Writing Email That Gets Answered
Writing email seems to be a recurring topic of mine. I receive about 400 messages a day at present, and most of these require an answer. There are mails that get a faster response, and some that take days. Here’s the difference, plus a few more ideas.
One Decision Per Email
It seems counter to cutting down on email to ask you to limit the decisions required in a message to one per email, but I’ve seen it have the opposite effect. Think about choosing to go out to eat: if the first message is, “what day is good for you?”, the second message is, “what type of food do you like?”, and the third message is, “should we invite Jay, even though he laughs a lot and makes it hard to concentrate?”, you’ll see my point. These three questions all have a certain level of decision making to them. The mail on which day (better solved by a phone call) is different from the mail on what type of food, and both are different than whether or not to invite Jay (also probably better solved by a phone call).
Don’t Ever Say “Quick Question.”
I say this because what almost inevitably follows are five to nine paragraphs explaining WHY the question will be asked. It’s as if there’s lots of context needed. It’s almost always not. I’ve written complete strangers and used under 200 words to convey my needs and interests. In fact, I do that often.
Here’s a quick question:
From: Chris Brogan
To: You
Subject: Will you register for PodCamp Boston 3?
I’d like for you to register for PodCamp Boston3. It takes place July 19th-20th at the Harvard Medical School. I feel it will be the most powerful and transformative experience you’ve had with media in a long time.
Please consider it: http://podcampboston3.eventbrite.com
Main PodCamp Boston site: http://podcampboston.org
Let me know if you have any questions,
–Chris…
Your Signature File
I’m in between signature files. When I rebuilt my hard drive, my tools for writing a signature with formatting seem to have broken. So, I’m using a plain text one at present. Let’s just say I’m looking at all of your signature files closely.
Good: ways to contact you online and off (never presume your email address is obvious, especially if your email has been forwarded by others).
Good: very brief descriptor of your title and company (if it’s a business email).
Good: link to your primary blog or website
Bad: all kinds of marketing at the bottom
Bad: links to every social network where you belong
That’s my opinion, but if you want to form your own, pay attention to signature files over the next several days. See what you pay attention to, and what gets overlooked.
Following Up
With the volume of email I receive, some messages get overlooked for a duration of time. Some people follow up perfectly, and others do something that will nearly guarantee that I don’t respond to the second email as well. Here’s what’s useful in a follow-up message:
- Brevity. I probably know I haven’t responded to you, but your message might not be top of mind. Just seeing your name and the words “following up” in the body of the message over a forwarded copy of the last one you sent me will usually jar me into action.
- Simple summary. Maybe your last email was huge and had lots of requirements to it. If you sum these into a few short sentences, it might get me to complete the work.
- Reminder of deadlines. Lots of us work on all kinds of things at the same time. My job alone is challenging, so when you’ve asked me for help with an interview or the like, a little reminder of when you need it (especially if I get two days or three days before the deadline) usually can get me back on track.
Not Just Me
With more and more people overwhelmed, I’m not writing these suggestions and advice to help myself, except insofar as I’m saying that I have the same problems as other people. You might see some advice in here that you wish others would do on YOUR behalf. If so, great. Feel free to forward a link to your friends who need to follow this advice the most, with a loving and courteous message before the link, naturally.
What About You?
What are your ideas for how to improve the state of your inbox? How might you convince people to write emails that get answered faster? Where do you want to correct me?
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The Social Media 100 is a project by Chris Brogan dedicated to writing 100 useful blog posts in a row about the tools, techniques, and strategies behind using social media for your business, your organization, or your own personal interests. Swing by [chrisbrogan.com] for more posts in the series, and if you have topic ideas, feel free to share them, as this is a group project, and your opinion matters.
Get the entire series by subscribing to this blog, and subscribe to my free newsletter here.
Photo Credit, juan23for
How Mass Email Works
A few folks asked me about my recent email inviting them to subscribe to my newsletter. Some asked where the email addresses came from. Others called my invitation spam. Here’s my explanation so that I don’t have to tell the story more than once:
1.) I sent mail via the address you provided me by agreeing to link to me via LinkedIn.
2.) I sent an introduction to a service I thought you might want, because you’re in my circle of contacts and because for me, they’re one in the same (my passions about social media, and my contact list).
3.) I sent the introduction with a clear opt-out option so that you could choose to never receive emails from me in that format again (per the canned spam) law.
