10 tips to write a good email
According to a study by McKinsey, average interaction worker spends an estimated 28 percent of the workweek managing e-mail. This report on Email traffic by Radcati group estimates that Be it communication with colleagues and managers, following up on a sales lead, or simply correspondence to expand your network, the ability to write a good email is fast becoming an essential skill. Here are top 10 ways to write business emails that have a better shot at invoking the desired response:. An email sent to a friendly team-member requesting help should be different in tone, style, and information to an email written to a sales lead.
10 tips for writing a better work email
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Written by Lindsay Kolowich. Email marketing has come a long way in just the past few years. A well-written, plain-text email can perform just as well if not better than a highly designed email with tons of bells and whistles.
So, how do you write a great marketing email? It all comes down to a few copywriting best practices that you should apply to both the subject line of your message and the message body itself.
Next time you draft a message for a lead nurturing campaign or just a one-time email send, ask yourself whether your copy meets all of these guidelines first.
We'll start with copywriting tips for better subject lines, followed by copywriting tips for the bodies of your emails. Part of writing effective email copy is nailing the subject line. The subject line is like the gatekeeper of your email: No one gets to read your stellar email copy if they aren't interested enough to open your email in the first place. That interest is garnered almost wholly on the subject line of the email with the sender name playing a role, as well.
We've written a few blog posts about crafting email subject lines, including one on the anatomy of a great subject line and one showing 18 examples of awesome subject lines from brands. Here's a distillation of what you need to know to write some excellent copy. With email subject lines, using actionable language doesn't necessarily mean using verbs, although it certainly helps. This is one way to use actionable language effectively in email subject lines: by incorporating a verb like "take," "download," "reserve," "ask," "buy," etc.
But there are ways to use actionable language without relying on verbs, which gives you more room to play around with wording. In other words, keep the value for the user top-of-mind. The original subject line worked well because it was clear what I could do with the information in that email -- ensure I'm prepared for the AM sale time so I could snag my tickets. Which I did, thanks to that email! Emails that are highly segmented tend to have higher performance levels -- such as open rate and clickthrough rate -- than emails that aren't personalized.
This isn't exactly surprising. So ask yourself: Is there a way to make your email subject line more personal? You certainly wouldn't do a blanket email send across all of these different segments of your list, would you?
And your email subject line wouldn't be the same, either. Write a subject line that is clear first, and catchy second. In marketing copy, clarity should always, always, always be your first priority. If, after you've drafted a clear subject line, you can also make it catchy, funny, cute, whimsical, whatever, then go for it.
But never sacrifice clarity for the entertainment value. UrbanDaddy is an example of a company that excels at writing subject lines that are always clear, and sometimes also catchy, funny, or entertaining.
Take a look at the subject lines of some of the emails I've received from them:. Some of these subject lines either make the recipients chuckle or are bizarre enough to pique your interest. But it is always extremely clear what you will get when you open the email. Well, it's no different when crafting your email subject line and email message.
What your email subject line promises, the email message should deliver. And, in the long term, so will your email open rates. Back in , we performed a test of our own. We sent the same email with two different subject lines to two different groups of people:. The first subject line, which was straightforward and much more accurate had a better click-through rate by Now that you've crafted a stellar email subject line, you have your audience's full attention on the body of your email message.
So, how do you craft copy that will get them clicking? Here are the important components you need to know! Just like the email subject line should strive to establish relevancy through personalization, so should the copy in the message of the email. So use the very beginning of the email to explain how you know each other. Below is an example of an email sent by Warby Parker to a colleague of mine.
Take a look at that first paragraph, called out in red. Luckily, it's easy to make an appointment with an optometrist at our Newbury Street Store or through our friends at ZocDoc. Why are you emailing me about a prescription?
Why would I want your advice? How do you know I live near Newbury Street? Now, count how many times this email says "You" instead of "we" or "I.
That's a nice balance of second person language that keeps the focus on the customer, not the brand. This is a subtle tactic that helps you stay value-oriented, but this next step I'm about to cover is crucial to hitting the point home. You know the value of your email. But does your recipient?
