Writing Email That Gets Answered

June 25, 2008 · Comments

mail 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?

—

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.

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  • bgavin
    And. . .
    Don't forget that sometimes the very best thing is just to pick of the phone.

    Question. . .
    I often change subject lines in order to keep them relevant to the topics that the thread is now addressing. Makes it easier for me to search later. Does this make things crazy for thosoe who sort by subject? Only crazy, or entirely crippled?
  • Barbara, I also do that, change the subject line to make it more relevant to the current topic, especially if it's an e-mail in string of replies where the original topic has changed. Also, regarding those strings of replies, after a while, I'll delete the extraneous chain of replies in that singular e-mail. This is especially useful in G-mail, which tabs the thread of conversations anyway.

    Great post Chris.
  • I sometimes use short, interesting subject lines that have no relevance to the content of the email, but have personal significance to the receiver so I know the email will be read. For example, I know you get a ton of email so the other day when I sent you a short note, I used a subject line out of one of your favorite movies (and mine), Fight Club. I figured it might break through the clutter, and since you wrote back within about 30 seconds, I believe it may have worked!

    This tactic works if you know a little something about the person you're emailing AND if you know they a ton of email from people they may not know. Helps you rise to the top of the pack a little bit.
  • I think the other thing people need to consider is "how badly" do they need an answer or response? Is this just a way of saying "hi" and garnering some attention, or is it important?

    I think the point you made at PAB about considering "What's in it for me", ie. what would you think if you got this email yourself, is an important one. When you are asking someone for their attention and mindspace, be considerate, and only take up the cycles that you really NEED. To that end, also separate out NEED and WANT and know the difference.
  • I too get bombarded with e-mails. However many are just "informational" and don't require any action on my part. I've asked people to use the subject line to clue me in on what they need from me. If I see "Action Requrired", "Response Needed By Friday", or something similar, that tends to get my attention. The worst are messages without a subject line at all! They tend to get ignored.
  • Since I'm one of the bosses at my company, I find that sometimes I get a lot of "middle man" types of emails - emails from my developer to me asking if my designer can do such and such. This is a people management issue on my part more than an email management issue, but my point is, if you are managing at team, make sure you draw clear lines of communication with them. My partner and I encourage them to collaborate and solve problems together, and if they have a specific question or issue to then approach us.

    Since I've started guiding my freelancers in this way, I've cut down the number of emails I have to deal with and remarkably things are getting done much faster when I'm not bottlenecking the process.
  • Perfect, Chris. I sent this along to a few people who needed to hear it. I'm guilty of not putting my email in my sig. I never thought of the forward factor. We may disagree on marketing in the footer. I think it's a must.

    Here are my rules:
    - One decision/topic per email
    - Never bury the important stuff at the end of the message
    - Engaging/meaningful subject lines are a must (more people skim their inboxes than read their email)
    - Five sentences is more than enough for most emails
    - Always use your footer for your brand info and to promote your favorite cause and/or upcoming event.
  • And don't forward emails with your question(s) buried in their somewhere.
  • The other thing I've started doing, especially when I'm using the email for 'reporting' purposes, notes from meeting, etc. which requires a longer message, is to use same techniques as for blogs.... short header for each paragraph summarizing topic and numbering. Great post again. Thanks Chris!
  • "The worst are messages without a subject line at all! They tend to get ignored."
    Oh, I agree 100 percent, Joyce.

    Also, if you have to compose a long e-mail message, it should be broken up into short paragraphs w/white space between the paragraphs. And if someone does a cut and paste from Word, they should make sure that the formatting makes sense for the e-mail message.
  • Great article Chris - I often rant about email use in my business - here's some other points to consider:

    Good: every email should be expected, personal and relevant. Think about that before you send it.
    Good: make a strong, relevant subject line. dont be lazy and reply to something leaving a string of "re:re:fwd:re etc." - thats just rude.
    Bad: cc'ing people "fyi" when there is no call to action, its SPAM!
    Brilliant: Pick up phone, make call, discuss topic, follow up with brief email (if required) to confirm discussion / action points.

