On Freelance Switch, Brain Zafron recently posted, The Art of Email-Writing and How it Can Make or Break Your Business. I was immediately interested in what Zafron was going to say and eager to pick up on any tips he might offer. For one of my jobs, I would say that about 95% of the communication takes place via email. When I first began this job, I knew that this was the case and was pretty excited. I thought that it would be much easier to correspond with my supervisor and media contacts this way. In some respects it is easier. It is more convenient than having meetings all the time to discuss a few details and allows me to reach a larger number of people much quicker. On the other hand, writing emails for business can also get a little stressful. I often find myself reading just a few short sentences over and over again trying to be as clear and concise as possible, but always making sure to include all the necessary details.
I wanted to share a handful of Zafron's tips that I found especially helpful.
Brand with a meaningful subject line. People decide whether to open, forward, file, or delete an email based upon the subject line. Don't waste the reader's time: your subject line should succinctly describe the email's content. Additionally, if you attempt any gimmicks or unnecessary cleverness in the subject line, your email could strike the reader as spam and wind up in the trash, alongside those free iPod offers, juicer giveaways, and subscriptions to "Amphibian Lover" magazine.
Engage people with your sentences. Don't write sentences that are indirect and obtuse. Place strong nouns and verbs towards the front that lead to a clearly defined point. Instead of "it has been decided...," consider, for example, "our company decided..." The epitome of lackluster writing is the passive tense. Make your sentences pop. And here's another nugget of wisdom: don't end sentences with prepositions! Instead of "I want someone to eat enchiladas with," consider, for example. "I want someone to eat enchiladas with me."
CC with moderation. Only carbon copy (cc) those parties that are directly involved with the content of the email. CC orgies not only lead to traffic jams in other people's in-boxes, but create a sense of impersonality between yourself and the principle email recipient. When in doubt, utilize the magic of the blind carbon (bcc) to conceal the addresses of subsidiary recipients.
While some of this may seem like a no brainer, I think that it's the easy things that often get overlooked. Thank you Mr. Zafron for these wonderful tips!
image: corbis/Holger Winkler