No, not yet. And it's your job to explain it. The problem is, many emails only explain the feature they are offering, not the benefit. Take a look at the copy in two separate ecommerce emails I've received. Which one is touting the feature, and which is touting the benefit? If you guessed email B, you're right. Will it let me adjust a small business' expenditures on infrastructure costs, freeing up money for a new hire? Compare that with Email B from Banana Republic. The goal of this email is to sell shorts, but the copy isn't just shoving shorts down the recipient's throat.
I mean, they're shorts They've identified what makes these shorts worthwhile: their versatility. They allow a man to lounge around the house and then go out in the city while putting minimal effort into changing his outfit. How convenient! How easy! How versatile! One of the worst mistakes email copywriters make is trying to shove the entire story into the email message.
Think about when you open a marketing email in your inbox. Do you read every single word in there? Probably not. It's more likely that you scan for important points so you can glean the overall message, and decide whether you want to take any action. So if you're sending email with hundreds of words of copy, you're making it much more difficult for recipients to decide whether they want to click through -- simply because they can't quickly sift through all of the information in your email.
Instead, find a way to summarize what the reader will get in a compelling way, and let them click through to a page on your website for more information. Postmates doesn't wait to get to the point. After a brief, friendly hello, they get right down to the purpose of the email: telling customers about their new "free lattes on-demand" promotion. Keeping your message on-point is the key to writing brief email copy.
What's the point you're trying to make with your email?
Keep the message focused. Avoid attachments.
To people on the receiving end, a single interaction can make or break their customer experience. Email affects everything from repeat purchase rates to lifetime value to how someone talks about your brand privately and publicly. How do you make a fundamentally impersonal medium feel personal? Use names and faces—theirs and yours. By introducing yourself to the customer and using your name as well as showing your face , you create a far more relatable customer service experience.
Email has long been a core tool for business communications, but a survey by Sendmail, Inc. So, how can you avoid your emails doing this?
It is not quite an official, signed-and-sealed letter, nor is it the casual, emoji-laden text message. One group estimates that more than billion emails are sent around the world each day. Honing the ability to write an effective, polished email is critical both in school and the workplace.
Writing Effective Emails
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How to Write a Professional Email
Send Click! Text messaging and IM has led to a feeling of Instant gratification among the Internet users and have lost ground on the good old Emails. There a set of netiquettes that you are expected to follow to make your mark in your professional. If you might be thinking that Emails are not that significant in this new internet age, think again! That simply illustrates the importance of Emails on the professional frontier. And no one likes their inbox flooded with pointless and unprofessional Emails that add no value at all. So, how do you write professional Emails that does what it is exactly supposed to? How do you send Emails that not only yield a positive reply but also increase your liveability? Avoid using free to use Email addresses like gMail, Yahoo for professional work, and use a domain specific eMail address.
Despite the popularity of texting and social media, email remains the most common form of written communication in the business world—and the most commonly abused.
So, um, yeah, you check your nails, and, uh, hope that nobody will notice. Most people get blown off because their emails are a bit rough, maybe try to say too much, and seem like, whoa , a lot of effort to read. This may sound obvious, but please , do not send emails to the HR department at, say, Amazon with the subject line, or document name, "Application for Amazon job.
10 Customer Service Email Tips: Checklist & Examples for Better, Faster Support Management
Start writing email with a subject line. Keep the subject line short. Write key words at the very beginning. Avoid filler words. Be specific about the email topic. Use logical search words. Fuel hype to your email. Do not write everything in CAPS. Personalize the subject line. Make sure the subject line contains no mistakes. People send billions of emails every day. However, only a little percentage of people understands the importance of the subject line. If you leave the subject line blank, you make a huge mistake, as this element usually determines whether or not your letter will be opened and read.
10 tips for writing emails people will respond to
In the age of the Internet , you might find yourself clicking "reply," typing up a quick response, and hitting "send" without giving so much as a thought about what you've just written. But experts agree that your e-mail behavior has the potential to sabotage your reputation both personally and professionally. Only discuss public matters. We've all heard the stories about a "private" e-mail that ended up being passed around to the entire company, and in some cases, all over the Internet. One of the most important things to consider when it comes to e-mail etiquette is whether the matter you're discussing is a public one, or something that should be talked about behind closed doors. Ask yourself if the topic being discussed is something you'd write on company letterhead or post on a bulletin board for all to see before clicking "send.
