Knowing how to write an email is of fundamental importance because the use of email is an essential activity for every capital business to create a communication channel with customers that is different from that type of social channel.
The construction of an email varies according to the recipient and the purpose of the message. Different types of communication can be adopted and different communication rules to follow as well as actions to be avoided in order not to incur out-of-place and not optimal emails for the objectives for which they were created.
The Topic Of This Post
- 1 Communication in emails
- 2 How to write an email: tips and mistakes to avoid
- 3 Examples of mail
- 4 Conclusions
Communication in emails
The applicable communication levels are different and can be summarized in three points:
- verbal, i.e. the words, oral or written
- para verbal through tone and modality
- non-verbal that concerns everything that is not a word
An example of the existence of an electronic non-verbal language is the topography of the text which can be characterized by four elements:
- pagination of the text
- font color
- font, which is the font of the text
- signature
Communication, in general, is divided into:
- social communication, where few people turn to many others and there is no immediate control over feedback;
- interpersonal communication, consisting of the exchange between two or more people who interact with each other
In the case of emails, we speak of interpersonal communication since it is a non-conversational communication exchange as the receipt of an email does not trigger the start of an instant conversation with the person on the other side.
Emails can be differentiated by type and are divided into three types:
- personal, characterized by an exchange of communications between parental or friend contacts
- professional, which stands out in the exchange of communications, for example at an organizational level between business contacts
- commercial, which aims to advertise one’s professionalism and skills or which aims at conversion through the sale of a product or service
How to write an email: tips and mistakes to avoid
To provide for an efficient composition of emails it is good to start by asking yourself 3 fundamental questions:
- Who is the recipient of the email?
- What is the purpose of communication?
- What information does the recipient need for the communication to be effective?
The question “what is the purpose of the communication?” will be a useful guide starting from the writing of the subject at the beginning of your email. Continuing with the composition of the email, the main points to pay attention to are divided into 3 elements:
- beginning, that is an introduction where the sending of the email is motivated
- development that includes the main message
- final in which there is a summary of the development and the greeting
Some elements to pay attention to when composing emails are the following:
- avoid the use of communicative elements that make it difficult to understand the message such as archaic forms that are little used and therefore little known or terms that are too complex or not understandable for those who are not in the same professional sector
- use the question “what is the purpose of the communication?” as a compass in the construction of the subject of your email
- enter the recipient’s address only at the end
- if you send an email that must be seen by other recipients but to which they do not necessarily have to reply, insert them in the Cc specifying the reason why the addition was made at the beginning of the email text
- if more than one person has to reply to the email, enter the other addresses in the recipients and not in the Cc, inviting at the end of the email not to reply to everyone if it is not strictly necessary, but only to the interested parties
- use the CCN if you have to send a collective email to which you do not expect a response, but do not do it for commercial purposes because in this case, it would be spam
- avoid sending emails that are too short and not very explanatory
- do not send excessively long emails
Once you have learned the main tips to understand how to write an email, it is good to understand how to read and manage emails.
In this regard, it is of fundamental importance to create order in your mailbox by immediately eliminating the e-mails received that are not of our interest such as spam or e-mails of unimportant commercial content, keeping only useful e-mails in your mailbox.
Examples of mail
Some examples of emails can be collected in different types including:
- the first email, where you introduce yourself as no previous meeting took place
- the follow-up or the never sent after a meeting or after a meeting to follow up on communication that has already begun personally
These types of emails are very important to get in touch with a potential customer in the case of the first email, for example, and to maintain communication with a customer with whom you have already come into contact.
As for the email for a marketing campaign, they can be distinguished with examples of this type of object:
- “A message for you”, or the classic newsletter
- “This email will be destroyed in 10 seconds”, a typical type of email marketing
Examples of emails to avoid are these two types:
- e-mails that are distinguished by the brevity of the text, or text messages that are characterized by the brevity of the text and the direct method that distinguishes them, aimed at creating a conversational communication in which a response is expected. The right context in which to use these types of messages, however, is a chat and not emails
- sent in bulk to a mix of contacts that may include, for example, both your business contacts and those of your family
Conclusions
Some data show that the use of email is very useful for companies and professionals. Here are some interesting numbers to demonstrate:
- 3.7 billion users in 2017
- 72% of consumers prefer it as a commercial channel
- according to Radicati Group, 281 billion emails are sent a day
- most of the openings take place around 2 pm
- 86% of consumers accept marketing communications because they count on a return: a coupon, an offer, a gift
- the average percentage of openings in the world is 24.82%
- email leads to 174% higher conversion than social media 4400% ROI
- 69% of people report an email as spam only starting from the subject
Furthermore, the current trend of communications through emails is characterized by a desire of people to rediscover those characteristics of humanity in communication that has been abandoned for years due to the widespread use of commercial emails that are aimed solely at conversion without foreseeing a conversation.
Therefore, knowing how to write an email adequately, to be able to use this tool optimally, translates into an added value with great potential for every type of business.
