3 Simple Ways You Can Make Your Email Writing Magnificent
/There are many best practices blogs and magazine articles about email etiquette; I know because I’ve written many of them.
Lately I’ve been thinking, “What are the simplest things I can recommend that will help others make their email writing as effective as possible?” After a bit of thought I came up with the following 3 simple ways to make email writing magnificent.
1. Write A Really Good Email Subject Line.
Looking into the email I’ve recently received I see far too many bad ones like:
Tomorrow
Conflict Management
Training
One Other Thing
Requesting Information
I don’t mind sharing these bad email subject lines with you because they are so vague there is no risk of a privacy breech. And that is really the point.
A good subject line is the window into our email. It should manage your readers expectations about what your reader will encounter as well as motivate them to want to open, read and respond to it (which is usually your ultimate goal).
As a general rule, a magnificent email subject line will almost always have somewhere between 5 and 7 words,
2. Say Hello, Good Morning, Good Afternoon… or something like this.
A short, pleasant, professional greeting is one of the easiest ways to take the unintended and all too common pushy, bossy, negative tone that lives within all of our email.
It’s amazing the good things that will happen with your relationship when your reader sees a friendly:
Hi Bruce
Good Afternoon
Good Morning Mr. Mayhew
When people feel you are being friendly and respectful they will be more open to helping get you what you want.
3. Get To The Point
Bottom lining your message is critical to being a good communicator and getting your email read and acted on quickly because it helps you manage their expectations.
Your reader will appreciate when your first sentence (after your greeting), informs them exactly what you what, what you need or what you have for them.
If you have background information put it after your important information and/or action item. Even better, label your background information with a heading called… Background. This creates a physical separation between critical information and background information and will show you reader your important info is only a few lines long… and it is the background info (that they can read later), that makes the message look long.
Conclusion:
There are 2 really good reasons why making your email magnificent is good for you and your organization:
Professionalism: Great email etiquette demonstrates you are a professional by showing you pay attention, are a great communicator and know how to manage your - and other people’s expectations. This is important for your professional brand and the brand of your team / organization.
Efficiency: Email that get to the point and don’t negatively trigger your reader save you (and your reader) time because they are read quickly and understood easily. The bonus is you save even more time by not having to follow-up.
Thank you for taking the time to read this article about email writing and how you can use it differently in order to get the information you want when you want it. Now, go be magnificent.
Bruce
About Bruce and Bruce Mayhew Consulting.
Corporate trainer Bruce Mayhew (of BMC) specialize in customized Leadership, Communication and other soft skills training solutions in Toronto and across Canada.
BMC helps your greatest assets think productive and be productive.
Bruce is an experienced motivational speaker in Toronto and has inspired audiences across Canada and within the USA and the UK. Bruce works hard to always make sure your training event, conference, retreat, or annual general meeting is a success.
