If you’ve ever heard a colleague or an existing customer tell you that they “must have missed that email,” they just might be telling the truth. It’s easy to find advice about how to write more effective advertising and prospecting emails — but what about your ordinary business correspondence?
To increase your chances of being read (and understood) in your email communications, try to follow some basic rules:
Use the subject line and the first line of text to make sure you get someone’s attention. This doesn’t mean you have to be clever or mysterious. Just let the recipient know why it’s in their best interests to read it.
Say what you have to say in as few words as possible. People get too much email and they tend to scan them. Too many words and you’ll trigger a filter that may cause them to miss something important.
Break up your message into short paragraphs. Use of white space helps people scan the text more effectively. However, think about who you’re writing to. If he or she is likely to see your email on a Blackberry, they might not get past the first paragraph, thinking that’s the full message.
NEVER USE ALL CAPS — there really is no reason for it, and people don’t react well to it.
Incorporate your signature in every email you send, including the ones you reply to. Make it as easy as possible for people to reach you, especially by phone.
Last but not least — a P.S. is still a good way to reinforce a point. People tend to know it’s a way of highlighting something particularly important.
