Business Email Format: Complete Guide With Examples

No one reads it, no one replies, and no one seems to care about your message.

For that to change, businesses must pay close attention to the email’s structure, clarity, and formatting. After all, this is one of the many ways that determines how prospects view your company: organized and trustworthy or cluttered and unreliable.

In this article, we’ll explain the best practices for writing business emails, including clear suggestions and examples about email format, layout, and writing.

The finest professional emails follow a clear structure, and that’s what sets them apart. The goal is for the recipient to understand your message quickly and effortlessly, regardless of the devices they’re reading it on.

If you want to create a polished business email, you must know that any business email template has six core components:

• Subject line: Short, clear, and concise description of the purpose of the email.
• Greeting: Sets the mood and fosters respect.
• Email body: Communicates the main message clearly.
• Closing: Indicates what you expect from the recipient.
• Signature: Shares contact information and promotes legitimacy and trustworthiness.
• Technical aspects: Guarantees better deliverability, regardless of the recipient.

If you start using this structure consistently, all your emails will feel professional, whether the message is basic or complex. Let’s break down each component with specific formatting guidelines.

If your business emails’ open rates aren’t meeting your expectations, consider revising how you write subject lines.

The best subject line:

• Has a maximum of 3-6 words
• Is written in sentence case (not all caps)
• Is specific about content
• Includes action items or deadlines when relevant

Here are a few examples of good and bad business email subject lines.

✅ Good:

• Meeting reschedule request – Monday at 3 pm?
• Client onboarding – Documents ready for review
• 24th June marketing meeting – Clarification

❌ Bad:

• MARKETING MEETING RESCHEDULED DUE TO UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES – URGENT!!
• READ ASAP OR ELSE – New employee documents ready for submission and verification
• VERY IMPORTANT!! Clarify your talking points from the last marketing meeting

Here’s a cheat sheet for writing the best professional subject lines:

Greetings are the first text readers read after opening an email. So, it’s fundamental to start your message as best as possible. Naturally, the way you address the recipient depends on context:

• First contact: ‘Dear Mr./Ms. (Last Name),’
• Established relationship: ‘Hello (First Name),’
• Team members/Teams: ‘Hi [Name],’ or ‘Good morning team,’
• Unknown: ‘Dear [Job Title],’

Additionally, ensure that you add a comma after the greeting and a blank line before the email body.

Professional email bodies are scannable, not walls of text.

That means the reader must be able to read it with ease and without getting overwhelmed by long blocks of uninterrupted text.

Here are a few guidelines to format and structure the best business emails:

1. Opening sentence: Start with the BLUF (Bottom Line Upfront) principle, which suggests writing the primary purpose of the email in the first sentence.
2. Body paragraphs: Write one idea per paragraph with up to two or three sentences.
3. Use white space: Separate each paragraph with blank lines.
4. Lists: Add bullet points to make the text easier to skim through.
5. Emphasis: Use bolding only for key information or details, such as deadlines, dates, and commitments.

Regarding the email’s length, it depends from case to case:

• Simple requests: 50-100 words
• Detailed proposals: 150-250 words
• If it requires more than 250 words: Use attachments

To better understand how a poorly structured email differs from a good one, see the following examples:

Hi John I’m following up about the website design and I wanted to let you know that I have the adjustments ready. Let’s meet next Friday at 2 pm to review it. I’d like feedback on the colors before I deliver the final draft. Bye.

Hi John,

 

I’d like to review the design adjustments and confirm the colors before finalizing.

 

Do you agree to having the meeting next Friday at 2 pm?

 

Best, Jason Smith

As you can see, the last example is much easier to read and much more keen to the eye.

It also enables mobile users to read it effortlessly, which is essential considering that 35% of business professionals rely on their mobile devices to manage and read emails.

A well-formatted business email closing should include a CTA (call-to-action) and a proper sign-off.

For the best CTA’s, make sure to:

• Add them before the sign-off
• Be clear about what you need
• Include deadlines when applicable

Example: ‘Please review the attached document and let me know what you think by Tuesday, March 20th.’