I use Blue Sky Factory for my email distributions because they have a high standard of what goes out from their platform. They are up front with how they deal with perceptions of spamming, so because I’ve followed their recommended methods for sending an introduction to such an email, I feel that I’ve done it “appropriately.”
Is every email you didn’t ask for spam? No. Is asking someone who considers themselves in my professional circle whether they want to also receive my newsletter spam? No.
There’s a huge difference between spam and “I didn’t want this.”
Or I think there is.
What’s your take? Let’s talk about it here.
Taming the Inbox- One Week Later
A little over a week ago, I wrote about cleaning out my inbox. I’ve learned a bit in the previous week, and want to pass on my learnings to those of you who are following along and working on your own inbox. As you can see from the attached picture, I’m still at zero, but that’s not always easy. It takes determination. Here are some things I’ve learned, and maybe, if you’re doing this yourself, share what YOU’VE learned in the comments, too.
Schedule Two Things Faithfully: Offload and Review
The hardest part, and what left a few emails sticking in my inbox, was not just taking the moment to shuffle through them twice a day. The second hardest part, and where I fell down the hardest, was not getting back into my review/follow-up items, and thus missed a few responses I owed people.
Schedule these in Google Calendar (or your calendar of choice) if you find yourself falling down on this front.
Be Brutal With Email and Stop Peeking
Delete the hell out of your email. Answer what needs answering, but don’t keep things around for “someday.” At the worst, stick something in your calendar to revisit an idea, but otherwise, delete.
I’m still learning to not peek at email until I’m ready to blaze through them. If I let them build up, part of me twitches, thinking, “Well my inbox isn’t empty,” but that’s not the point. The point is to empty the thing when I’m scheduled to empty it, not just be a crazed inbox checker.
Write Better Emails in the First Place
I did reasonably well at this, but I found that when I had a ping-pong in my inbox, it was usually my fault for not closing the loop. The better the email I can write someone, the less likely I’ll get something back in my lap.
So What Did YOU Learn?
I’ve seen emails and blog posts and twitters from people saying they’re working on the empty inbox thing. What are you finding along the way? What have you noticed? Share with us.
Screenshots are always taken with Plasq’s Skitch.
Buy a Domain for Email or at Least a Gmail Account
Several friends of mine recently left their job all at once (the company had a mass layoff). I checked in LinkedIN, and it looks like I’m now missing a way to directly contact at least 70 of them, because they used their business email address as their primary point of contact. My goal in writing this is to get you to consider one of two options: either buy a domain to use as your email address, or at least get a gmail account.
Why NOT to use your ISP’s email address
Say you make your home email address your primary point of contact. If your home address is yourname@comcast.net, what happens when you shift from Comcast to Verizon? You’ve just lost a bunch of folks who only knew how to reach you the other way.
Why NOT to use your business’s email address
Times change. People move. That’s one reason, but the other is this: sometimes, your company doesn’t want your company being represented by the places you visit and use that email. For example, we had a CTO who pointed out that anyone in our company contributing to security forums online using their work email address would be terminated. Why? Because every time someone from my company’s security team asked a question on such a forum, it signaled to hackers (who read the same forums) our company’s vulnerabilities.
Buying a Domain for email is easy
There are plenty of providers. I use 1&1, though I don’t give them the highest marks. Lots of people use GoDaddy, and if you use them, check around with your favorite podcasters, because some have deals with GoDaddy that save you money and give the podcaster a few bucks, too. The cost for a domain, especially if all you’re going to use it for is email, is around $6US a year right now (yes, you can find cheaper, or more costly).
Or Gmail
I recommend gmail because it’s easy. It’s web-based. It’s flexible. You can use it with a mail application on your desktop, with a BlackBerry, and in lots of other ways. It has powerful search, and is widely accepted as a good import gateway for most social networking sites, meaning you can make your friends portable.
Equipping YOU
The basic idea, in case I wasn’t clear, is that by making an email presence that points directly to YOU, people will know how to reach you, no matter what the circumstances of your employment or your choice of ISP on a given day. It’s about maintaining connectivity.
What do you think?
Photo credit, Joe Shiabotnik
Writing More Effective Email
Communicating via email isn’t hard. Doing it well is what’s difficult. I receive between 200-400 emails a day, several of which require me to take some action. While there are plenty of posts out there on which software is the best, how to empty your inbox, and how not to check it at all, there probably needs to be a few more posts on how to WRITE better emails. In all cases, these apply to more of your professional emails than correspondence with your cousin, although don’t be so quick to dismiss sending better emails to friends and relatives, too.
