Didn’t you get the memo?: Writing effective emails

By Lon W. Schiffbauer, BA, MBA, PhD, SPHR

Email is one of the most common internal communication channels used in business today. It’s also why the delete key is worn out on many-a-workplace keyboards. To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, in an article published by Fast Company entitled Intel’s Got (Too Much) Mail, author Alison Overholt reported that the average Intel employee spent something in the neighborhood of two-and-a-half hours a day reading emails. Many employees, she reported, racked up as many as 300 emails in a 24-hour period. That’s one coming in every roughly every five minutes! (I was a low-level Intel employee for about a decade; I only received about 80 emails a day. I felt so unloved.)

There are any number of reasons for this: email is cheap, easy, literally at out fingertips, and requires little investment. Email also has a propensity of multiplying. A friend of mine once said that emails are like rabbits: send one out into the world and eight will come back.

With all of this in mind, we need to understand how to use email effectively and efficiently. Here are some tips and tricks for breaking through the clutter and getting your message across.

Determine if email is really the right channel

Have a quick and easy request to make? Want to deliver some basic information? Need to confirm something before moving forward on an assumption? Then email is your friend. On the other hand, if you want to discuss the pros and cons of a possible course of action, mull over feedback you’ve received from key stakeholders, or make a case for changing the project scope and timeline, skip the email and call a meeting.

The subject line should reflect the nature of the message and inspire the reader to open the email

If people judge books by the cover, then they judge emails by the subject line. With this in mind it’s important to make effective use of that tiny bit of real estate. To the extent possible, distill the key message, action required, and due date down to one line. For example: Complete benefits enrollment by Dec 16

Be compelling, grabbing and holding the reader’s attention

If your audience doesn’t read your email then you can’t communicate with them. It’s astonishing to me how such a stupidly-obvious fact is so utterly disregarded in practice. This is made all the more challenging by the sheer volume of email many of us receive. Your audience is drowning in email so you need to offer a compelling reason to read your message rather than succumb to the reflexive delete finger-twitch. The audience needs to see something that matters to them and is worth their time and attention. Don’t be seduced by the pretentious notion that they’ll read it because they should.

Be direct and to the point

Don’t waste the reader’s time. Get right to the point and be direct. The more you try to couch the message in meaningless inane verbosity the sooner their finger with find the delete key.

Be simple, clear, and concise

Don’t waste the reader’s time (yes, I already said that, but it can’t be said enough), and don’t make them work to get the message. It’s bad enough to receive 80 emails a day without having to read each one of them three times to get the point. Keep the message short and simple, something a scanning eye can quickly read and understand.

Avoid spin

I’ll let you in on a little secret: your readers aren’t idiots. They’ll see right through any contrived bias or hokey sentimentality you try to feed them in a heartbeat. You may think you’re feeding them honey, but in their mouths it tastes like something closer to bullshit. Don’t waste the reader’s time (told you; it can’t be said enough), and don’t take them for fools. Just deliver the message with authenticity.

Avoid sarcasm, exaggeration, and hyperbole

Email is an atrocious medium for sarcasm and sardonic humor (alas, my favored medium-of-choice). These more nuanced-forms of humor require greater context and the addition of verbal tone and facial expression to be effective, all of which are missing in email.

Now You Try

Go to your inbox (or better still, your Sent folder) and select a particularly egregious email. Shouldn’t be hard. (If you’re at a loss look for something from HR or leadership. Those tend to be target-rich environments.) Then, using these writing strategies, rewrite the email.

Remember, as with all business communications, the goal is to inspire the audience to read the message and take the desired actions.

References

Overholt, A. (2001, February 28). Intel’s Got (Too Much) Mail. Factcompany.com. Retrieved from https://www.fastcompany.com/42370/intels-got-too-much-mail

Lon is an Associate Professor of Business Management at Salt Lake Community College and holds an MBA, a PhD, and is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR). In addition to his academic background, Lon spent close to 30 years working and consulting for such companies as FedEx, Intel, eBay, and PayPal, as well as a variety of small to mid-sized companies around the world.