Email Greetings 101: How to Start Business Emails

As a business owner, you send dozens—or even hundreds—of emails every day. But here’s what most people don’t realize: Those first few words can make or break your entire message.

Your email greeting influences a range of assumptions your recipient makes about your character, mood, seniority, and the overall importance of your message. Get it right, and you’ll dramatically increase your chances of getting the reply you want. Get it wrong, and your carefully crafted email might never get the response it deserves.

Here’s how to write the perfect professional email greeting for any situation.

Common email greetings

• Greetings for cold sales emails
• Greetings for email newsletters
• Greetings for follow-ups
• Greetings for replies
• Greetings for requests
• Greetings for new connections

There’s a relatively short list of common email greetings: 

• “Dear [first name],” is the most formal. 

• “Hey [first name],” or “Hey [first name]—” is the most casual.

• “Hi [first name],” or “Hi [first name]—” is the middle ground.

Other variations include: 

• “Good morning/afternoon [name]”

• “Happy [day of the week], [name]!”

Choosing the right greeting is all about context: who you’re emailing, when you’re sending it, and why should all inform your choice.

Here’s some guidance on specific emails you might send. 

Greetings for cold sales emails

For sales emails, lead with professionalism and brevity. A cold email arrives without any prior relationship, so a more professional greeting helps you establish legitimacy and trustworthiness from the first line. Lean toward formality; never use “hey” in a cold outreach.

A simple, formal greeting also sets you up to immediately add relevant context. For example: “Hi Sarah, I saw your post on LinkedIn on AI health care integration, and wanted to reach out.”

From there, you can move seamlessly into the main contents of your email, like your elevator pitch, webinar or conference invite, or general call to action.

Greetings for email newsletters 

Personal or branded email newsletters give you more flexibility with casual greetings, depending on their content or overall design. Match your greeting to your brand personality: This might mean using a more playful, irreverent, or slangy tone to create intimacy and familiarity with subscribers. You can also adjust your greeting for each newsletter to match the content or to reflect external cultural events.

Your email marketing platform can automatically insert the recipient’s first name, or you can use a group address like “Hey Shopify fans,” or “Good morning, Dear Reader.”

Greetings for follow-ups 

A follow-up email is essentially a reminder email. It’s a gentle nudge that puts the ball back in their court. Keep follow-up greetings short and neutral—resist the urge to let frustration seep through. Try these approaches, followed by a one-sentence summary that references your previous email:

• Time based greetings. “Good morning/afternoon/evening, [name],” can make your email more memorable and add subtle urgency. Just make sure you’re in the same time zone, and avoid evening greetings for emails people will likely read the next morning. 

• Well wishes. These can disarm recipients who may be dealing with circumstances beyond their control. Try a follow-up greeting like, “Hi [name], hope this message finds you well.”

Greetings for replies

When responding to an unfamiliar sender, take cues from their previous message. If they signed their email using their first name, greet them using that name. If you don’t know their preferred first name, use details you have—their surname might be in their email address and their company name in their email domain—and do a quick search if needed.

When replying to someone you’ve corresponded with before, you can follow their lead on formality. If the person is a customer or holds seniority, maintain slightly more formality than they do.

Greetings for requests

When you need something from someone, balance brevity with politeness so they can quickly read and process your message. Skipping the salutation entirely can come off brusque and demanding. Instead, include their name and a quick preamble to set up your ask (for example: “Hi Sarah, wondering if you can help me solve …”). 

Your greeting’s formality depends on whether your request is internal or external. For colleagues you know well, use informal greetings, like “Hi ____.”

For outside contacts, choose more formal greetings like “Dear ____.” If you’re emailing a general inbox without a specific recipient name, “Hi there” strikes a friendly tone without the stuffiness of “To Whom It May Concern.”

Greetings for new connections 

When crafting warm email greetings for new connections, your approach depends on whether you’ve met in person. If you haven’t, add a personal touch by mentioning relevant connections or explaining how you found their information.

If you have met, mention how or where to jog their memory. Quick, thoughtful follow-ups are crucial for successful networking—they show you were listening and want to continue the conversation.

For example: 

• “Hi [name] — had a great time chatting with you at Monday’s event.”

• “Hi [name] — Jane from ABC Publishing sent me your way.”

• “Hi [name] — I recently read your article on endangered wombats and knew I had to reach out.” 

How to choose the right email greeting

Different emails call for different opening lines. Here’s what to consider:

Consider familiarity and intent

How well you know your recipient will be the biggest factor in your greeting choice. Second is your message’s intent or purpose. A complex, formal cold sales email needs a different greeting than a quick check-in with a colleague. 

Match target audience with tone

Consider what will resonate with your specific audience.

For example, starting with “Hey there, [name]” will likely feel inappropriate to someone you don’t know—it might even seem like spam. But with a long-time colleague, it could feel natural, while anything more formal might seem off-putting.

Similarly, a greeting with an exclamation point can seem overeager or unprofessional to some audiences. But in the right context—like an email newsletter targeting younger professionals—an exclamation point can add a positive tone. 

Follow the sender’s lead

If you’re responding to someone else’s email, adopt their greeting or formality style. This doesn’t apply to location-specific greetings (you don’t need to respond with “Aloha,” just because they opened with it), but if they’ve chosen a conversational tone, feel comfortable matching it.

What to avoid in an email greeting

Here are elements you shouldn’t use to open an email message:

• Emojis. While emojis work well in subject lines to break up crowded inboxes, avoid using them in email greetings. Depending on the recipient’s email system, they may not display correctly, leading to confusion or misinterpretations. 

• Alternate fonts and colors. Resist formatting your greeting in 16-point purple cursive. Stick with standard fonts and formatting for clean, professional communication.

• Honorifics. Skip honorifics like Mr., Mrs., or Ms. in most business communications—they can misgender your recipient. Professional titles, like Dr., Professor, or Captain are appropriate when writing in a professional context.

• Spelling errors. If you’re using the recipient’s name, double check the spelling before pressing send.