What’s your point?!
Emails need to be short and to the point! I have email overload and if your first two sentences don’t grab my attention and create interest or make me want to do something, I’m not reading the rest of it.
A few weeks ago I received an email from a publication that I advertise in. The first paragraph talked about what a great first year it was and blah, blah, blah.. I never read the rest of it, assuming it was just to get me to send in my new ad.
The ad was sent and the next day my assistant tells me that the publication was cancelled and I was supposed to have received an email. Since I don’t have a great system for filing and storing emails, I just searched through my 3905 emails in my in box and found it.
Sure enough, buried in the 4th paragraph of a VERY LONG email, was the message that they were no longer publishing and were offering me an option to go to another publication. Why couldn’t they say that in the first two sentences?!
Recently, my designer sent an email to a customer it said, “Thank you for sending the latest images. These look great and I will start working on a proof. The logo, however, is of poor quality and we will need that to complete the proof. Can you send a higher quality logo? “
The customer called a few days later and wanted to know where his proof was. He never read beyond the “images looking great”.
I sat down with my staff and we discussed how people are so time challenged that they cannot read through pages of emails. Get to the point at the first 2 sentences and give them a call to action. Leave the warm and fuzzies for when you meet them in person or talk to them on the phone.
We live in an instant response — instant gratification world. Time is a luxury most do not have. Thank you for taking the time to read this and may all your emails be short and to the point!