How many times have you opened an email and it’s so long you can’t be bothered to read it?
Another one just takes ten seconds, so that’s it, that’s the one you choose.
Emails are an indelible part of our daily lives.
In 2015, the number of emails sent and received per day worldwide totalled over 205 billion.
Source The Radicati Group
On a personal level, just how many emails do you receive a day, let alone read or reply to? Exactly! So when the tables are turned and you are sending emails to clients, yours might be at the mercy of the delete button as it arrives in their inbox.
How do you craft the perfect email?
Once you hit send there’s no going back, so it has to be right first time. Of course we understand you can’t always bring in copywriters to write emails on your behalf, so we’ve put together a simple 6-step guide to writing the perfect email.
1 Subject
Like a headline, the subject is key to getting read. Make it concise and relevant. Include a clear call to action. Phrases like “Please Read” or “Your Action Required” actually work.
2 Format
Short paragraphs, bullet points, white space, highlighting key points – all make the email easy to read quickly.
3 Keep it short
An ideal length of an email is around 50 to 200 words.
4 Familiarity breeds contempt
Unless it’s a friend or you are reciprocating the style of the person you’re communicating with, avoid over-familiar language and steer clear of emoji in business emails.
5 Grammar, spelling and punctuation
Get it right. It doesn’t take much to check and ensure you haven’t overlooked that lower case i. Proofread it out loud so there are no missing words or grammatical errors. One of the best ways to reduce an email’s impact is to fill it with spelling mistakes.
6 Pause before sending
Re-read and revise. Can it be more succinct, could that sentence be misinterpreted? Sarcasm and humour can be subtly conveyed when we talk but so often get lost or misunderstood in print. Take a moment before you hit send to make sure the message won’t be read in a completely different light.
At Editing Edge we believe in getting your message across as quickly and succinctly as possible. Whether you are planning an email campaign to thousands of customers or just need to get one key stakeholder to read your message, an email written by an expert copywriter could be the difference between success and delete.
