Writing Effective Emails

Business Management Daily

Presented by: David Silverman, Author

August 24, 20101 – 2:15 p.m., EST

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Agenda & Content Slides

� Before you start

� The call to action

� Email structure

� Emoticons and humor

� Understanding what mobile readers see

� Email lives forever

� Dos and don’ts

� Before you click send

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Quotes from Great Writers

Before You Start

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The Call to Action

Do something

or

Don’t do something

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����

Don’t tell me I need to know, tell me why I need to know.

����

Don’t tell me I need to know, tell me why I need to know.

Email Structure

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Subject: Senior Project Manager

Resume

Dear David:

I am writing in response to the

opening for Senior Project

Manager, which I believe may

report to you.

I can offer you seven years of

experience managing

communications for top-tier

financial services firms, excellent

project-management skills, and a

great eye for detail, all of which

should make me an ideal candidate

for this opening.

I have attached my résumé for your

review and would welcome the

clear subject line

call to action

signature

supporting information

attachments

salutation

Improve the Email

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Emoticons

� Can improve clarity for informal communication

� Best for instant messaging

� If in doubt, leave them out

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Emoticons

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Humor in Email

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Emotion in Email

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Emotion is unclear without tone and physical clues.

Understand What Mobile Users SeeWhen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to

dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume

among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of

Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of

mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are

endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,

Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments

are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the

governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these

ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in

such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be

changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn

that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right

themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a

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iPhoneupright

iPhonesideways

Email Lives Forever

Date: 02 Aug 1994 13:25:28 UT

From: David Silverman \<agman@panix.com>

Subject: David Silverman

I have recently accepted a position as System Development Manager with a firm in the UK. Starting September 1, my new address will be:

David Silverman Dawson UK Cannon House Park Farm Road Folkestone, Kent CT19 5EE ENGLAND tel +44 303 850 101 fax +44 303 850 440

I won't have an email address for the first month or so. Until September 1 I can still be reached at Data Conversion Laboratory, +1 718 357 8700 x23. Or at this email address (agman@panix.com).

Anybody want to buy a nice Saab 900s?

david

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Email Dos and Don’ts

Do

� After three emails back and forth: call

� Keep it short and simple

� Make the text scanable

� Put important material first

� Reply within 24 hours

Don’t

� Assume your reader will see your nicely formatted text

� Get emotional

� Write a story

� Leave the conversation without a conclusion

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Before You Click Send

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Question & Answer Session

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Additional Resources� Typo: The Last American Typesetter or How I Made and

Lost $4 Million, David SilvermanMy book. It’s not about writing, but it is absolutely awesome.

� On Writing Well, William ZinsserThe classic book on the subject.

Writing Effective Emails

Business Management Dailywww.BusinessManagementDaily.com

Presented by: David Silverman, Author

DSagman@yahoo.com