Effective Email

10 Strategies for Effective E-mail.Whether you send large email campaigns or just use email to communicate with friends, colleagues and customers, following these twelve strategies will make your email more effective.

1. One Main Message Per Email The most effective email messages have one main idea or concept; the most effective messages are ones that are crisp, clear, and concise.

2. Keep it Short The most effective email messages are short; two or three short sentences in length; perhaps a couple of bullet points. And maybe a short message is followed by supporting material, an attachment, or a link to more information on a website.

3. Keep it Relevant If your messages are relevant, your recipients will pay attention to what you are trying to say. If your messaging is not relevant, however, you're going to quickly find that your messages are filed in the "I'll get to these later" pile.

4. Reply Early & Reply Often It's really important to reply early and reply often. What you're doing is letting them know you (a) received the message, and (b) that you care. Even if you're not able to take action on their message right away, replying back with a quick message indicates that you're not ignoring them.

5. From Line The single most important part of an email message is the From line. If the person you're sending to doesn't recognize your name, your message will be at best skipped over. At worst, it will simply be deleted without opening. The From line of your email (friendly display name) should have your full name and organization in it.

6. Subject Line After the From line, the subject line is the second most important part of an effective email (in fact, I will argue it is probably the most important). If you forget to include a subject line, your message is much more likely to go into a junk mail folder, or just not be opened. A good subject line will sum up what the message is all about, but still entice someone to open the message, read it, and take action.

7. Personalize Each Message Except when being called into the principal's office, everyone likes being called by his or her name. In this impersonal world of email messages, people like that you know who they are, and that you care about them as a person.

8. Always include your contact information I know this is a simple and basic thing, but so many people don't follow it. If you want someone to respond to you, you've got to make it as easy as possible for him or her. Same thing goes for leaving a voice mail. Effective emails always include a signature line with contact information.

9. Strong Call to Action The most effective email messages always have a strong call to action, telling the recipient what you want them to do.

10. Know when email doesn't work Pick up the phone instead...


This is from:
Alliance Equities eNewsletter
08-03-2010
June Kronholz