What is the proper email etiquette to reply to a person?

Email Etiquette - Signing off with your name?

• Okay, so say you're conversing with an online friend...someone you haven't met, but also someone you speak to on a --somewhat-- regular occasion. You start off the first email like this: Tom, How are you? Hope all's well. Please let me know if I can pick up three of the bottles from you today. Regards, Jeff After the friend replies, do you have to keep signing off EACH email with -your- name and addressing him by -his- name at the beginning of the email? Where is the line drawn? If you address him by his name, and sign off with yours, is it mandatory that you CONTINUE doing so until the conversation has completely ended? Does not doing so come off as insulting in anyway? Meaning, if you just type out a sentence in the second email with no names or "kind regards" included. What exactly is the etiquette here?

• Answer:

  In professional email etiquette, it is appropriate to begin an email conversation with formalities (example: "Good morning Mr. Smith" or simply "Mr. Smith" or "Tom" if you are familiar with each other.) When signing off your email for the first time, it is appropriate to say something along the lines of "Regards, Jeff" However, when you are conversing back and forth regularly (on a certain regular schedule or any expected time including fast emails back and forth) you can ease off of the formalities. The first thing to take out is the "Regards" before you write your name. This is not needed after the first email. Next thing to take out is writing their name before the message. This is for quick messages back and forth. The one thing to never take out is the courtesy of quickly writing your name beneath the message. At minimum it is useful for separating who said what and separating replies in an email chain.