Have you ever opened your inbox and felt yourself cringe when you saw an email from a particular individual? Let’s make sure that individual isn’t you! How to write an effective email is a skill that entrepreneurs need to hone and it’s not usually something anyone talks about.
We’re pulling back the covers and revealing how to write an email that gets results and doesn’t make anyone cringe!
How To Write An Effective Email
- Why are you writing the email? Don’t send a “just wanted to say hi” email if you know individuals’ inboxes are deluged — and they are. You can keep in touch, but share information that is worthy of their time to read and your energy to have written. Know your objective before you hit send.
- Be brief. If the email has to be long, break it up with bullet points. Highlight what is crucial to the reader. Remember, many people skim emails and if yours is wordy, the point may be lost.
- Your subject line needs to be succinct and relevant. The subject line is what will get the email opened, or not — use it wisely and don’t make it overly long.
- Keep the acronyms out — unless the recipient knows exactly what they mean. Write in a casual tone.
- Remember, there is no body language to back up your words and words maybe taken out of context and feelings could be hurt.
- Never use email to berate someone.
- Don’t “reply all” if it isn’t necessary — and it usually isn’t. Also, reply all usually means that some of the messages will get lost or buried and crucial information could be lost.
- Don’t send emails from your phone unless you’re sure that auto correct won’t change your words to something you definitely didn’t mean.
Email conversations are great and can save time, but emails also mean you and your staff could be faced with them around the clock — and that isn’t an ideal situation. Don’t email your employees at 3 am — they may think you require an immediate answer and unless they are on call 24/7 that isn’t fair to them.
How great is your email etiquette? Does your company have an email policy in place? If not, reach out. We can help.