You want to address multiple recipients in a group email, but is the phrase Dear All appropriately formal for work correspondence?
In this article, we’ll address that question. Moreover, we’ll show you how to start an email using 10 alternative group salutations.
10 Alternative Ways to Say “Dear All”
Check out these 10 formal salutations for a work email:
- Greetings Everybody
- Dear [Name], [Name], and [Name]
- Good Morning All
- Dear Colleagues
- To My Fellow [Job Title]
- Dear [Department Name]
- Good Day Team
- Dear Students
- Dear Staff
- Dear Team Members
1. Greetings Everybody
A popular formal greeting for a group email at work is the phrase Greetings Everybody. On account of the formal tone of this phrase, it is most suitable if you work in a highly formal setting.
Alternatively, you can use this phrase if you are a senior member of the workplace and want to exhibit your authority in your work correspondence.
See the email sample below:
Greetings Everybody,
I would like to remind you of the upcoming health and safety inspection at our Jersey office.
Please keep your workspaces clean and report any irregularities promptly.
Sincerely,
Cluam J. Fox
2. Dear [Name], [Name], and [Name]
If you are sending out a group email to just a few recipients, you can simply include each of their names in your salutation.
The benefit of this is that each employee or team member will know that they are being directly addressed and will pay attention to the content of the email.
However, the downside of this option is that it is far more time-consuming than simply replacing their names with a single term.
Nevertheless, let’s see an email example making use of this salutation:
Dear Lerato, Kimberly, and Donald,
I have assigned a task for the three of you to work on.
Please have this back to me by Monday.
Regards,
Gabrielle
3. Good Morning All
A different way to start a group email to your team in the morning is with the phrase Good Morning All. This phrase comes across as slightly less formal and even more friendly than Dear All.
Nevertheless, this phrase is suitable for a group email in a professional setting. Therefore, you can use it as a polite and cheery greeting to start your team’s day.
Have a look at how we’ve used this greeting in a sample email:
Good Morning All,
I hope each of you enjoyed a restful weekend.
Please note that Room 17 is locked today due to a leak. Any meetings set to take place therein will need to be rescheduled or relocated.
Regards,
Tabitha
4. Dear Colleagues
When you are sending out a group email to your coworkers, you can use the phrase Dear Colleagues as a polite and formal greeting.
This is a good phrase to use if the email you are sending out is going exclusively to your equals, such as members of your office or department.
It is very tonally neutral, making it suitable for team members you are close to and members you may not know very well.
For example:
Dear Colleagues,
I have arranged a lunch for the office at 2 pm in Boardroom 1.
Please help yourselves.
Regards,
Katya
5. To My Fellow [Job Title]
To My Fellow [Job Title] is an interesting alternative to Dear All. It uses somewhat formal phrasing, but it manages to come across as rather friendly and tongue-in-cheek.
You can use this phrase in a group email going out to members of your department or of your small team at work, for instance.
Its friendly yet professional tone will create comradery between you, which is great if you are working together on a big project.
To see what we mean, check out the email sample below:
To My Fellow Trainees,
I have done some research and found some useful resources to assist us with this assignment.
Please see the document below and let me know if you have any thoughts.
All the best,
Patrice
6. Dear [Department Name]
You can use Dear [Department Name] when you are making an announcement to a particular department of your office.
This is a good way to clarify that the members of that department should take heed of the information in your email.
After all, a more generic group greeting may lead to some members ignoring it, as they may think it is just a general announcement.
Have a look at the email example below:
Dear Insurance Department,
Please see our new policy on client engagement below.
Sincerely,
Lorraine Horowitz
7. Good Day Team
The phrase Good Day Team works well if you work in a small business or office space and engage with the same people each day.
This phrase is appropriately professional yet also comes across as rather warm and open.
Therefore, it’s a good alternative to Dear All if you are a senior member of the team and want to come across as approachable while still exhibiting your authority.
See the example below:
Good Day Team,
I have received some helpful feedback from one of our recent clients.
Please have a look at the email below and consider how we can take these comments on for future projects.
All the best,
Tsepho
8. Dear Students
Dear Students is the appropriate salutation if you work as a dean or another faculty member at a university or college.
You can address every student using this salutation in a formal letter or an email announcement to the student body at large.
For instance:
Dear Students,
We are pleased to inform you that the renowned James Baldwin will be conducting a lecture in the Great Hall on Thursday, 14 September.
You are all invited and encouraged to attend.
Yours sincerely,
Dean Wesley Fischer
9. Dear Staff
If you run a business and have a large employee base, you will often find yourself sending out group emails to make important announcements.
This ensures that everyone is kept up to date and ensures the smooth running of your organization.
You can open a group email to your employees with the phrase Dear Staff. This phrase is tonally neutral and clearly addresses everyone who works for you.
Thus, let’s see an email sample that includes this salutation:
Dear Staff,
Please note that we will be closing the office an hour early this afternoon for a maintenance check.
Regards,
Regina Clark
10. Dear Team Members
A final way to address the members of your organization or department is to simply say Dear Team Members.
You can use this phrase as another way to say Dear All when you are talking to your colleagues, or if you are a senior member of the team speaking to those that work under you.
This phrase is direct, professional, and generally a safe choice, whatever the nature of your business.
Therefore, let’s see it in a sample email:
Dear Team Members,
Please be reminded that we will be implementing flexible working hours as of this month.
Your schedules should be updated to reflect this.
Regards,
Trisha Reddy
Is It Correct to Say “Dear All”?
It is correct to use Dear All as an email salutation to a group of people. This phrase is a polite email opening commonly used for group emails in workplace circumstances.
Its level of formality makes it suitable to use, whatever the size or nature of your organization, as long as you are addressing multiple recipients at once.
Below, we’ve drafted two email examples illustrating how you can use this salutation in practice:
Dear All,
This week’s team meeting has been moved to Room 17.
I look forward to seeing you all there.
Regards,
Cameron
Some people choose to capitalize “all” in the phrase Dear All since the word “all” is technically replacing the names of the recipients, which are proper nouns. However, some people choose not to capitalize “all” as it, itself, is not a proper noun.
Essentially, whether you capitalize the “all” in Dear All is a stylistic choice rather than a fixed grammar rule. Therefore, it would also be correct to write this phrase as follows:
Dear all,
Please take note of the following changes to the conference schedule.
Sincerely,
Bethany Roe
Next, we’ll look at some common punctuation mistakes people make when employing this phrase so that we can avoid them in the future.
Mistake 1: Not adding a comma after All
- Incorrect: Dear All
- Correct: Dear All,
Mistake 2: Placing a comma after Dear
- Incorrect: Dear, All
- Incorrect: Dear, All,
- Correct: Dear All,
Although it is perfectly correct to start an email with the phrase Dear All, this phrase is very common and may come across as rather standardized.
Therefore, if you want to change your phrasing and reduce repetition in your group emails, you can use one of the alternative salutations from our list.
