E-mail has come to stay, if you like it or not, especially in the business world. The business e-mail traffic accounts for 55% of all emails sent in 2014. It is high time that we perfect the art of sending effective emails.
Harvard Business Review has come up with a guide to write better emails.
- Don’t use emojis in the subject line that confuses the reader.
- Subject lines should be concise and descriptive, highlighting the action needed.
- Use clean, easy-to-read fonts such as Arial, Helvetica and Verdana in a dark colour.
- Don’t use more than three fonts in an e-mail.
- Don’t use emojis unless the recipient uses.
- Typos are tolerable but don’t make intentional typos.
- Capitalise ‘I’ and take care of punctuation.
- Let not the e-mail go beyond a page.
- Use paragraph breaks and message should be precise and clear.
- Think thrice before clicking the send button. Will the recipient welcome it? Am I indiscreet by blind copying to so many?
Finally written messages can backfire if there is a conflict or bad news that can be misinterpreted. Best bet is to talk over the phone or Skype.
