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Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
by Gonçalo Teles
on
There are people out there who don’t know how to write an email.
And at some point, we’ve all received one.
The formatting is weird, it’s full of spelling and grammatical errors — they even got your name wrong.
Sure, it might be spam.
Or it might be someone who hasn’t yet perfected the art of effective email writing.
It takes practice.
These 15 amazing tips will help get you there — whether you’re just learning how to write an email or you’re back to learn some new tricks.
Let’s dive in!
Before writing a single word of your email, you should be clear about your goals.
A personal email and a professional email can be vastly different, but they share a similar purpose at their cores.
Consider these questions:
If you don’t have the answers to some (or all) of those questions, don’t worry — the rest of the tips will help you answer them.
It all starts here. Why?
Because if your email is “[email protected],” you’re already doomed.
First impressions matter. A childish, unprofessional email like the example above will probably be ignored for any number of reasons.
Keep it simple.
Use your first and last name if it’s available. If not, try different configurations of your name — throw in your middle name if you want!
Pro tip: a business email address with a custom domain might help you look more professional, but it isn’t a requirement.
Form emails or email templates are helpful, but they can also sound bland and robotic.
Why should your recipient care about your email if you didn’t care to personalize it?
Do a little research. Use their name or mention specific details about their business.
Check the sample email below:
Putting these kinds of details towards the beginning of your email will tell the reader that you took time to get to know them.
It helps you build a rapport, the start of a relationship.
Getting a reader to take action is one of the most critical aspects of an effective email.
Don’t believe me?
Research shows that emails with a single call-to-action increased clicks by 371%!
That’s MASSIVE. Why wouldn’t you want a piece of that?
There are different types of calls-to-action (CTAs). Here are some examples:
Clear CTAs reduce confusion. They tell your recipient exactly what you need from them.
And they will improve your chances of getting a reply.
We’ve all received those cold emails, the ones that come out of nowhere and leave you wondering what you need to do.
Context is vital.
You can’t expect the recipient of your email to know what you’re talking about without giving them details to work with.
Let’s break it down with an example:
Say you’re a freelance writer and you’re sending a cold email. You should introduce yourself and let them know why you’re emailing (context).
See for yourself:
The introduction is clear and the details set the stage for the rest of the email.
So, put yourself in your recipient’s shoes and think about what you’d want to know.
Attention spans are short and no one will spend 20 minutes reading an email.
In fact, readers might not spend more than 12 seconds on your email!
So what do you do?
Keep it short and sweet.
The Upland post states the ideal email length should be around 50 to 125 words.
Here are some tips to shorten your emails:
There will be situations where you’ll write long emails, but try your best to follow the tips above.
Some people write overly formal emails because they’re afraid of sounding unprofessional.
Take a look:
Do you really want to keep reading that?
And then there are people who are writing emails like they’re chatting on Instagram, using slang and emojis:
These are both extreme examples but they help illustrate the point. There’s a gray area between a formal email and an informal email, and that’s the tone you should strive for.
You want to be informative and personable. Your recipients will read the whole email if it’s friendly and still coherent.
Pro tip: if you struggle to hear the tone of your writing, try Grammarly’s tone detector.
Strategic email formatting is essential. It will improve the readability of your email while also holding your reader’s attention.
So, how should you format your email?
Above all, avoid creating blocks of text like you’re writing an academic article — they’re a nightmare to read.
Check out this example:
It’s difficult, right?
Try this instead:
See these tips in action:
Isn’t that better?
SmartBlogger has a fantastic post about email formatting if you want to dive deeper.
A professional email signature lends credibility to your writing. It’s a good idea to have different templates for different situations.
It might look like this:
Emma Collins Senior Account Executive Alpha Solutions Inc. Phone: +1 (555) 123-4567 Email: [email protected] Website: www.example.com
Or this:
Michael Thompson Project Manager Tech Innovators Ltd.
Both are acceptable, but consider your recipient and choose the one that aligns best with your email’s tone.
If it’s the first time you’re emailing someone, use the more detailed signature with your job title and contact information. You want to provide everything the recipient might need.
If you’re already acquainted, skip the extra details and use a simpler signature.
That time you spent writing your email makes it easier to sum up the essence of the message and inject it into your subject line.
By writing it last, you ensure that your email subject line aligns perfectly.
Now, how should you craft it? Check the examples below:
The first one is too vague and mysterious.
The second is straightforward, succinct, and specific.
Your recipients will get the gist from your email subject line.
You can add a bit of personality, though! As Elna Cain advises in this SmartBlogger post about email marketing:
“When you email your subscribers, your message is competing with every other email in their inbox. If your subject lines are boring, your emails will get ignored.”
With these tips, finding the sweet spot gets easier!
Those are two terrifying words.
But they can’t be ignored. Whether we want to admit it or not, we all make mistakes.
Grammar mistakes or awkward sentences are death blows to your aspirations of success
In fact, a survey of Linguix’s newsletter subscribers found that 26.3% of the respondents would not even reply to an email containing grammar mistakes or typos.
Though these mistakes affect people differently depending on certain personality characteristics, according to experiments by two language scientists.
My advice? Work smarter.
You can use grammar checkers to make your life easier (or at least this part of it).
For example, Grammarly can be your best friend, saving you from a bad day’s spelling disasters.
Learning to use CC and BCC correctly is a requirement if you really want to know how to write an email.
These fields are best used for streamlining communication. You want to make sure the appropriate people have the information they need without flooding their inboxes.
But what do they mean? What’s their purpose?
It’s also helpful when the responses only need to go to you, not the whole group.
You really need to consider your contacts and the role they play in each email, don’t you?
Email etiquette sounds intimidating but it’s really just a fancy way of saying “be kind and respectful.”.
You can read Flowrite’s article for a comprehensive breakdown of perfect email etiquette but we’ve highlighted the most important aspects for you:
Did any of those surprise you? I’m sure you’ll see an improvement in your work emails once you start employing those pointers.
Scheduling your emails is a great way to increase their efficacy.
Coschedule analyzed 10 research studies to reveal the best time to send emails, so you should check the post for further information.
The main takeaway is: Thursday at 10 a.m. is the perfect time to send an email.
If you’d like to dive into how the other days/times performed, check out the article! However, you should think of those results less like rules and more like guidelines. In today’s world, everyone is reading their email all the time.
Pro tip: be mindful of time zones. Factoring that into your process might give your email a boost!
It’s been days and you’ve received no response to your latest email.
Maybe your recipient thought they had already responded? Or they were swamped with work and it kept getting pushed to the bottom of their to-do list?
People are busy and sometimes forget to reply — it isn’t personal.
Your follow up email is a gentle reminder that you need a response from them.
So don’t be scared to write it.
Keep it friendly and brief. It may feel like you’re bothering them but most of the time, they’re grateful (I know I am).
Timing is important here. For example, don’t send a follow-up email 24 hours after the first one.
As a general rule, wait 3 to 5 business days before you send a follow-up.
15 tips to write an effective email may seem like overkill. After all, it’s just emailing people.
That’s what other people might think — but not you.
You’ll rise to the challenge, practicing all these steps and dazzling your readers with well-written, straight-to-the-point emails.
You’ll be professional and kind, from your greeting to your signature.
And best of all, you’re more likely to get the response you want.
So what are you waiting for? Open up a new email and get started!
Content Marketing
Gonçalo Teles