Three Rules for Writing Effective Emails

Rule 1 - State Your Business
Get to your point in both the subject line of the email and use a single terse line after the Dear Bob part.  I often use a single word to precede this critical sentence with a punch. Here are a few examples:

• Action: Need your list of customers you want invited to our important event sent to me by 12/12.
• FYI: The December event has not got enough customers and we may have to cancel it.
• Action: Please reach out to Bob Smithersjohnson at Widgetexon to confirm his support for our project by Friday of this week.

Rule 2 - Be Polite and Write Sentences
I have often thought a certain professional I know was writing his emails while wearing mittens while skydiving.  His emails were abrupt, chat text like, and often confusing to the point where I flagged his junk as spam.  There are no good reason I know of where you are taking the time to ask me for something but not taking the time to make it a concise and polite request.  There are several good crutches for those of you that need them.  Any current Blackberry has an auto text function that converts the letters LMK to "Let me know if you have any questions or concerns."  I have a bunch of entries that are thank you's.  Here are some examples:

• 4this - Thank you for the material you sent me.
• 4meet - Thank you taking the time to meet with me.
• 4ref - Thank you for the referral.  I owe you one.

Rule 3 - Follow-Up
Email is not contract between people to do anything. It is a very impersonal way of communicating.  As such, You must follow-up every email your write with a more personal form of communication.  I like this old school thing we call a phone. I know I am remarkably arcane and even antediluvian in my methods.  But I have to ask myself, "If I do not have the time to make a quick follow-up call, should I have wasted my time writing the email?"  The most important benefit of this method is to prevent me from using my email as a  trebuchet.  A trebuchet is an old very large catapult invented by the French to launch just about anything at their enemies. Think of Monty Python and the Holy Grail and flying cows being launched at King Arthur.  I have seen to many times people simply forwarding their work into the void as an empty Inbox feels like success.  This is why we should all just delete what we are not going to act on.  It is much more honest.