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Send Fewer Emails to Engage Deeper—and Lighten Your Load

September 4, 2019 by Barbara McNichol Leave a Comment

fewer emails

by Dianna Booher (reprinted with permission)

Tim, a friend of mine back in college, had the weird habit of setting his alarm to go off at 7:00 am on Saturdays when he had no intention of getting out of bed early. “Why?” I asked him one day when we were complaining about studying late for exams and getting up early for class during the week.

“Oh, I don’t get up at 7:00! I just love the feeling of slapping off the alarm and knowing that I can roll over and go back to sleep for another 3 hours.”

Often, during the last three decades as I’ve coached, consulted, trained, and keynoted throughout organizations across myriad industries, I hear a similar sentiment. It’s just worded a little differently: “That department sends so much paperwork and nags us for so much information. It feels good just to ignore them.”

You have an essential mission, of course. And certainly you need to recruit, develop, and retain top talent to accomplish your goals. That involves educating your team about budget, resources, regulations, and compliance matters. Yet it’s not uncommon to hear complaints like these:

  • “They’re nonresponsive; they move too slowly.”
  • “Getting pre-approval just muddies the water.”
  • “They’ll tie your hands. They’re not risk-takers. It’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission.”

Could better—but fewer—emails close the gap between those negative perceptions and your essential mission?

Stated another way: Do you say too much, . . . about too little, . . .  too often? And does this habit bury critical communication your team needs to hear?

The Stats About Overload

Wherever we go, most of us are still tapping away. At the airport. At the gym. At the beach. From a hospital bed. At sunrise. Over lunch. During dinner. Chances are, email habits drain you and your employees, both mentally and emotionally. That spells lost productivity for your organization, stress for you and them, and ultimately the need to tune out periodically.

We were told more than two decades ago that email would revolutionize the way we work and save us an enormous amount of time. While email has many benefits, it has also engulfed us and created other productivity drains.

My organization, Booher Research Institute, recently commissioned a survey of email communication habits and productivity from the Social Research Lab at the University of Northern Colorado. Here’s what a representative sampling of knowledge workers across multiple industries reported about their email habits:

–42 percent spend 3 hours or more per day reading and writing email

–55 percent check email either hourly or multiple times per hour

–34 percent say the email they get is redundant (meaning they receive duplicate copies) or irrelevant to their needs

Send Fewer Emails to Get Quicker Action

When you send multiple emails regarding the same issue (reminders and follow-ups), people start to tune out—to that specific message and others you send. In essence, you are “training” readers to ignore “first editions.” As with those who hit the snooze button on their alarm clocks  multiple times, people become accustomed to ignoring required action until they get several email reminders.

Many conference planners have communicated through this typical “cycle” and learned this principle the hard way. For example, their annual convention ends in August. They began sending periodic emails: “Sign up now for next year to get a big discount.” Then to speakers, they start a different email series: “Propose to speak.” Then, it’s “The proposal deadline is coming.” Then, “The deadline is about to close.” Then, “We’re extending the deadline to give you longer to propose.”

Then the next series starts: “Submit your materials by X date. Then, “This is a reminder to submit your materials by X date.” Then, “This is your last reminder to submit your materials by X date.” Then, “We’re extending the submission deadline.”  Then, “We’ve changed the date for you to submit materials to give you adequate time. The new date is Y.”

You get the idea. Such communication habits sound like a parent’s saying to the four-year-old, “This is the last time I’m going to tell you this last time to pick up your toys.”

Lighten your load and stress: Don’t train your employees to ignore you.

 Engage Fewer People to Get More Responses

Culling your distribution lists for emails you send will likely increase engagement on important projects. As with meetings, the larger the group, the lower the individual participation. When you’re emailing a group for input (for example, a group of engineers about their training needs for the new year), the same principle applies: When you copy a large list, people feel anonymous, and fewer feel obligated to respond.

If you want/need input, cut your list, and you’ll increase response—not to mention clearing inboxes for the uninterested. 

Clarify and Adapt to Standard Response Times

Eighty percent of the participants in the UNC survey said typically expect readers to respond to “important” outside emails within four hours or less; 24 percent expect a response within an hour or less.

What’s the expected response time in the culture of the team you’re serving? Four hours? Twenty-four hours? Should you adapt to it? Are there exceptions to these standards? If so, what? If you don’t know, find out from the organizational leader. (If you are the leader, communicate that standard to your team.) Protect your organizational brand and your personal brand by living up to the expectations.

Slow responses suggest many things—most of them negative.

  • You’re overwhelmed and can’t keep up with the pace.
  • You’re puzzled by the decision or action required.
  • Your system of handling daily inquiries is ineffective.
  • You have a staffing problem.
  • The situation, decision, or project is unimportant to you.
  • You need to gather more information or input before replying.
  • You need time to deliberate before responding.

Can you routinely afford to be considered the bottleneck?

Email can be an enormous time saver–unless poor communication practices diminish its benefits and create an untamed monster. To tame the beast and reclaim your time, send fewer but better emails to engage team members to act on the essential.

Learn more ways to tame the email monster in Faster, Fewer, Better Emails: Manage the Volume, Reduce the Stress, Love the Results. Click here for details.

How would Dianna’s advice–send fewer but better emails–make a difference in your world? Share your comments here.

Filed Under: Business Writing Tagged With: better business writing, Booher Research Institute, business email communication, business writing, Dianna Booher, email overwhelm, email response time, fewer emails, nonfiction book editor, productivity drain, save time

3 Mistakes People Make in Writing Customers

August 21, 2019 by Barbara McNichol Leave a Comment

By Dianna Booher (used with permission)

In today’s world, we work, live, and die by email. Okay, I exaggerate. But it’s hard to get through a week without weeding your way through an overflowing inbox. How do you make your emails stand out—positively rather than negatively—from competitors?

