Email 101: 5 Tips to help you acing your message

writing-email Emails have developed to be the primary source of communication, especially within and across businesses. While nowadays emails carry all sorts of functions, from being used as marketing instrument, to acting as security measures, people tend to forget the primary asset of it: communication. After all, emails are electronic letters. And therefore, every message written should be treated like a letter.

You want others to receive and read your email, treating it as important as you valued it when sending. To ensure your intention is translated correctly into your message, there are a few golden rules you should follow:

 

Subject Line:

Most emails you delete aren’t even opened before moving to the trash folder. Why is that? Because merely by reading the subject line you can tell you don’t want to read the content. Therefore, make sure to always have a subject line that fits the content of your message. Keep it short, specific, and simple. Think about whether or not you would open the email, just reading the headline.

 

Introduction:

If the conversation hasn’t been going already for a while, start every email with and introduction. Who are you addressing? And why? Keep it short and simple, but be up front with what your intention is in sending the email.

 

Body:

Don’t rush it! A good email takes time. If you want the reader to understand what you’re saying without any struggle, make sure the text and information is set-up accordingly. Also, watch out for what tone you use in your text. Criticism, requests, a simple information: It’s not what you say, but how you say it. Always keep in mind how your email will be received by the reader. Would you want it being published? If not, reconsider what and how you’re addressing your opposite.

 

Conclusion:

Rather than repeating everything you said previously, the end of an email is a good opportunity to wrap up your part of the conversation and end things on good terms, e.g. end the text with a greeting and your signature. Nevertheless, it is nice to sum up what exactly the main point of the email was, especially if you’re dealing with a lot of details in a bigger subject. Make it easy for the ready to know what they’re answering to by giving a short overview of the things you addressed.

 

Grammar, Spelling, Fact check

Once you get done with what you want to write, don’t just hit the send button and be glad it’s over. Always, ALWAYS, proofread your message to check on spelling and grammar mistakes. There’s nothing more pleasant for any reader than a well-written text, that doesn’t make them want to throw a dictionary at you.

 

 

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