Emails. We all get them at work, and spend a ton of time writing and answering them. We type our thoughts out and hit send without giving much thought to what we’re actually doing. However, there are some things you can do to improve your email skills that can actually help your career.
Sure, there’s people who ramble on and on in their emails. Then there’s those who only drop one-liners like they’re so “cool”. Don’t forget about the wannabe authors, nor the people who practically notify you of every single breath they take while at work. Yet, there’s more to these tips than telling you to not be one of those people.
To start, get better at “forwarding” emails. Too many times you see something that needs to be passed along, only to hit the forward button and move on. It’s better that you write whoever it is you’re passing the email along to a quick summary on why you’re forwarding the email to them and its the main points. Also, it wouldn’t hurt to at least think about changing the subject of the email to something attention-grabbing.
Next, watch your grammar. You may not get arrested by the grammar police for making a few grammar mistakes, but you still want to represent yourself in the most intelligent and professional way via emails. Don’t be scared to use a period. Or a comma. Make sure you’re not writing run-on sentences, too. Oh, and stop adding extra exclamation points thinking that will let the reader know you’re “extra” excited!
Everyone is a comedian. Everyone is a philosopher. Everyone thinks they’re smart. However, you probably should dramatically scale back the unnecessary jargon you use in your emails. You may think all your witty catchphrases and lingo featured in your emails make you look cool, but they don’t. Those laughs or “Lol” replies you get are courtesy laughs, not sincere ones.
So to do some “heavy lifting” and “think outside the box”, “push the envelope” to stop “hammering out” all that jargon you use when emailing someone to make sure they’re “kept in the loop”, ok?
Another tip is to not use acronyms. Again, being professional is the aim here. You’re not emailing your friends when writing and responding to work-related emails. Don’t tell someone “Gr8” and that you guys are “BFFs” when something goes your way. Don’t crack one of your patented lame jokes and write “Lmao, JK”. Please do not write “Y”, instead of “Why”. You’re not in high school.
Finally, don’t hold people hostage by continuing to include them with the “reply all” button. Sure, it’s a convenient option to have, but it can frankly begin to annoy the people who no longer need to be included within the email chain.
Release your hostages, and apply the rest of these tips to your emails going forward. You’ll be better off for it.
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