Email is one of the most useful, and sometimes overlooked, tools in the business world. For some of you, it’s the first thing you check in the morning and the last thing you check before you go to bed. Email is great for communicating with your business associates; it allows you to keep projects running no matter where you are.
Email is the communication tool of choice for most of us. Email is great because you don’t have to be there at the same time as your conversation partner to communicate. This allows us to keep projects running when our colleagues are unavailable or on the other side of the world. However, emails are often too long, misinterpreted, and more. The best emails are always simple. Follow these steps to write a simple email for business
Know Your Goals
Every valid email has a clearly communicated purpose. Before you sit down to write your email, ask yourself “What do I expect from this email?” The answer should be clear and simple. If you can’t answer this question in a sentence or two, then you should reconsider whether the email is worth sending. Few things are worse than reading a long email and still not being clear on what the sender needs.
Know Your Recipient
When writing an email to send to a colleague, you want to make sure you keep the recipient in mind. Chances are the person you’re emailing is busy and will have several other unread emails by the time they receive your email. By keeping your email short and concise, you’ll be more likely to get the simple answers you’re looking for.
Too often, readers misinterpret e-mails. Before sending your email, think about it from the reader’s perspective and ask yourself, “is there another way to ask/say this?” There’s a difference between being polite and forthright than just being an officer jerk.
Communicate Timeline
If you write an email and ask for a reward; communicate the time at which you want to receive their reply. A rookie mistake in the business world is to interpret this as a due date and not include this in your email to avoid coming off as bossy. The reality is that by giving this to your colleague you will be seen as a direct action oriented worker who understands the flow of the office place. Depending on who you’re sending the email to, you can sometimes include a reason why you need XYZ on short notice.
It’s not the same as texting
If you want to show your personality in your email, don’t do it the same way you would update your Facebook status. Instead let this come up gently in your prose. Regardless of your relationship at work, remember that this is still your business partner. Don’t use emoticons, text abbreviations, or your favorite fonts and background colors. That’s fine for personal emails and adds significant traction, they’re not welcome here.
Correct
Like anything, practice makes perfect Writing concise, simple, and effective emails isn’t easy – sometimes it’s harder than writing long emails. Therefore, remember to always proofread your email before sending. Be sure to check for spelling and grammar errors in addition to using spell check.
Finally, read your email out loud and ask yourself,
- Is my request clear?
- Could there be a misunderstanding?
Make any changes you find and get rid of unwanted sentences, paragraphs, etc.
For more information and insights on writing effective emails, you can join Kreativa.co, an online marketing tool for business professionals.
