- Clarity of thought. Why are you sending me this email. What do you want me to do? Is it a nudge, a demand, an alert, just for info? Please decide before you push send.
- The subject line is the single thing that annoys me most. Especially from people that I “interact with by email” often. I file and, more importantly, I find or don’t find emails again based on what is in, or what is not in, the subject line. The subject line doesn’t just help me with my filing – it also help me know what the sender is talking about, what they want me to do and hopefully how urgent it is. Or at least – I wish it did!!!
- The greeting is really important. It has an impact on whether I read all the email or not. If it just starts with “Hi” and I don’t know you I will assume it is a multi-recipient spammy email – and off it will go to the trash. Use people’s names. They like them and you should prove you know them!!
- Your spelling is important – it makes a difference. There is no excuse for poor spelling and grammar. Even more so for people’s names! When I was working in Germany my office had a list of all the ways my name was misspelt. Not a good start. Or a good way to continue.
- Poor structure or no structure! Good use of paragraphs, paragraphs that convey a logical and sequenced train of thought, make emails easy to digest. If the paragraphs are too long I usually get bored and stop reading. Block text emails scare me!
- Be nice when you say goodbye. It takes seconds to write a sign-off. Or don’t you care or are you just sloppy?
- Use a professional email or one with your name or (appropriate) personal brand in it.
- CC’ing everyone and Reply All’ing – this can really get people mad! Send an email to the person or people who need to receive it. No one else! See point 1. If there is no reason to send it to me – don’t send it. My daily fight with my Inbox is hard enough.
