I'll admit before I start – I still have a little trouble keeping my emails short and sweet. Not that I don't know the merits of going straight to the point in your email right away, it's just that I need to put more conscious effort into making them specific.
SummaryDitch long emails except..Write better subject linesBe creativeBe personalCheck before you hit sendThe other day I was reading Leo's post on cons of long emails and it made me realize that I'm not the only one with this bad habit of (sometimes) writing long emails. In fact, it's not just about the length of the email. There are several other ways to improve your email writing skills and ensure that it is opened and read even when it reaches someone who receives hundreds of emails every day.
The following five tips are something I've learned over the past few months, and they've definitely helped me a lot in improving my email skills. However, I am not perfecting them yet. Just a matter of time, I believe.
As Leo rightly mentioned in his article, long emails (most of the time) don't work. Everyone is busy, and just seeing a long email can cause the senses to shut down temporarily, causing that email to be instantly archived or deleted. This is no joke, just ask people who deal with email fatigue on a daily basis. They will hate you if you send them long emails.
So, keep your emails to the point and to the point. Drop the Hi and Hellos. But don't talk like a robot. Keep in mind that a human is reading your email on the other end. But keep it as short as possible.
Now, there are situations where lengthy emails may be required. For example, sending an e-mail to a new employee to give him certain instructions… or those that you send to your mom. Well, I think you're wise enough to decide who has time to read your emails and who doesn't. So send them accordingly.
What are the odds of you opening an email with the subject line "Hi" versus an email that says "Quick search for site optimization advice"? I think you are much more likely to open the second email. The first does not give anything about what the email contains.
Email subject lines are important. Therefore, you must learn to write them. Copyblogger has a great article on how to write email subject lines that won't get ignored. Although the article focuses on email marketers, I believe it contains some tips that we could also use in our day-to-day email business.
Creativity in email content can be a huge help, especially when showcasing your product or service in the email. An absolutely amazing example is this email a startup sent to TechCrunch, the blog that probably receives hundreds of pitches every day. As you will see in this article, they are creative and interesting, which quickly caught the attention of TechCrunch staff.
I touched on this in the first point, where I mentioned that you should keep in mind that there is a human on the other end who will be reading your email. Believe it or not, most companies don't understand this. I receive a large number of emails every day that are not addressed to me and look like spam even though they are not. Do you think I answer them? Of course not!
There are lots of things you can do to personalize your emails. Seth Godin summed them all up perfectly in this brilliant post. He's right as usual.
Last but not least is the practice of skimming through your email before hitting the send button. This is probably the most important and overlooked email writing tip. How many times have you emailed the wrong person? or sent without the attachment? or sent when you were drunk? You know what I'm talking about.
I think all Gmail users should enable Undo Send feature which is definitely a godsend. It allows you to cancel the email you just sent and avoid any embarrassment. You won't believe how many times you'll end up using this feature. So, be sure to enable it.
What do you think we can implement in our emails so as not to be ignored?
To your health,
Abhijeet
