Remember what your momma taught you
Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2025 10:42 am
Do you just dive right in with a list of demands or get right to the point in your emails? It may be causing people to ignore you. Why? Because it is impolite. Remember when your parents taught you to use the phone? You say who you are, what you need and request the information. If you reach someone you don’t really want to speak to (say a gatekeeper) then you are polite to them and repeat your request. Do the same for email silly!
Quit burying the lead
What you want should be easy to locate, and any parameters should be included up front. This doesn’t mean getting rid of your greeting but if the purpose of your email is to set up a demo on Thursday, then be clear about it. Tell your reader what you are requesting and what sort of answer you need. Should they call to confirm or send their response through email. Obviously, this will change from email to email but keep in mind you always need to be direct, clear and up-front with your email based requests.
Short and Sweet wins every time
No one has the time in the middle of the business day to read your Outlook version of War bahamas phone number resource and Peace. This one is particularly hard for me, as I am always tempted to add parenthetical additions, many commas and lists for when I feel I need to supply reasons to support my point. Keep your messages between 125-500 words to get a 1 in 2 response rate. If they get even longer, expect fewer people to answer you.
Email for Dummies
Just kidding! I have a third grader! But if you write with simple words, simple phrasing and simple structure, you will reach more people. Write for elementary school kids and get responses, write for college kids and watch your response rate get carved in half. I have kids so it’s easy for me to pretend I am writing to them, but if you need help, tools like the website Readability-Score or the document editor Word can be used to determine if your writing is simple or complex.
Quit burying the lead
What you want should be easy to locate, and any parameters should be included up front. This doesn’t mean getting rid of your greeting but if the purpose of your email is to set up a demo on Thursday, then be clear about it. Tell your reader what you are requesting and what sort of answer you need. Should they call to confirm or send their response through email. Obviously, this will change from email to email but keep in mind you always need to be direct, clear and up-front with your email based requests.
Short and Sweet wins every time
No one has the time in the middle of the business day to read your Outlook version of War bahamas phone number resource and Peace. This one is particularly hard for me, as I am always tempted to add parenthetical additions, many commas and lists for when I feel I need to supply reasons to support my point. Keep your messages between 125-500 words to get a 1 in 2 response rate. If they get even longer, expect fewer people to answer you.
Email for Dummies
Just kidding! I have a third grader! But if you write with simple words, simple phrasing and simple structure, you will reach more people. Write for elementary school kids and get responses, write for college kids and watch your response rate get carved in half. I have kids so it’s easy for me to pretend I am writing to them, but if you need help, tools like the website Readability-Score or the document editor Word can be used to determine if your writing is simple or complex.