E-mails Should Not be Manifestos

Business e-mails are not the venue for rambling random thoughts, your latest tirade or manifesto about whatever your brain sparks at the moment — save that for your Blog.

Study after study proves out that long e-mails, especially those without paragraph breaks every several sentences and bullet points don’t get read. They get scanned. I’ve even caught myself scanning instead of reading when I am pressed for time.

That is why bullet points are your friends. Visually they don’t look like too much to tackle and subconsciously the recipient thinks they can acquire your points in little tid-bits so they are more likely to read your e-mail in its entirety.

Here are some tips to add clarity in your communication and increase the chances your e-mails are read n their entirety:

• Know in advance before you being typing your e-mail the purpose and goals of your e-mail to ensure each is covered succinctly.
• Use brief and succinct bullet points when covering numerous thoughts or issues so they have a better chance to be absorbed and applied/replied to.
• No need to code HTML bullet points use => or * to separate your points.
• If you find a topic requires more coverage or priority, have that topic be in its own e-mail so that it is not lost amongst the numerous other issues.
• If you find that your topic is very detailed, create a document in PDF and send that along as an attachment. This gives the other side the ability to review that topic when they have time and to file/print it for later review.

You should always be considering the best approach to ensure the other side reads, reviews and absorbs your information — especially if their reply is required.

And most importantly, before you click that Send button, reread your e-mail — out loud — to ensure your meaning, intent and tone are what you desire. Reading your e-mail out loud also serves to pinpoint those areas of your e-mail that may need clarification or a bit of wordsmithing so that you are more concise.

Some More Info for You:

1. Not Taking the Necessary Time for Business E-mails
2. Seeing Red in Business E-mails
3. E-mail Tone: What They REALLY Meant Was…?
4. Emotional Formatting and Discretion in Business E-mails
5. Addressing E-mails with “Dear Sir/Madam”