E-ssential Message # 046: What's the point?

I recently read two disturbing but not surprising surveys about emailing. The first one confirmed that 95% people in business believe that email writing skills are extremely important, very importance or important to job effectiveness. The second survey stated that many people also believe that email is a big time waster, with some people spending as much as 5 hours a day reading email.

Most of the complaints I hear about emails can be summarized into one big question mark that gets formulated in the reader's mind: "What's your point?"

So with that in mind, here are 5 simple -- but not necessarily easy -- things you can do to make your point clearer and more powerfully in emails.

Short emails that focus on a single point work best for readers whose in-boxes are already overflowing. And, limiting yourself to one 'essential' point forces you to become extremely clear about what that point is -- which is probably the most valuable thing about this entire exercise. If you must write a long email, separate each major point by a graphic element such as a line or a row of dashes.
Give the reader a reason to read it. In most cases, this is the point, and if it's not, it should be. (After all, if you got an email that didn't pertain to you or one of your interests, how much attention would you give it?) The trick here is to be blunt and assume nothing. eg: 'This should interest you because...'
Read your email once through with a eye to delete any extraneous words, sentences and paragraphs. If something doesn't add value, ditch it.
Play with the order of the paragraphs. Try taking your last paragraph and placing it first. Or try deleting your first paragraph altogether!
Don't leave your reader hanging. Tell your reader exactly what you'd like him or her to do with the information. In advertising terms, this is known as the 'call to action'.

These are just a few tips adapted from my eLearning product "The Non-Writer's Big Little Helper Thing" which covers a complete 'reader-centric' approach for writing emails as well as newsletters, articles and brochures.

Writing more effective emails isn't hard, but it does take practice. And as the surveys show, that's something that most people can use. So before you hit the 'send' button on your next email, do yourself and your readers a favor by applying these 5 tips.