    It's always fascinated me that no-one is ever taught how to use email - its just something that's evolved over years and, as individuals we use it pretty much as we see fit. Many people now have email systems as their central database of contact information, conversations and even objects (proofs, documents) which has resulted in email systems becoming vast databases instead of a simple means of text communication..
    Since having problems with our email system last year, I archived ALL my email and started again - I've only been back into that archive 4 or 5 times since, and now try my utmost not to save anything - once its dealt with, I bin it, or file it as a document or take the relevant information and put it into a CRM - its my effort towards preventing Data Landfill issues in the future!
  • I just emailed you using your tips (tee hee).

    Simplicity of value. It should be built right into Gmail. (Google algorithms could do that, couldn't they?)
  • One decision per email sounds like a great idea but sometimes I need 4 decisions. In that case I like to:

    1) Make numbered lists
    2) Be clear who I expect to handle each follow on steps if there is more than one person on the email

    e.g. 3) Chris - did you hear this week's Amateur Traveler

    ;-)
  • Excellent article. I think that if everyone followed your advice, I wouldn't have my current In-Box 300+ situation.

    While one decision per message may work with people you know very well, I feel that approach may make me a nuisance to people I'm just starting to work with. Which would they rather get from me: five short messages, each with a question or one medium-length message with five short questions? Not everyone uses e-mail the same way; I like to limit e-mail communication with new contacts until I get a feel for how they work with e-mail.

    I'm also a strong believer in changing subject lines and deleting previous message quotes within a message. The correct subject line makes it clear what the message is about. The removal of all but the last one or two quote levels keeps the message short and clean.

    Oh, how I wish people who forwarded mail would cut out the unnecessary garbage!
  • Great tips... esp. the part about sigs in e-mails (and on forums). I have three links in my regular sig right now and I'm afraid it's overkill (in addition to my title: Freelance Writer/Editor and my cell number).

    They are all projects I want to promote, and only one is mine... so maybe I should rotate?

    Good food for thought, Chris, as always.
    Dawn
  • Any email over three paragraphs is suspicious to me now.
  • Chris,

    Thanks for a great post. Our project management team has been reading through the book "SEND: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home," which has actually been very helpful in stimulating discussion about how to improve email efficiency, readability, effectiveness, etc. While a good amount of it seems like common sense, some of their points were really refreshing. I reviewed 5 particular ones here: http://www.newfangled.com/5_simple_tips_for_bet....

    - Chris
  • 400 emails a day that require a response? Man, such are the tribulations of someone in the public eye. I wonder how many emails Bono gets! Have you tried Xobni yet, it may help your day along but it doesn't yet do automated replies.

    My strategy, with something like 100 emails a day, is just sit on the ones I don't want to answer. If they were that important, someone will call or resend. I spend time banging on about how we are post-email now (i.e. like post-modern not post/mail) and that all my priority contact comes from friends in my personal email, usually as messages from facebook or twitter. So I know that my work email is likely to be low priority - sorry, boss...

    I never send an email if I can avoid it, based on the annoyance level I have in replying to my own inbox. And who are these people who think they can send a 20 MB attachment? Per-lease!
  • I like your point about leaving your telephone number at the end of an email. The other day I struggled to find a telephone number that I needed. Instead of having it at the bottom of every email within our correspondence as part of their signature, they only included it in one email.
  • Great tips to think about. Here's another I'd add:

    If one MUST include a few paragraphs to supply context around the question, don't put the question at the very end. Lead with the question up front and then supply context. The recipient may know more about the situation than you realize and not need to read through paragraphs before finally getting to what it is you need to ask. It's another way to get a quicker response.
  • I agree with some of the early comments that subject lines are key. I work at a large-ish company, so most of my e-mail is internal, and I'm surprised by the number of messages I get with no subject. Makes searches months later more fun.

    Mike Davidson came up with a good M lo-fi solution; treat e-mail responses like text message and limit them to five sentences.
  • great post chris, im sure many of use have been guilty of a few of those things. i myself have definitely used "quick question" before i launch into my diatribe :) by the way did you know you have a tiny smiley face on the bottom of your page?
  • Golly heck, lots of comments....

