You know what social media on the web may have taught us — shorter can be better. Look at twitter. I love twitter. I can keep up with hundreds of my fellow writers, everyone from professionals to friends. And the reason I can do that is because twitter restricts them to 140 characters. The site won’t let them be long winded. And trust me, writers can be long winded. But there is no limit to how much you can say in an email. So, you have to edit yourself. And it’s a habit we should all learn.
How many emails do you get during the average day? How many do you think the person you’re writing gets? Now, how much time do you want to take to read an email? Guess what, that works the other way around too. Do you know what the result is? Well, the shorter email that gets right to the point is likely to be read and answered before the long email is. So here are some email tips:
Keep it short – no more than a handful of sentences
Get to the point – make the heading and that first sentence work for you
Ask only 1 or 2 significant questions – more questions will mean the reader is likely to postpone answer the email
End with a “call to action” – this is a business technique. If you’re communicating with someone, it’s because you need them to do something. End with that call to action and be specific about what you need from the reader.
Include a “due by” date – dates are more likely to catch the reader’s attention.
Let’s see. That’s five items. You should be able to do that in five sentences, shouldn’t you? Hey, it’s more space than Twitter gives you.