Tips for Writing Effective Emails

In a day, on average, a person receives 92 emails — and opens only 25% of the total number of emails he received. When you talk about business emails, that can go up to a whopping 122 emails a day or even more. No wonder you didn’t get the expected response from the recipients when you had an email blast promoting one of your services last time. The persons you were sending the message to were probably swamped.

But there are ways to stand out from the ocean of emails. Use these 8 effective techniques of professional email writing that will grab the attention of your readers and bring you the results you targeted.

Have an Active Subject Line

The subject line works as the hook of your book. This is your first chance to grab the receivers’ attention and get them interested in what you want to say. Add interest and action by using active verbs and keeping the subject short enough to read, understand and fit on a mobile phone screen. Write something exciting or try asking questions. Generally, people are more likely to respond to your emails if you engage them directly. 

Be Personal

In professional emails, getting personal doesn’t mean to ask someone questions about their personal life, it means treating them like, you care for them or understand their pain. We all receive a lot of spam emails, newsletters, and ads cluttering up our inboxes. It’s easy to just skim past something that looks like another email blast with no value. Make it very clear to your readers that you are actually looking to offer something of value to them. Greet them with their name – it is proved that our brains light up when we listen or read our own names. And, be very specific about why you are sending the email to them.

Keep It Short and Simple

Don’t give a fluffy introduction to your email. try to get straight to the point. Tell your readers why you’re writing upfront. Don’t make them skim through a page filled with words to figure out your point. Make your message very short, simple, informative and easy to understand so that it will instigate the readers to call you, meet you or reply back to you. 

It’s Better to Break It Up

These days, a lot of people read their emails on their smartphones on the go. Even if they are at their office, they are likely skimming through emails on a small break from their work. So break your message into bite-sized nuggets that are easy for them to glance between. Prefer bullet points for supporting information and have shorter paragraphs.

Be Very Polite

It’s obvious to sound curt when you don’t have a tone of voice to add context to your conversations. To avoid appearing snippy or demanding, try to throw in words like ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ regularly when you’re writing professional emails. Prefer asking some questions rather than just giving instructions. “Would you be interested in receiving our informative blog posts related to your business in your mailbox?” is more likely to get a response than “subscribe to our blogs to receive them in your mailbox.”

Sign Off Appropriately

Your email closing is the line before your name. Skipping this can make you appear rude or abrupt, so make sure you include a suitable one. The most common professional email closings are ‘Best’ and ‘Thanks.’ But you can definitely choose it based on your preferences and the context.

Don’t Forget to Proofread

If you are sending multiple emails a day, it’s easy to overlook this step, but when you are writing professional emails, you should proofread all your emails before you hit send. Because typos and grammar mistakes can put you in an embarrassing situation and will not help impress the target audience even if you are talking about something really valuable to them.

Close With a Call to Action

Don’t leave your readers guessing. You have been specific with what you want to state and kept your email short and to the point, so you must end it the same way. Ad a call to action as per your context.

Wrap Up Emails are one of the most effective and widely-used forms of communication these days. An email is a perfect chance to connect with your target audience. But only if you follow these best practices and get creative.