Your emails are being ignored, and here's how to stop sabotaging yourself
Your first mistake is bloat. Emailing is about clarity. Keep the main thing the main thing. A great two-sentence email with a clear ask performs better than a prose-journal-worthy-diatribe with convoluted sentences and buried requests. Find your single point. Cut the rest.
Your objective with every email is to make the reply effortless. The audience wants to react to the email. Write so they can respond with “Yes”, “No”, or “Got it”.
Which lands better?
“I’m sorry for the delayed response. Can I buy you coffee Thursday?”
Or:
“Can I buy you coffee Thursday?”
You think the apology is polite. It’s noise, and costs you authority. Delete it!
Actually, don't ask to buy coffee Thursday. Be direct in what you are asking. Do you have a specific question you wish to have answered, and this person is the best one to ask? Then say so!. Be direct with your request. Keep it simple, make it obvious what you are asking, and cut everything else.
Readers scan. Guide their eye to what matters. Imagine if they can’t understand words, only shapes. Will they still know which parts of the email are important?
- Use bullet points
- Bold important bits
- Eliminate walls of text
Read out loud. Your ear will catch flawed rhythms your eye skips. If it bores you, rest assured it will bore them, and a bored reader is one who deletes. If it doesn't sound right, rewrite it.
Your subject and first line exist for one reason. They must pitch the reader on finishing the rest of the email. Look at my first sentence. Did it accomplish its goal?