How to write emails that get results!

Written by Lee Hopkins


Writing an effective email that getsrepparttar result you were looking for is not as simple as just opening up your email software and hittingrepparttar 107977 keyboard with your fingers.

Writing an email that gets results is an art form - get it right and it is read effortlessly byrepparttar 107978 reader. Get it wrong and it reflects really badly on you.

So if I have just ONE tip to pass on to you it would be this:

When writing your emails throw everything you learnt in English classes outrepparttar 107979 window!

Instead, userepparttar 107980 following tips to make sure that your communication is as powerful and effective as it can be:

1. Personalise: People love to see their name. So personalise your email to them. Even if you are sending out a bulk email to many different people, there are software tools that allow you to personalise each and every email so that it looks as though it has come direct from you and direct to them -- one-to-one.

2. Write just like you talk: Use plain, easy to understand English. Nobody cares if you can use xenophobia and ostentatious inrepparttar 107981 same sentence. Write almost like you are talking to your best mate over a beer. So that means use contractions. Be friendly and personable in your writing.

3. Put passion in your email: Since you don't haverepparttar 107982 luxury of seeing your prospect eye-to-eye to gauge their reactions you need to put extra passion into your message. Even if you think you are overdoing it when you write, your email will seem understated when it gets read. Get enthusiastic!

4. Write to one person: Especially important when you are writing an email that will be sent to more than one person, try to think ofrepparttar 107983 ideal prospect/client as you are writing and makerepparttar 107984 message just for them. Even ifrepparttar 107985 message will be read by thousands of people, every person will read it one at a time. Use "you" and "your" liberally. Focus on them, not yourself.

5. Keep your sentences and paragraphs short: Keep your sentences and paragraphs short and simple.

Period.

Sentences (even paragraphs) can even be one word like that last one. And paragraphs should be no more than 4 or 5 lines. You want your email to look easy to read with lots of white space. Make it inviting. Long blocks of words are scary. Paragraph breaks do NOT need to be determined by content.

6. Use plenty of compelling subheads: Subheads should be like mini-headlines. Use them to break up large bodies of text and to bring people back intorepparttar 107986 body ofrepparttar 107987 email.

Barriers to business communication

Written by Lee Hopkins


There are six crunching barriers to business communication:

1. Poor structure torepparttar communication 2. A weak delivery 3. The use ofrepparttar 107976 wrong medium to deliverrepparttar 107977 communication 4. A mixed message 5. The message is delivered torepparttar 107978 wrong audience 6. A distracting environment

Let's consider each of these barriers to business communication in turn...

Poor structure torepparttar 107979 communication ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The structure of a communication is an essential factor in how well a business communication is received by an audience.

It doesn't matter whether that audience is an audience of one or one million, good structure is essential if a communication is to be 'heard' amongstrepparttar 107980 advertising and marketing 'noise' of today's business environment.

So a poor structure to your message or delivery is therefore a major barrier to effective communication.

Weak delivery ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It doesn't matter how important or impressiverepparttar 107981 subject of your communication is, if you deliver it without any 'punch' you will not get as many people to take your desired action as you would like.

A weak delivery is likerepparttar 107982 very funny joke withrepparttar 107983 badly-told punchline --- it is not as funny or as memorable as you rememberrepparttar 107984 original to be.

It is important to not get confused between delivery and presenter. I know of one English businessman, Richard Branson, who is a shy and reticent public speaker. Yet I have seen audiences hang on his every word.

Branson may not be a powerful orator, but his message and its structure are very sound.

The use ofrepparttar 107985 wrong medium ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You have to announce a temporary hold on non-essential stationery spending in your department. How do you communicate this?

Believe it or not, I know of one company who were seriously considering holding a major public meeting about this, withrepparttar 107986 department head having to get up in front ofrepparttar 107987 entire department inrepparttar 107988 staff restaurant and explain why her staff couldn't order disposable fountain pens for a while.

I know of one group that were thinking of rolling out a small internal initiative via an expensive multi-media cd-rom, one to be given to each member of staff.

Inrepparttar 107989 first case a simple memo would have sufficed; inrepparttar 107990 second a simple announcement on their intranet would equally have gottenrepparttar 107991 message across.

Similarly, an advertising campaign on local radio would be a highly ineffective way of reachingrepparttar 107992 desired audience ifrepparttar 107993 message was complex and really intended for a narrow niche audience.

A public presentation, with 'obligatory' PowerPoint slideshow full of complex charts and data, would berepparttar 107994 wrong medium ifrepparttar 107995 message you were trying to communicate would be better served by a white paper, or some similar print-based format that allowedrepparttar 107996 audience to digestrepparttar 107997 complexities at their own pace.

A mixed message ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It is very hard for an audience -- whether an audience of 1 or 1 million -- to understand your communication if you unnecessarily obfuscate.

What?

If you deliberately, or otherwise, confuse them. A HUGE barrier to business communication isrepparttar 107998 ability of 'business-speak' to confuse and alienate its audience.

It does this in two ways:

1. By using terms and phrases that are 'jargon',repparttar 107999 meaning of which are possibly recognised but probably not fully understood

2. By trying to 'save time/paper' by rolling several different communication messages into one.

An example ofrepparttar 108000 latter is where a business communication mentions, inrepparttar 108001 one communication, two or more completely separate events. Such as, for example, a memo that talks about what management expect you to do to conform torepparttar 108002 latest departmental stationery budget cuts alongside an events list ofrepparttar 108003 up-coming staff picnic.

Another barrier arising from mixed messages is when a previously-held stance is lightly overturned to meet some political or business expediency, then upheld again.

An example of this would be whererepparttar 108004 acceptance of corporate gifts is not allowed, but then allowed if it a brand new client who has contracted a large amount of money to your business, then not allowed again afterrepparttar 108005 gift-giving and receiving season is over.

Or a company-wide budget cut that stops all business-class travel, butrepparttar 108006 very senior management are found to be travelling first class.

Be very careful of mixing your messages, as mixed messages are a very real barrier to effective business communciation.

Cont'd on page 2 ==>
 
ImproveHomeLife.com © 2005
Terms of Use