual name, and so on. In addition to addressing the recipient by their preferred name, ensure that you spell their name correctly. I personally have my name (Brianna) misspelled in emails all the time, and it’s not the best feeling because it shows me that the person sending me the email didn’t take the time to observe the correct spelling of my name. If you’re trying to introduce yourself professionally, it’s extremely important to get both the recipient’s preferred name and its spelling correct.
4. Start with a formal greeting
Greetings set the tone of how you’re addressing someone, so if you’re professionally introducing yourself, I would suggest going with something more formal. An example of this could be “Dear [recipient’s name]”. Although using words like “Hi” or “Hello” can still work, terms such as “Dear” are a bit more formal and may be most fitting in this use case. Avoid using very casual words such as “Hey”. You want to address the person in a professional way, and beginning the email with a formal greeting will set the tone for this.
5. Introduce yourself
The step we’ve all been waiting for… Introducing yourself! Tell the recipient your name, your title, what you do at your company, and any other details that you perceive as important to the context of your email. If you’re emailing someone with the sole purpose of introducing yourself, I’d suggest giving a bit of background on yourself. Describe where you come from career-wise, what your qualifications are, and so on. If you’re wanting to introduce yourself and also discuss another topic, you may want to keep the introduction a bit more brief. This step is critical, but it also allows creativity, which is fun. Gauge your introduction to the best of your ability, and read it over to make sure that it sounds professional.
6. Conclude the email
After introducing yourself, be clear on what your next steps are. Do you want to have a meeting or phone call with the recipient to get to know them better? Or were you just reaching out to simply say hello? Be clear on the purpose of your email and end it accordingly. Conclude the email by signing your name, using “Best regards”, “Sincerely”, or “Thank you” followed by your name and contact information.
Conclusion
Introducing yourself via email can be a challenging, intimidating task. After all, an introduction email is sometimes someone’s first impression of you, so you want it to be a good one!
I hope the list of steps above provides you with some comfort as to how to write a professional introduction email, and hope that it gives you some guidance in doing so. Remember to pay close attention to detail when writing out the email, and maybe have a friend or family member look it over before sending. I know you’ll do a great job in writing your introduction email, and wish you the best of luck!
