Seven Strategies for Emails That Get Action
Email is the unquestioned workhorse of communication. Because of its immediacy, writers often mistakenly think of email as an extension of speech. Instead, email can also have the unforgiving durability of print. And, because email costs us nothing to send, we send and receive too much of it.
Key Take-aways for Writing Emails:
Strong subject lines start with an action and end with a deadline.
Always focus on benefits to your readers.
Put the desired or required action and a deadline at the end of the first paragraph.
Avoid sending any email when angry.
Follow these seven rules for writing email to minimize fall-out from email gaffes and maximize its effectiveness.
Convey Required Actions and Due Dates in the Subject Line
Despite receiving organizational email they seldom open, writers forget that the subject line is the single most important line in the entire email. The subject line may be the only line your audience actually reads, while a good subject line (and an important sender) dictates whether your reader ever sees a word of the email’s main message. Lead with a verb, follow with an object, end with a deadline. Good examples include Need Your Quarterly Report by Friday at 4pm or Sign up for Training on Claude AI before Wednesday. Sales or marketing emails also gain more punch when you lead with a verb: Make Your Videos Click Magnets.
“Even more than hurtful words you can never unsay, an email is more long-lasting than a published article or book. Offended readers can easily search for it, share it, and reignite their anger at you.”
Focus on WIIFY
Most writers believe readers need immediate background or a rationale for the email’s content. In reality, readers care only about two things: what they need to do and what will benefit them. As a result, your opening paragraph should lead with at least one reason why the reader will benefit from complying with the request that will inevitably crop up in the email. Then you should tell readers exactly the what, how and when: what action you want them to take, specific steps they should take to complete the action, and, most important, a deadline. Put this content in the opening paragraph with the deadline in the last sentence, where readers remember it best and longest.
Anticipate How Your Audience Reads Email
Unlike an email from a long-lost friend, readers will seldom read your email as carefully as your mother would. Readers will likely read your opening paragraph but will relentlessly skim, scan, or even skip the rest of the email. For this reason, always put the required action and deadline in the opening paragraph and reserve the background and rationale for a second paragraph.
Email ≠ Speech ≠ Texting
Email can seem deceptively close to speech because you can knock one out in seconds and send it an eye-blink. However, you should think about what you need to tell your audience, rather than figuring your message out on the fly—a step that typically generates the inefficient messiness of speech. This kind of speech-on-the-page sucks up readers’ time without clearly telling your audience what response you seek from them. Even if you avoid trampling on whatever goodwill readers potentially have toward you, your rambling email will get you a reputation for time-wasting emails that require at least two more emails for clarifications. And this reaction will typically prompt your audience to avoid opening your emails, unless they face some sort of penalty for just skipping over them or even deleting them, unread.
No Deadline = No Action
Even if your email makes a simple request, if you fail to include a deadline, you’ll likely discover you receive zero responses from your audience. The reason? To manage busy schedules, most readers work toward deadlines, rather than outcomes.
Ideally, for requests that require significant work from your audience, use a timeline at least 30 days ahead. But be prepared to follow up with reminder emails a week before the project’s actual deadline, reminding your audience of how this action ultimately benefits them. For requests that require minimal effort from your readers, give a deadline 5-7 days out from your email. Warning: if you provide deadlines with too much lead time, your audience will procrastinate until you remind them of the looming deadline.
Never Send an Email When You’re Angry
If someone has annoyed you intensely, write a response. Then tuck that email, unsent, away on your desktop for at least three days. Consider this amount of time a cooling-off period that enables you to gain perspective on the initial email and your response. Remember, that email can permanently damage your relationship with a client, colleague, or your boss. Even more than hurtful words you can never unsay, an email is more long-lasting than a published article or book. Offended readers can easily search for it, share it, and reignite their anger at you.
Consider this tone-deaf email from a grad student, who emailed me after reading a post in Psychology Today, requesting a meeting with me and suggesting that we collaborate on a post and requesting an in-person or Zoom meeting. He then emailed me multiple times in a single day and then daily before he sent this zinger:
I do not want to acquire the reputation of someone whose emails go unanswered... Are you willing to continue this correspondence, or are you putting it on the back burner? Please let me know. We are all busy with our work, but our greatness lies in how we treat those who interrupt our work.
Likely, this grad student wanted some sort of mentorship, a co-author with some bona fides he could leverage while he worked on his doctorate. But an email like this one torched the bridges the grad student hoped to build with flattering compliments on one of my books. The writer plainly failed to be as clear about his expectations as he was muddled on the timeline a writer can expect for a response to an email, sent to someone he doesn’t know, about a book published a decade ago.
A Final Test
If you would never say something face to face to a friend, colleague, or client, avoid putting it in an email. Unlike speech, email lacks any indication of tone—and emojis will only buy you so much slack.
