10/4/2023-Email Best Practices

Email is a wonderfully efficient tool if you want to communicate with many people or need to distribute documents and links…otherwise, email is a communication nightmare.

Quick…what’s your number one gripe about emailing prospects and clients?

Of course, you’ll answer that they don’t respond.

But are you giving your buyers a good reason to reply?

Whether you’re sending a cold prospecting email (don’t expect much) or emailing a customer doing business with you, make it simple for the recipient to respond. The bigger the "ask" and the longer the email, the louder the crickets you’ll hear.

Remember the number one email BP (best practice): write short notes. Closely behind BP #1 is this: solicit a response to one specific question.

While you smartly ask "open questions" when conversing with buyers, email doesn’t work that way. Email is not a conversation tool, it’s a utility tool that works best with "closed questions" seeking yes or no answers.

Today, end your emails with questions like these, "Can you confirm we’ll get the contract signed Monday?" and "Can you introduce me to John?"

And finally, "When can we meet to talk about X…Tuesday, or Wednesday?"

Don’t fret if your email game needs an upgrade…that’s why you’re here.

Consider a few BPs (Best Practices) to get you on the straight and narrow:
1. Write short notes.
2. Try to avoid "conversing" through email! (Instead…"Hey, can we get on a phone or Zoom for 5 minutes and talk about that issue?")
3. State your intention clearly, and frame the reply so it’s a binary choice for the recipient: yes, or no.
4. Don’t use email to prospect.

WHAT?

Yes, you heard correctly. Don’t use email to prospect! Email is a lousy prospecting tool. (Prospecting is about networking, not breaking through cold walls with emails.)

Email is a wonderfully efficient tool if you want to communicate with many people, or need to distribute documents and links, or if you need to send back countersigned contracts (YAY). Otherwise, email is a communication nightmare. Why continue to rely on something that nobody likes…or uses?

In times when you must communicate through email, keep the notes absurdly short and your call-to-actions specific and answerable with a "yes" or "no."

If you’re looking for a quick chuckle about the inane nature of email, check out this 3-minute video by the company Workfront. They sell email management services and are also pretty good at creating commercial messages…some of these short vignettes are pretty funny.

When you’re done with your guffaws, head back to your inbox and see how short – and direct – you can reply to the five notes that just came in.