There are certain things you should always do when building an email – like adding a signature, using periods, and including a subject line. But then again, there are other, less desirable things that you should never, ever, EVER do inside an email. Let’s start with these 7 things.
Don’t write too much.
No one expects to open up an email and find a novel. If this does happen, that person won’t be a happy camper. They’ll be annoyed, and most likely, they’ll finish reading the email and only be confused… which will end up resulting in further emails and additional novels. Avoid this by keeping your emails as short as possible. If you find your email creeping into three or four paragraphs, you might want to consider picking up the phone or setting up a quick meeting.
Don’t bury the CTA.
If there’s a point to the email (which I seriously hope there is), then that point shouldn’t be buried inside the middle of a paragraph. It should be bolded, highlighted, and way out in the open saying “HEY! How’s it going!?” In other words, just make sure people don’t have to work too hard to get to it. The harder they have to work, the more likely they are to miss it altogether.
Don’t forget to attach a date.
On occasion, an email will ask for something… an approval, a document, some advice… But whatever it is, it’s important to attach some sort of due date or follow up date to it. Forget this and you might end up waiting days or even weeks for someone to respond to something
Don’t CC everyone all the time.
Sure, from time to time, it might be useful to CC people. However, you should always do so with caution. CC the wrong people or too many people and you could find your inbox overflowing with unnecessary responses. If someone doesn’t absolutely need to see the email, then don’t CC them. It’s not worth the potential hassle it might bring to you.
Don’t bundle everything together.
Try not to put everything in your email into one huge, super long, extra blocky paragraph. Break up your content into multiple lines or short paragraphs and make things easier to read. If you keep your content together, then you risk the chance of people skimming over the majority of your email.
Don’t forget to spellcheck.
Just don’t. Always spellcheck every email. And while we’re at it, make sure you double check that attachments are actually attached.
Don’t skip good grammar.
Just because it’s a quick email to a coworker doesn’t mean that it’s okay to bypass good grammar. Use correct capitalization, punctuation, and spellings, and try to avoid using “words” you typically see inside a text message or social media conversation, like lol and cuz.
