Are You Writing Emails Correctly?

Ask any business leader about the most tedious task of everyday work, and email is bound to be at the top. One McKinsey study indicates that business professionals can spend up to 28 percent of their time on email.

But sometimes the agony of email is self-inflicted. In working with corporations and nonprofit clients on internal communication strategies, I find that too often people respond as quickly as possible to get it out of their court so they can turn their attention back to core work. I call this a ping-pong approach, where messages fly back and forth, resulting in a long chain with little to show for it.

The solution is to use techniques that begin with an intention to move the work forward with fewer back-and-forth exchanges. Here are some ideas to apply to your everyday email habits.

An Audience-First Approach

Before writing any email, begin with an understanding of what your goal is and who the email is for. A CEO is going to need a higher level of information that pertains to the impact on the business. A manager in charge of execution will need more detail. Once you are clear on whom you are writing to and what you want to happen, design a focused email leaving out any nonessential information.

A chief financial officer once told me, “If an email is too long, I set it aside for when I have time. And I never have time.” In other words, if you want attention and action on your emails, you need to bring focus and clarity to every message.

My communication workshops include an easy-to-remember framework that can amplify anything from a high-stakes presentation to a simple text message. It’s called H3C: headline, three key points, call to action.

Start with the Headline

Beginning with a headline sounds intuitive, but it’s contrary to the way many people are trained. We’re taught to lay out our background or evidence, and then put our thesis sentence—the most important point—at the end. This approach makes people wait for the key information, causing them to lose patience and skip to the next email. Flip this and start with the purpose of your email: to share results and give information that requires a decision or a progress report. Give them a reason to pay attention.

Curate Your Key Points

One mistake people make is cramming too much information into an email. With attention spans so short, around eight seconds, you need to bring focus and clarity to every sentence. Some people make this error because they aren’t exactly sure what’s most important, or what will be most convincing—so they include all of it. This puts an undue burden on the reader who needs to sift through your information to discern what you’re asking for.

A tight, focused email is a gift to your reader. Stick with no more than three points. And there’s actual science behind the rule of three. Our brains are wired to recognize patterns, and the most memorable series is three. (Think, “I came, I saw, I conquered.”) Limiting content to three key points will get you closer to success. If you have further information, invite your audience to ask you if they want more detail. One of the most memorable concepts from Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style is to “omit needless words.”

Have a Clear Call to Action

For a strong finish, tell your reader what you want them to do with the information: Approve the project, say, or vote for a piece of legislation. Sometimes your call to action is, “Remember this key point when considering your decision about such and such topic.” Stating your goal is the best way to get the action you’re looking for.

Better emails require an intention to be effective and to the point rather than using a stream-of-consciousness style. With structure and ongoing mindfulness, you’ll be on the path to getting the results you want from every message you send.

Janine MacLachlan is a communications strategist and trainer who works with clients on communicating value and elevating leaders. Her signature workshop is Say It Shorter: Get
Your Ideas Heard in a Noisy World. Connect with her on LinkedIn or visit janinemaclachlan.com.