Virtual alternative to "pleased to meet you" when mailing new people

Question

Is there a good professional way to acknowledge the fact that you're mailing someone for the first time or, in my case, that you're new to an organisation/team? I've been opening a lot of emails with a "Pleased to meet you!" lately but it's annoying the pedantic part of my brain. I'm struggling to find a decent alternative though. "Delighted to e-meet you" makes me cringe while "making someone's acquaintance" feels like something my grandparents did.

Are there any good concise ways to phrase this kind of self-introduction? I can avoid it in longer mails by actually introducing myself but I'm now sending first emails to a load of new people where I might not want to go into all that.

I'm probably overthinking all this, but with remote work remaining the norm it feels like I'll keep meeting people mainly through email in future so I'm hoping to improve my virtual introduction game.

Answer 1

I am sure there are some alternatives, depending on how formal you want to be.

You can always just use a simple Hello, Good Morning / Afternoon followed by a short introduction of relevancy to the person. Some people don't enjoy much to specify time of day as email is usually asynchronous communication.

If you're looking for more formal alternatives I don't think you can go wrong with a We haven't met yet, allow me to introduce myself, or a I hope you're doing well / this letter finds you well.

Answer 2

Are there any good concise ways to phrase this kind of self-introduction?

Introduce yourself.

"Hi, I'm such and such, the new rookie/boss/dongle-expert"

Then go straight to the issue.

This is a polite way to acknowledge that you haven't met before which provides the recipient with useful information and doesn't waste time on empty pleasantries. The pleasantries are implied and/or will be conveyed by the rest of the e-mail structure (i.e. if you say "Hi" and "Bye" nicely you don't need additional gloss).

Answer 3

If you just want an alternative, my $0.02

Glad to be in touch!

That said, keep it short (really really short), if you don't omit it altogether. It's good to have the human touch in communication, but written communication is best (and IMO should) used for conveying information, minus the emotion.

[Personal experience] Some people are too skeptic to read the later part of the email if they see the starting sentence contains anything other than a simple "Hi"/ "Hello" and the subject/ action item is not clear in the first line. This may be a little too extreme of a filtering - but those people exist. So, when you're starting a new communication over email, best is to keep the email to-the point, and once you get to know the person better, you can probably customize the content accordingly.

Finally, if you want, connect with them over a voice / video call, and take the conversation forward.

Answer 4

I'm struggling to find a decent alternative

While I get that it might ruffle the feathers of pedantry I'd actually suggest that "Pleased to meet you!" is fine - is it literally true? No, but then we do similar, playing fast and loose with literal meanings all the time - think about how often people will respond to an e-mail, text or letter with "good to hear from you". We "say" things and "talk" in written form all the time as well.

"Delighted to e-meet you" makes me cringe

You and me both - this is who I would picture if I read this. Don't be that guy.

"making someone's acquaintance" feels like something my grandparents did

You've hit the nail on the head here as to why I think you're fine to "meet" people over e-mail, conventions and the usage of language changes over time.