As a professional you write emails all the time. They are the most commonly written documents. But they exist halfway between a conversation and a formal letter. So what’s good practice for writing effective emails?
Before you start typing, ask yourself ‘Why am I emailing this person?’ What result do you want? Can you handle it better by phone or by getting up and having a conversation?’
Sitting in an inbox, surrounded by hundreds of other messages, your email must scream: ‘Choose me, read me!’ To do this, you must write a subject line that grabs attention. Don’t leave it blank and don’t write a vague heading. Be accurate, brief and clear.
Look at how you’ve set out your email. Don’t bury the main idea. The most important content goes in the first one or two paragraphs.
Don’t write too much. Keep your email at three to four paragraphs. If you need to send reams of content, attach a document.
Your email is a professional document: make sure that it’s punctuated correctly; no grammatical or spelling mistakes; no smiley faces.
Bad emails go endlessly back and forth. In your email, you should close the issue by including all relevant information—no omissions. Your reader shouldn’t need to ask you to clarify content or ask for more information.
In an email, you’re simultaneously conveying a message and managing a relationship and you have only words to convince and persuade. No CAPITALS; say please; say thank you; choose the right words to soften your reader.
Do you or your team need help with writing effective emails or other forms of correspondance? Ethos CRS offers quality courses on Writing Compelling Briefs and Correspondance at competitive rates