Email communication is key in a fast-paced life, and the task of convincing an unscheduled person to get back to you can be a challenge. Even if you’re addressing a colleague, a client, or an interesting partner, busy individuals find it hard to keep up with their overcrowded inboxes. It causes stress, misrepresentation, and squandering opportunities. In this post, we’ll cover some simple but powerful tricks to increase the likelihood that even the busiest people will respond.
Understand Their Lifestyle
Before you even write your email, consider how the recipient lives and works. The hectic individuals typically hold several tasks at their fingertips and do not have time to answer every email. Knowing their habits will help you personalize your strategy.
1. Study Their Timetable: Understanding your target’s timetable is where you begin. Start with careful observation. Social media like LinkedIn or even the individual’s company website can reveal a great deal about their everyday habits. Ask yourself these questions:
Do they tend to read material during certain days of the week?
Are they more likely to respond to emails at the start of the morning or at the end of the afternoon?
For instance, if you see that a sender typically publishes a post or comment on LinkedIn on a weekday morning, this may mean that they are more open to emails in that time. By knowing your recipients, you can design a strategy that shows an appreciation of their internal working schedules, bringing you closer to them and giving you more opportunity to connect.
2. Timing: Once you have a rough sense of their schedule, it’s important to decide when to send your email. Boomerang’s research shows that emails sent between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. weekdays get more responses than those sent later in the day. It falls around the time of most people’s morning work schedules.
Using time zones will also increase your chances of landing them. If your email receiver works in a different time zone, think about it and schedule your email accordingly.
Craft a Compelling Subject Line
A good subject line is everything, in many cases the subject line is what opens or unopens your email.
3. Keep it Short: Aim for a concise subject line. People are too busy to read your emails. Don’t write long sentences, just get to the point and state what the email is about. “Quick Question About Our Meeting,” for example, is easier to implement than “Question Regarding Our Next Meeting.”
4. Insist on Urgency: If needed, add an element of urgency in order to evoke an action. Writing “Response Needed By Wednesday” for example, will ensure a faster response.
Write a Clear and Brief Email
When someone opens your email, you have to entice the reader in short order.
5. Be Direct About Your Purpose: Your opening line of email should be setting the stage for the whole thing. Instead of engaging with banal greetings, get right to the mission of your message. For example, instead of saying “I hope this email is going well”, think about an introduction such as “I’m emailing you in reference to a project deadline.” This short-form format works for those on the go and are looking for clarity and exactness.
6. Bullet Points: If your email asks the reader to think about several things, bullet points present the information in a straightforward manner. This design makes the email faster and digestible and enables the reader to pick out important points at a glance.
7. Spare a Word: Attempting to keep your email short and sweet can have significant benefits. To keep the reader interested, keep your message under 100-150 words. This structure ensures that your email does not come across as overwhelming, which increases your chance of getting a reply.
Include a Call to Action
One of the most common email pitfalls is not placing a call to action.
8. Be Clear About What You’re Going To Expect from Them: Be specific about what you expect of them. It could be something as simple as “Could you please confirm your availability for a meeting next week?” to “Please let me know your thoughts on the attached proposal.” It helps to eliminate uncertainty and make sure the recipient knows what is expected of them.
9. Give Alternatives: When you’re asking for a meeting or a response, give two or three choices for times, dates or responses. This isn’t only because it will be easier for the recipient to reply, but also because you’ve taken their time into consideration.
Follow Up Politely
E-mails sometimes slip through the cracks, particularly in a crowded inbox. If they follow up respectfully, this can serve as a reminder.
10. Give It Time: Allow the recipient a proper period of time to respond (usually a week) before following up with an email. It’s a gesture of patience and appreciation for their busy life.
11. Write a Warm Reply: Your reply should be warm and informal. Say that you wanted to check in on your earlier email and reiterate your need and apologize that they are already working.
12. Speak Positive: Your voice is your voice. A positive, optimistic message will elicit a more positive response than a short, strident one.
Utilize Technology Wisely
The tech world provides different tools and strategies to improve email communications.
13. Email Schedulers: Use email scheduling tools such as Boomerang or FollowUpLater to schedule emails when you want them to be delivered. There are studies which show certain hours are the best for response so use these tools to your advantage.
14. Use Reminders: You can set reminders for yourself to follow up if you don’t receive a response. By taking advantage of the reminder functions that tools provide, you can make sure your communication is never interrupted and you don’t look so frantic.
Know When to Move On
It is about knowing when to continue speaking, and when to withdraw.
15. Recognize Instability: If two or three contacts have not returned your call, you may want to stop the contact for a while. Emailing constantly can be irritating rather than productive.
16. Explore Other Options: If the person has continued to remain silent, try looking elsewhere (social media or business networking sites) where they are more involved.
Conclusion:
It doesn’t have to be challenging to convince people to answer your emails. If you learn their lifestyle, develop engaging subject lines, create succinct emails, and respond politely, then you can optimize your email marketing performance. By utilizing technology and knowing when to let go, you can fine-tune your process even more.
Just remember, your objective is to make their response easy. With these strategies, your harried clients can not only respond more readily, but are also more responsive to the conversations you begin. At the end of the day, good email writing is not a mere aptitude but a pathway to long-term business connections.
