Risk & Business Magazine General Insurance Services - Fall 2020 | Page 20

EMAIL TIPS
Want to become a pro at
writing better emails?
I want to give seven
easy, but powerful
email tips to make
emailing better.
According to Statista 269 billion emails
were sent and received every single
day in 2017. And this number is only
going up! How can you become a better
emailer? And why does this matter? The
better you are at email the more likely:
• Your emails get opened
• You have faster email response rates
• People don’t archive or ignore your
emails
• You build your professional
credibility by sending clear, concise
emails
Learning to email well can help you get
more done and be more successful.
Here are my top email tips:
EMAIL TIP #1: ABUSING THE WORD
URGENT
This is URGENT I need it back ASAP.
It’s SUPER IMPORTANT because I’m
writing in all caps. When I see URGENT
in an email subject, my heart starts to
race. I think about actually urgent things
like bloodshed or falling off a cliff or
YouTube being down–you know really
serious things. If you overuse ASAP and
URGENT you run the risk of people
taking you less seriously when it is
actually urgent down the line. Don’t be
like the boy who cried wolf.
Take-Away: Don’t abuse ASAP, URGENT,
IMPORTANT unless it is really, really
ASAP, URGENT, or IMPORTANT.
EMAIL TIP #2: IF IT’S LONGER THAN
THREE PARAGRAPHS, STOP
Have you ever received and exceptionally
long email — you know the ones where
you have to scroll and scroll and scroll
and they just never end? Really really
long emails are really really tempting to
just archive or ignore.
Why? Something psychological happens
with really long emails. If you spent two
hours writing me a small novel in your
email, I feel bad replying with only two
sentences. So, I don’t… I literally ignore it
in my inbox until the email is no longer
relevant OR you call me about it.
Maybe your email should have been a
call or meeting in the first place? If you
have a virtual team, it can be incredibly
hard to keep emails concise because you
can’t just pop by someone’s office with a
question.
Take-Away: If your email is longer than
three paragraphs consider calling. It’s
easier for both of you!
EMAIL TIP #3: START NEW CHAINS
Have you ever got an email where the
subject is just filled with forwards and
replies? Or have you ever been on an
email chain that is 48 threads long and
has nothing to do with the subject or
the original question? Let’s stop the
madness! If you are on a chain that
doesn’t have to do with the original
subject or has gone so far off course that
you have no idea where you started, then
it’s time to start a new chain. Everyone
on the thread will thank you. By the
way, if you need some email templates
to nicely, and concisely start new emails
you can check out good email templates
from Buffer.
Take-Away: Don’t let your email chains
last forever. A good email should always
be retired.
EMAIL TIP #4: USE A HIERARCHY OF
FACTS
This is my super advanced tip for
exceptional email skills. Always put the
most important idea up top. At best,
people skim their emails. At worst, they
don’t finish reading them. Don’t bury
your lead. If you have a big question or a
big idea, put it right up top so you have
a better chance of someone actually
seeing it. This is just one of many email
mistakes you can make but is the most
important for increasing your response
rate.
Take-Away: Get your big idea out as soon
as possible.
EMAIL TIP #5: CONTAIN YOUR
EMOTION
Emotions can destroy your email
credibility. And it can go one of two ways.
Overly excited emails can drive people
crazy. Quadruple explanation points,
five smiley faces and three hearts later
and your email cred is at zero. I love
excitement, but don’t get too excited…
especially about emojis. You also want to
avoid emotional emailing. This is when
you are angry, upset or irritated and you
email everyone something a little nasty. I
promise you WILL regret it.
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