For starters, correct these problems…

3 Common Email Mistakes

Vague Subject Lines

Subject lines should be a condensed version of your message and the action you want. They should be informative, not mysterious—unless you’re an email marketer. And even then, marketers often find that vague headlines don’t always intrigue buyers.

A quick scan of a week’s inbox reveals subject lines like these:

A Quick Question (About what?)

Following Up (On what?)

Last-Minute Details (Is the reader asking for them or giving them?)

Can you imagine reading newspaper headlines as vague as these: “Stock Market.” “Taxes.” “Blizzard Conditions.” You wouldn’t know where to begin reading. Unless you’re a novelist—a mystery writer at that!—turn your subject lines into informative headlines.

Subject lines should be specific, useful, brief:

How to Register for the Upcoming RW Conference & Expo

New Dates for Denver New Product Orientation: Aug 12-13

Stopping Work on FTD Coding: Glitch in Step 7

Available Friday for Call About Licensing Extension?

Unclear Actions and Timeframes

Don’t hint or imply. State exactly what you want the reader to do and when. You can soften a request by stating the action as a question or by adding a courtesy word. For example: “Would you please send me your feedback on the demo equipment by Friday, May 6?” Such a statement sounds friendly, yet still sets expectations.

Never equate courtesy with vagueness. Phrases such as “at your earliest convenience” or “as soon as possible” simply leave your reader guessing. You can be both pleasant and precise.

Openings That Close Doors

In the classic movie Jerry Maguire, Tom Cruise barges into his home after an argument and long separation from his wife, starts an explanation meant as an apology, and makes a romantic plea: “You complete me…  You…”

She interrupts, “You had me at hello.”

In case you don’t recall the movie plot, let me just say the similarity to email greetings stops there:  Your email readers are not in love with you. (Okay, maybe your family members love you. Possibly a few favorite customers love you.) But even if emailing best friends, chances are they already have an overflowing inbox and may not want another email from you.

So your email greetings should warm clients and prospects up—not put them off.

Another thing about greetings: Stand out by “mixing It up.” My colleague Bill Lampton has mastered this principle well. Every email from him sounds as though he has just walked into my office with a fresh comment of the morning. Here are some recent greetings from his emails:

Dianna, hi—

Very good, Dianna. The next thing….

How about Tuesday, Dianna?

Good morning, Dianna!

For sure, Dianna…  Mid- to late-May fits my schedule…

I totally agree, Dianna, about the need to …

See how these greetings pull you right into the email as if we’re in a relationship and the conversation is just continuing?

That’s exactly the feeling you want your customers to have as they see your email in the preview window—that they’re in an ongoing relationship with you and should respond as if face to face.

So how to break through the email barrier and get quicker responses? Be specific. Say it in the subject line. Make sure your greeting warms buyers up—not puts them off.

email mistakesLearn more ways to improve your email communication in Faster, Fewer, Better Emails: Manage the Volume, Reduce the Stress, Love the Results by Dianna Booher. Click here for details.

 

Filed Under: Business Writing, Writing Tips Tagged With: better emails, better writing, Dianna Booher, email mistakes, faster, fewer, nonfiction book editor professionals, write better emails

Good vs. Great Business Writers: Cite 6 Differences

October 19, 2013 by Barbara McNichol Leave a Comment

by Dianna Booher

Face-to-face and phone communication is fading fast from our everyday experience. We work, love, and live now by writing—Facebook posts, tweets, LinkedIn messages, Google+ posts, blogs, white papers, website copy, emails, sales proposals, activity reports, résumés, job offerings, performance reviews, reports, and recommendations.

improve business writing from good to great

Business writing tools

The good news: Great writing skills will give you the edge for career advancement. Having made authorship my life’s work for three decades and having presented hundreds of business writing and technical writing workshops during the same span, I’ve discovered these distinct differentiators between good and great business writers:

1. Structure

Good writers may organize, draft, think, reorganize—in whatever way works best for each project. They may end with a well-written document, but it may take them a while to do so.

Great writers have a repeatable system. They typically spend more time thinking about their writing than actually drafting.

2. Word Choice

Good writers select clear words. They avoid ambiguous phrasing that has different meanings for different people.

Great writers choose precise words. They tickle the ear with eloquent phrasing so that their sentences beg to be reread.

3. Conciseness

Good writers get to the point.

Great writers get to the point—but they never sacrifice clarity for the sake of brevity.

4. Grammar

Good writers consider grammar important; they want to get things right. They know when sentences sound right.

Great writers understand the link between grammar and clarity; they insist on getting the grammar right. They know the rules—and which “rules” are only style matters.

5. Tone

Good writers convey their message (even a sensitive email about a negative situation) in a clear, straightforward style.

Great writers communicate their message in a clear, straightforward style—but with an upbeat, conversational warmth.

6. Editing

Good writers edit their work to spot weaknesses.

Great writers rarely trust themselves to edit their own work. They welcome other opinions.

So let me paraphrase Ben Franklin as I sum up: Either do something worth writing about or write well about something you’re doing.

Can you add other differentiators in the “Comments” section below?

© 2013 Dianna Booher. Booher Consultants, a communications training firm, works with business leaders and organizations to increase effectiveness through better oral, written, interpersonal, and enterprise-wide communication. Founder Dianna Booher is the author of 46 books, published in 26 languages. Her latest titles include Creating Personal Presence: Look, Talk, Think, and Act Like a Leader and Communicate With Confidence! The Revised and Expanded Edition. www.Booher.com

 

Filed Under: Business Writing Tagged With: authorship, business writing skills, Dianna Booher, professional book editing services, professional editing, self-editing, social media messages, write better social media messages

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