For the best sign-offs, adapt them to the relationship context:

Now that you know what to use, let’s go over a few examples of sign-offs to avoid:

• Later,
• XOXO,
• TTYL,
• Peace,
• Thx,

You should choose sign-offs depending on the context and relationship with the sender, followed by the sender’s name on another line. For example:

Speak soon,

Jason

According to a Rocketseed survey, businesses claim they use signatures to enhance brand consistency, increase marketing engagement, and provide accurate contact information. In other words, they’re important!

By default, a complete business email signature comprises at least:

• Full name
• Job title
• Company name
• Phone number
• Email address (especially when using a custom domain)
• Optional links: Company website, LinkedIn profile, or other relevant links

For formatting signatures, we recommend:

• Use plain text or simple HTML (no images unless it’s the company logo)
• Font size: 10-11pt
• Limit to 4-6 lines of text
• Include only professional-related links

Business email signature example:

Jason Smith

Financial Consultant

Brightline Finances

(567) 123-4567

[email protected]

linkedin.com/in/jasonsmithconsultant

To ensure you’re using the best signature possible, avoid adding irrelevant information, large graphics, multiple colors, excessive links, or emojis.

Email format isn’t just about what recipients see – technical factors affect whether your email reaches the inbox at all.

To ensure it does, consider the following technical formatting considerations:

• Email deliverability: Poorly formatted emails with a confusing structure are often flagged as spam. Emails with excessive capital letters, emojis, punctuation marks, no plain text version, and large images without text end up in the spam folder, significantly affecting email deliverability.
• Email provider: Depending on the email provider you’re using, emails sent may end up labeled differently, such as inbox, spam, or promotions folder. So, it’s important to carefully select email clients that focus on email deliverability. Fastmail is a prime example of an email service that focuses on email deliverability. It’s optimized for authentic direct-to-inbox email messaging for individuals and businesses.
• Plain text vs HTML: Businesses’ email clients often strip styling or block HTML from emails for security reasons. This way, we recommend using an email service that automatically generates a plain text alternative to ensure your emails are readable and delivered regardless of the recipient’s email provider.

[SUBJECT LINE] Website proposal review – call availability

[GREETING] Hello John,

[BODY] I’d like to know when you’re available for a new meeting, this time to review the first draft of the new website layout.

It was an excellent meeting with you two weeks ago to discuss the new website’s design. The company’s designers and I have come up with several ideas, and the first draft is now ready for approval or fine-tuning.

Here’s what we would like to go over:

• Visual layout
• Page hierarchy
• Usability
• Final pricing range
• Deadlines and timelines for revisions

[CLOSING + CTA] Please let me know the date and time for this meeting.

[SIGN-OFF] Best, Jason Smith

As you can see, adding blank spaces between paragraphs and ideas makes the email easy to read. On the same note, the five-bullet point list reduces complexity, which boosts email scalability.

Any business truly concerned about how it comes across to customers and clients must have a custom domain.

Businesses that own a custom domain like *[email protected]* look much more professional than if it were something like *[email protected].*

But that’s not all!

Compared to generic email providers, emails sent from custom domains are also less likely to be flagged as spam due to better inbox placement. Additionally, they help businesses increase brand consistency, security, and privacy.

While you can register a domain via a standalone domain registrar, email services like Fastmail let you purchase a custom domain from within the platform.

Alternatively, if you already own one, Fastmail offers an interactive guide to help you set it up quickly.

Some common formatting mistakes to avoid include:

• Vague and ambiguous subject lines: Undermines email engagement and open rates as they fail to capture the recipient’s attention.
• Multiple font types, sizes, and colors in one email: Distracts readers due to the lack of visual consistency.
• Mentioning attachments and forgetting to add them: ****Erodes credibility and calls for unnecessary further follow-up.
• Using multiple exclamation marks and all caps: Triggers spam filters and comes across as highly unprofessional.
• No blank spaces and paragraph breaks: Compromises readability.
• No custom domain: Weakens brand recognition and legitimacy.

Email communications have come a long way since the inception of the internet. It’s common knowledge by now that how you write and present information matters.

Consistent formatting, clear subject lines, adequate greetings, and a well-structured body are what make a business email pop.

By reviewing each component individually and pairing it with a reliable email infrastructure, your business communications will undoubtedly cut through the noise of crowded inboxes.

We recommend using a professional email client to improve not only deliverability rates but also ensure your messages don’t end up unread in a spam folder. You can try Fastmail completely for free through its 30-day free trial.