email - How do you greet multiple recipients in an e-mail?


How do you greet multiple recipients in an e-mail?


Assuming they're both male, I just use "Sirs", but it seems a bit informal.



Answer



If you don't know the recipients' names, I refer you to the other answers. However, if you do know their names, then I will add that I would actually just write:



Dear John,
Dear Jack,



I have been using this formula for more than a decade. So far, nobody has complained. For me, this approach has quite a few advantages. First of all, it is more personal than simply "Greetings" or "Hi all". Secondly, if one of those people is the main recipient and the other is CC, or if one of them has a higher rank (say, he is the boss of the other), I can reflect that in my address by mentioning him first. Lastly, this formula can be easily adapted to many situations. If some (or all) of the recipients are female I simply write:



Dear John,
Dear Jane,



If I need to make it more formal, I simply write:



Dear Mr. Smith,
Dear Ms. Black,



And I can easily extend it to three or even four people:



Dear Mr. Smith,
Dear Ms. Black,
Dear Mr. Blunt,



Now, when I am addressing more than four people, I often do use something like "Greetings", "Hi everybody", "Dear clients", "Dear colleagues". However, even then I sometimes set the most important recipient apart by writing:



Dear Prof. Black,
Dear colleagues,



or



Dear Mr. President,
Dear Members of the Committee,



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