Strategies For Writing Business Emails
Strategies For Writing Business Emails
Here are a few techniques to make sure your emails are opened, understood, and responded to:
- Make sure you use the subject line to tell the reader what you expect from them or what they can expect from your e-mail. Subject lines such as “November program,” or “Case study customer,” or “Project Johnson,” have no meaning to the email reader. It does not tell them what you expect of them, and it is not easy for them to quickly skim their emails to decide on its priority.
- Don’t brain dump in your email. If your email looks like one big long paragraph, I guarantee that you are brain dumping.
- Use lots of white space in your email so it is easier for the reader to see your thoughts.
- Put questions on separate lines so that people can easily see what they need to answer.
- Avoid sarcasm. Assume your email will be read defensively and get rid of any language that may be seen as negative, condescending, sarcastic or reprimanding.
Anne’s book, Outcome Focus® Approach: How to Structure Your Message so They Hear It has a lot of examples on openings, closings and everything in between for structuring your message whether it’s written, verbal or nonverbal to get the best outcome. Go to the Store tab and click on Books.