How to Write Business Emails

Introduction

Many of us are writing more and more emails to internal and external customers replacing letters and phone calls. The upshot is, that we’re receiving more emails than every before so how do we cope?

We cope by being selective of the emails we read, we scan headings to determine whether we read it or not, we pay close attention to the sender and often only open it if we know or trust them. We scan the body of the email rather than read. We rarely turn the page over. The “page over” is the bottom of the screen requiring us to scroll down.

A recent survey in the UK stated that 25% of the workforce spends one hour a day on email and from that 34% of emails are worthless.

Makes you think doesn’t it?

To help you write the perfect email to your customers I’m going to show you some best practice tips and strategies that’ll help you through the email jungle so your customer get to read and take in your message. I’m going to examine your style of writing, tips on how to compose your email body and finally, what to avoid.

Style of Writing

Modern and Non-stuffy

The first secret is to be modern and non stuffy in your emails. In business, however, there is no place for smilies and too much informality. Reserve that for email with friends on your Hotmail account. Bear in mind that any email you type could find itself on the front page of The Sun newspaper.

Plain language

The secret is plain language. Simple, short sentences so the reader understands immediately. Rid yourself of your perfect English language ego and get into short sentences, 15 or so words each. Plus short words, one or two syllables is fine. Email readers don’t have the patience as letter readers, they are not the same thing, remember people scan emails, they don’t study them.

On the subject of plain language, write in an active way. By this I mean write as you would speak to someone personally. For example “you can complete the enrolment online at your leisure” rather than “the enrolment can be completed online”. Slightly different but a massive impact. Write as you would speak in the present not the past – its just so non-stuffy.

Formal versus informal

Formal versus informal. And in the cup final, formal wins by 2 goals to 1. Informality is not for business emails. A survey in 2000 showed that business people were increasingly irritated by the lack of salutations and informality.

Leave the “Hi’s” and the “see you’s” and the “LOLs” and the “IMHO’s” to your Hotmail emails. In business, remember your salutations such as Doctor, Mr, Mrs. OK, if you know them call them by their first name and use “hello” rather than “Dear”.

And use “goodbye” rather than “Yours sincerely” after all we’re not in the Victorian ages anymore. However, if you don’t know them and they are a customer , then use “Dear Mr Brown” and “Yours sincerely” to be on the safe side You can always go from formal to informal – it’s like putting on a tie if you don’t know how to dress – you can easily take the tie off.

Composing your email

KISS

I have a number of tips and secrets for you on how to actually write your email body. First of all give your customer a big Kiss on the cheeks. Of course this is a metaphor rather than a request. KISS stands for keep it short and sweet. Brief, precise and to the point. Just like this paragraph.

I’ll keep banging on with the same message. Email readers don’t have the same patience as letter readers. The 21st Century and the Internet has made us scanners, and top liners. Typically we read for about 5 seconds and click on to the next page. Yes, there are exceptions as your email might be important to them, then again it might not be, and they scan you and ignore you. So keep it short and simple – KISS.

Plan First

Do plan your response first. It’s so easy to hit reply and bang on with your reply without thinking about the message since you have dozens of emails to get through. And whilst you’re there, you copy and paste similar paragraphs from other letters so as to save time. If you must use templates, put a link in your email to a page on your website that has the information you want them to read, don’t paste it into your email body. It simply won’t fit. It’s like jamming a square peg into a round hole. Besides readers soon pick up on the fact it’s a templated return.

Instead, plan your response on paper first. Think of your key points, maybe some headings, think about bullet lists. Consider about your subject line to make it compelling. Email readers look at three things to determine whether to open or not.

Your name as the sender needs to be known and trusted, the subject line and finally whether there’s an attachment or not. This last one still scares people. The subject line should be unique, it’s lazy to leave it as “Re: Request for Enrolment Information”. Use “Our reply with the information you wanted”

It works when the email sender has asked you a number of questions, to copy these into the reply and use them as headings, clearly laid out. Summarise the question as a heading and put it into your email as a heading, maybe bold it to show up. Don’t underline anything in emails as it is known as a link and might confuse.

Opener

Your opening paragraph should make it clear as to what your email is about and the action you want them to take. For example, if the action is to click somewhere to enrol online, then put this in the opening paragraph. Customers need to be told what to do next.

Paragraphs

Keep them short on emails – a maximum of two sentences. Remember people scan they don’t read. Use headings to help signpost the customer.

Think about using bullets or lists and maybe start this with a short paragraph as a forecast of the bulleted list.

If you provide links, and you should, to create brevity in the email, then put them as separate lines. Try not to hide the link in a word – put the entire web address on the email as people distrust one word links and some email filters will filter your email out.

Numbers

If you use numbers, use the digital form not the long spelling. For example twenty-two should be 22. It’s just clearer and simpler and easier to take in quickly.

Call to action

The final paragraph should be a call to action. What is it you want the customer to do next? Do you want them to call you, enrol, buy online, consider the information and contact you when they are ready. Whatever is the call to action needs to be at the end. Remember customers need to know what to do next, especially email readers. And don’t end with “please do not hesitate to contact us if you require any further information”. What do people do when they read this? Yep, they hesitate…

Instead use “If you want more help or information, please do email me personally, and I’ll help you some more”

Proof

Once done, do find the time to proof the email and spell check before pressing send. After all you can’t recall an email once it’s sent. Now might be the best time for a compelling subject line now that you have the message clear in your head. Many people leave the subject line to the end once they know exactly what the email is going to say.

What to avoid

Here’s a list of things to avoid on emails:

• Abbreviations such as LOL, FYI, BBS. Leave those for IM’ing
• Smilies – have no place in business emails :-)
• Exclamation’itis!!!!
• Slang
• Templated replies
• Bulky attachments, in fact if you don’t know them, provide a link instead
• Your emotion. By this I mean if you are particularly angry or excited about the email, wait until this subsides otherwise this emotion will come through in the text.
  

Summary

Emails are a part of life and rightfully so. Some key messages in this article are to keep emails plain, remember KISS, focus on the impatience of readers and write for them and their need to scan. Write in the active voice – plan don’t template.

Podcast Version

For a podcast of this email lasting 16 minutes, click this link:

http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/11/29/2204982/Archer%20Training%20Podcasts/How_to_write_business_emails.mp3