The Subject Line
The subject line of an email is the first chance you have to tell me why you need my attention. Lots of people waste the subject line. They put “hi” or “Meeting tomorrow” or “an idea for you.” None of these are useful enough. You have approximately 25 words to use to convey the payload of the info. The first 10 count even more. Try something like one of these:
- DECISION NEEDED: Picking the corporate logo today
- SCHEDULING: Check Tuesday, Wednesday, or Friday
- PROMOTION HELP: Looking for some blog and Twitter love
- [chrisbrogan.com] seems offline. You might want to check.
- MICROSOFT DEAL: Should we take it? (from JYang@yahoo.com)
In these cases, I’ve ALL-CAPPED the major point or action required, and given you a sense of what you’re going to do next for me. It’s prepping you for what comes next. Just like scary music in a movie means the killer is in the closet, you know what’s coming next, and so you mentally prepare for it.
Main Points at the Top
Unlike writing a novel, where you build up to the important stuff, most emails would be better if you put the main points up at the very top, the way newspaper stories are written. Start with the lead, and then flesh out the details, as need be. This way, someone who’s busy gets the main thing you’re telling them or asking them right away up front. Some examples:
- We’re going ahead with the deal. To close it, I’ll need you to gather three years of financials, and have them ready by Friday.
- I’m looking to meet with you while you’re in town. I’m available at the following times.
- My new social media site about dogs launches tomorrow, and I’m looking for some blog love.
- I’ve got a client who wants to launch a social media strategy. Can you fly to Phoenix for a Thursday meeting?
In those examples, I understand that an action is requested, and I even understand what comes next in all cases without reading much more. The supporting info is great, but I can guess most of what’s necessary right there. One line in, and I’ve got the gist.
(Believe me, LOTS of email comes with a novel I have to read to get to the part where someone asks what they need from me.)
Closing the Loops
We leave open loops in email all the time: places that can revolve back and forth in email circles for five or seven spins. For example, try to plan a lunch with seven coworkers. If you have eight restaurants, it will take something like 30 emails if people follow the average paths. Too many open-ended questions, and too much up-in-the-air to nail down. Look at these two examples:
Open Loop: Let’s get together for lunch. What day is good? Where do you want to go? Should we invite other departments or keep it a team meeting?
Closed Loop: Let’s get together for lunch. I’m thinking Thursday at 11:30 (to avoid the rush) at Lemon Tree. Let’s keep it just a team lunch this time, but maybe next time, we’ll invite others. Work for you?
The differences are obvious. Know why people don’t send the closed loop type email? They’re worried that they seem bossy. Here’s the truth: most times, most people don’t really care about the details. If you recommend, it will come out quickly that Surendra is off Thursday so Wednesday is better, and Melissa is allergic to seafood, etc. Closing the loops early helps everyone.
Just so I’m clear: closed loop email means to me that you’ve taken back-and-forth cycles out of the process.
Email vs. Phone
There are times when email isn’t the right medium for the job. I’m not a very big phone fan, but sometimes, when I see email go into a circle, or when I can’t understand someone’s tone very well (people can get really angry-sounding in email very fast), I’ll grab for the phone. Sometimes, a fast back-and-forth gets things out of the way easier than trying to clarify and nit pick.
Most of the time, email is a faster medium for me, but don’t forget to pick up the phone.
Things NOT to Say in Email
We tend to think that pressing delete removes the email from the universe. If you work in a publicly traded company (at least in the US), your email is more than likely archived the moment it crosses the server. Meaning, every single character you’ve ever typed out to someone, and anything that’s ever come into your account has been stored and archived by your corporate IT department. Think web-based email is safe from such prying? Not so.
With that in mind, think about all the things you maybe wouldn’t want to have come up in an investigation, even by accident. Think of how you talk about your customers. Think about what you’ve said personally to friends, lovers, and enemies.
Think about that with regards to everything you put down in email.
Finally, a Little Clip
I thought I’d put up a little visual aid using Jing and Screencast.com, who graciously provided me with a big account to try out the service more.
Link to the video is here. (It was too wide for my site).
Your Ideas
Have you written about writing more effective email? Do you have tips and advice to share? Let’s add that to the comments, too. Making a good resource for email writing would be useful to folks, so if you’ve got great advice, please share.
Photo credit, FotoDawg
