Email is a primary form of communication for many professionals. What once was a casual correspondence now serves as the primary means for many people to share information.
At Communiqué PR, we ensure we are developing clear messages when communicating over email. To do this, we recommend having someone else review your note. Having another set of eyes look over what you’re communicating will help ensure that you are clearly delivering the best message possible.
I recently came across an article in Ragan.com written by Josh Gordesky that highlights email mistakes you should never make. I’ve included some of those suggestions below, along with examples from my own experience.
Are you guilty of any of these?
- Your email is too long. Emails should be clear and concise. If your email is too long, your recipient will likely lose interest. In addition, long and scattered emails can be perceived as careless or not important. Also, large chunks of text can cause a reader’s eyes to glaze over. Gordesky suggests setting a 300-word limit for email to ensure you have a clear focus and eliminate useless words. When detailing a complicated topic, I like to bullet out information that is most important or limit paragraphs to a few sentences to make the email easy to scan.
- Your email is too vague. Many people scan email subject lines and decide what to open, delete or file in a matter of seconds. If your subject line is vague or the beginning of your message is not compelling, you could risk having an important message be deleted. For tips on making a subject line sexy, read our previous blog post.
- Your email is too self-centered. Consider your audience and their needs as you write an email. As communication professionals, we try to anticipate the needs of our clients when communicating. If your note contains too many “I” statements, your reader could lose interest. Put the focus back on the recipient. Instead of saying, “I will send you a draft tomorrow” try the occasional, “You will receive the draft tomorrow.”
- Your email is too passive. Sentences written in an active voice tend to get your point across more quickly and clearly. For example, a passive sentence reads, “The document was delivered by the Fedex man.” In an active sentence, the message now reads, “The Fedex man delivered the document.” This is a much more concise sentence. For more tips on how to write active and avoid passive, visit Grammar Girl, this is a great tool.
- Your email has too many attachments. Some people include attachments as context for their email, but this can cause information overload that can detract from your message. A reader can be easily confused by too many attachments. If possible, copy and paste the referenced text from the attachment into the text of the email. It makes it easier on the recipient.
As the workforce becomes more mobile in nature, a clearly developed email will save you and your reader valuable time.