Some Basics for Effective Email Communication
Jan 06
A friend of mine was tweeting today about this post on the B.L.U.F (Big Lead Up Front) method of email communciation. In three simple steps you can make your emails more effective, more succinct, and more appreciated by anyone who receives more than 5 emails a day. Bad email communication is an epidemic in the working world, and I personally think more businesses should teach email best practices to their employees. That would then have a trickle down effect on B2B email communication, and everyone would win. And of course, any violators of the email golden rules should be publicly humiliated.
1) Use the subject line in your e-mail for initial clarity and add as much information as you can without making it too long.
2) Consistently use the “To” line for all those who you require a response from, and put those who need the information but don’t need to respond, in the “CC” line.
3) State the main point in the first sentence of the e-mail so folks don’t have to guess what you’re trying to say.
I had to chuckle while reading the post because I think most of us are all too familiar with poor email communication. The Jedi Mind trick email surfaces quite a bit, or my personal favorite, the “pass the buck” email, in which one person forwards an email to 20 other unwilling CC recipients with a simple vague message such as “please advise.”
Jan 06 at 13:20
Ha, and while I”m on the topic of email rants, I wish “read receipts” would die a slow (no fast) and painful death.
Jan 06 at 15:59
What always gets me is: when do you change subject lines? Or start a new email thread all together? The endless Re: gets very confusing.
Jan 07 at 08:42
This should be accompanied by a set of golden rules for READING email.
1) Read your email.
2) Read the whole message.
3) Respond to all questions addressed to you.
4) If there is information in the message that you may need later… recognize it as such, and save/organize accordingly.
Jan 07 at 08:53
AMEN to that!
Jan 07 at 09:41
Actually, I’d modify #2 in the original rules to be:
‘Consistently use the “To” line for all those who you require AN ACTION from, and put those who need the information but don’t need to DO ANYTHING, in the “CC” line.’
There are plenty of times I don’t need a response, but the email still requires action from the recipient. I’d reserve CC for people who need to know, but don’t need to DO.
Jan 07 at 10:08
Agreed and Agreed. I’ve got another one — Email OR Call. Don’t send an email and then immediately call the person to tell them exactly what you just emailed them.
Jan 08 at 15:18
Erin, I totally agree with the above comment. However, I sometimes DO appreciate the heads up phone call from someone to explain before emailing a bunch of attachments that could take you 25 minutes to decipher.