    I see mentions of being respectful and not rude etc with email. I'm sure many folks tend to use email to send a thank you note, but I still firmly believe that a hand-written, well crafted thank you on a card that has a personal image on the front (with perhaps some smiley faces or shiny gold starts sprinkled inside), will BLOW SOMEONE"S SOCKS OFF in comparison to an email. It's worth the effort.

    Great post, Chris - see you at PODCAMP 3...

    Yours with boundless enthusiasm,

    Richard :)
    Chief Deal Weaver
    www.BlackWidowNetwork.com
  • Fantastic post, Chris! Great pointers.

    I'd also love to add, Don't Forward Junk! I have a couple of people on my list I've considered blocking because despite a polite reminder from time to time they still keep sending me those viral soppy mails. Now days I've taken to foldering EVERYTHING by those people and get around to it, usually deleting without even reading a bunch of their stuff, when I'm ready.

    @Erika: You mentioned deleting parts of a threaded conversation with Gmail? How do you do that? I'd love to clean up some of the ramble amongst my gmail messages but I haven't figured out how to break messages up so I can remove one of the thread and not the entire thing.
  • I try to keep all emails short and to the point and well organized. If there's more than one point to make then I use numbered lists. If I'm getting especially long emails in return, I explain how hampering this is to actually responding.

    If someone wants to write a 2 page email asking me for something, that's fine, as long as they realize that my response isn't going to be as long. I want to exchange the information NEEDED and then get on with my day.

    Great advice for email writers. I can see a couple of changes I can make myself to make things easier on people that I respond to or email. Thanks!
  • How do you handle the problem that email is no longer 100% reliable? Having used several different companies now, with all of them, sometimes emails just disappear into the ether. (And they all say they've never heard of this problem or that there's no way to figure out what's going on.)
    e
  • Have we thought about how we answer?
    I love the site I found through lifehacker:
    five sentences.

    Maybe we should bear that in mind, too.
  • Re: signatures:

    I never add a link to my blog, as links in emails sometimes cause emails to into that client's spam filter.
  • Karina Mikhli
    Chris,

    As everyone else has pointed out, this was a great article and very useful. I have occasionally had to write longer e-mails for business purposes, mainly to recap a meeting, but generally keep them short. And as someone who used to get hundreds of e-mails a day, many of which I was just cc'd on, relevant subjects are vital.

    To answer your other question, as to how improve the state of your in-box, I have two suggestions:
    1. Get to the bottom of your in-box daily,
    2. and file, file, file.

    I love folders and use them often, both for "follow-up" purposes and for record-keeping.
  • Regarding emails, I start off with a sentence setting the tone of what action I need done. Then I explain the issue. To close, I restate the necessary action item.

    As for my signature line, I like to use the following:
    Name
    Title
    My Specialties
    Email / Phone
    Connect with me online [custom url]

    That url displays a list of links to my profiles on Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc. and keeps my signature short and simple.
  • Intersting topic Chris. From a corporate perspective, I occasionally add some of our RSS feeds in the signature as my emails go to customers and reporters. This way, they can subscribe if they are interested in receiving updates (releases, recent news coverage, and case studies). However, I have to be careful as this can seem like spamming.

    What do you think about the inclusion of RSS feeds when appropriate?
  • Great post Chris. One thing that really helps me out a lot in going through email is an appropriate subject line that makes a call to action or describes the type of email quickly. For example, "please call regarding _____" or "FYI: _______" or "Introducing ______ by way of _____ ." Also, if you need to write me an email that is only a few words, put it all in the subject line and type EOM (end of message) at the end. That way I don't even have to open the email to read ten words.
  • I think that sums it up pretty well Chris, and some of these are fantastic comments!! If only they would come up with an email summarizer to make the thousands of emails easier to go through. Four hundred plus emails a day gets soooo old............
  • Macy
    I have a question - what do you say about sending an e-mail to say thank you when someone has answered your e-mail. I get umpteen thank you e-mails when I have completed a task asked of me in an e-mail. We have 500 people in our building and if everyone sends thank yous to everything that gets answered, what will happen to the server?
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