How to Get People to Pay Attention to Your Emails
Episode 8
In this solo show, host Lee Caraher talks about how to get other people to pay attention to your emails.
The first in our series on email…– because it is so easy to correct bad email so that people will be more likely to opened and read.
- The most important part of any email is the subject line. Think of this as the piece of gold among lots of rocks in an email inbox. What is going to compel other people to open your email? Don’t use nondescript email subject headers such as “hi” or “thank you” or “dinner.” You need to give your reader a clue about what’s inside. Never leave it empty either – an email with an empty subject line may not as well be written. An email without a subject header does not exist.
- Turn on your send delay option so that you can retrieve it and re-read and fix it. You will thank yourself every day for the ability to go back and add or delete one
- Never Reply All unless everyone needs your reply (which most of the time they don’t). If your name is not in the “To” line, don’t reply unless you have information germane and material to the topic at hand.
- Spell Check all your email. Every typo you have reduces the impact of your email.
- Leave out the emoticons.
- Stop playing ping pong with your email. Send all of the information your receiver needs to the decision or take action. An email that says “would love your feedback” without deadlines and other important information will just generate more email. Always provide all of the pertinent data someone needs to accommodate your request – deadlines – specific times in specific timezones and perhaps the rest of the schedule so that everyone can create as much value as possible.
Make your email as valuable as possible.
