Imagine you're at a party, a networking event, a conference: you’re surrounded by people. Some you know; many you don’t. An acquaintance walks up to you and says “Hey, Mina, this is Jan. They’re an expert in marketing who works with small businesses to attract the right audiences. Mina was just saying that she was looking for marketing help for her downtown boutique where she has all kinds of awesome gifts. Maybe a good place for you to look for your mom’s birthday present, Jan?” And while the mutual acquaintance is introducing the two of you, you probably shake hands in acknowledgement. And say “Hi, nice to meet you!” to each other. Then you start talking and the mutual acquaintance walks away having successfully connected you two together.

Sound familiar? We’re used to introducing people to each other in person. Maybe we don’t always have the perfect thing to say about each person, sometimes we don’t even remember both parties' names, but we generally try to say each person’s name and something about them so *they* can connect before we walk away.

When we want to connect two people over email, we’d like it to be as simple and familiar as it is in-person. But sometimes it feels a bit awkward. Do we say hello to both people? Is the email addressed to both of them? What do we include in the introduction? How do we connect them and then make it clear that we don’t need or want to be included on the reply messages–without being rude? This blog post answers all those questions!

Is the email addressed to both people?

Yes. Both people should be on the TO line. If you put one as TO and the other as CC, you are essentially telling one person (TO) to reply and the other person (CC) that they don’t have to. And that doesn’t make sense for an introduction. You want both people to meet each other at essentially the same “time”, so they should both be who the message is TO.

Do we say hello to both people?

Yes. A typical greeting on an email or LinkedIn message should include a greeting word or phrase and the names of whoever is in the TO line. Since you are sending this message to both people, both their names should be in the greeting like this:

Hi Erin and Fredrick,

What do we include in the introduction?

Provide a little contact about each person. It doesn’t have to be long or complicated. You don’t need to give a whole biography. Just a quick sentence. It’s useful if you indicate how you know each person, but the main point of the sentence should be related to why you think the two of them should connect.

Erin runs a local bike shop where I’ve taken my bike a few times for flat tires.

Fredrick, a friend of mine from yoga, is doing his first triathlon and has some questions about how to outfit his bike appropriately.

Once you’ve given them both a little background info about each other, you can add a sentence to explain more specifically your goal with connecting them. It’s also helpful to suggest who might take the lead in replying to the conversation since the strangers may not know who should go first. And it’s nice to express a wish or hope that they can help each other!

Hoping Fredrick can ask you his questions, Erin, and get some help with preparing his bike for the big race!

How do we then make it clear that we don’t need or want to be included on the reply messages–without being rude?

Few of us want more emails, so it’s nice to save everyone’s inbox by excusing ourselves from follow up messages. The easiest way is to just say something like

No need to include me on your replies!

You two can take it from here!

And then just use a standard email closing like “Best” or “Sincerely” or something more personal if you know both parties sufficiently.

Have a good weekend,

Jenny

Whole message

The final message should read like this:

Hi Erin and Fredrick