How to Improve Your Email Writing

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Email is a critical tool in the modern workplace. Writing straightforward, concise, and compelling emails is essential when communicating with colleagues or customers.

Fortunately, you can use a few simple tips and tricks to improve your email writing instantly. In this article, we’ll share seven tips to help you get better results from your business email communications.

Know You Audience

No matter how good your message is, it won’t mean much if you don’t know your intended audience. So before you even begin writing the email, take a minute to consider who you are sending it to – is it your coworkers? A client? Prospective customers? 

Understanding who you’re writing for helps ensure that you write in the right tone and style, use appropriate language, and include any necessary context or explanation your recipient needs. It also helps significantly reduce the likelihood of misunderstandings and miscommunication. 

If your intended audience is broad and diverse, aim to write to the lowest common denominator. Stick to words everyone can understand, avoid jargon and industry-specific terms, and be as concise as possible.

Keep Email Short and Sweet

It’s not always easy, but keeping emails concise and to the point is essential for effective communication. By writing short, straightforward emails, you can get your point across and get a response much faster. That’s not to say you can’t briefly explain or provide additional context – just make sure it’s necessary. If it doesn’t enhance your message, don’t include it.

Bulleted lists are another great way to organise information while keeping your email brief. Also, keep your email in the range of three to five sentences. That way, it’s not so short that the recipient doesn’t understand what you’re asking, but it’s also not so long that they get distracted by vast amounts of detail.

Get to the point

When it comes to emails, people don’t have time to read countless paragraphs to get to the core of the message. Start by clearly stating what you need using active language. Clearly define your objective and the action item you need from the recipient near the beginning of the email. In short, avoid making your readers hunt for what you’re trying to say or forcing them to read the entire email to understand your point. 

To improve your email writing, it would help if you avoided long-winded introductions. Instead, jump directly into the subject and get to the heart of your message. Stick to one central point and make it as unambiguous as possible. 

Use Simple Language

No one wants to decipher complicated, convoluted sentences to understand what an email is about. So keep your writing as clear and straightforward as possible, avoiding complex language and jargon. You don’t need to limit your vocabulary to the most basic words, but don’t try to sound overly sophisticated. Instead, stick to easy-to-understand terms that anyone can comprehend, regardless of their level of understanding. 

Structure Your Email

Every email should have a well-defined structure to help your recipient understand your message. For example, after your introduction, include a short paragraph that outlines what you need from the email recipient. This will help them quickly understand what action you need from them. 

Next, provide some supporting detail if necessary. This could include examples, diagrams, images, or anything else that helps explain or illustrate your point. For instance, if discussing a timeline, have a visual representation of it in the email. 

End your email with a conclusion. Summarise your point and let the recipient know what action you need from them or the next step. 

Edit, Edit, Edit

Once you’ve completed writing your email, it’s time to edit. 

Read your email to ensure it’s clear, concise, and easy to understand. Look out for any typos, spelling mistakes, or grammatical errors. Spellcheck if necessary – it only takes a few minutes and can make a big difference in how your email is perceived. 

It would be best to double-check that you’re addressing the right person and using the correct tone and style appropriate for your audience. Finally, it’s always a good idea to read your email (out loud is best) before sending it. You will be amazed by the issues and errors you pick up simply by listening rather than reading.

Use Email Templates

Finally, email templates are great at saving time and improving your emails. A template is a pre-made email or series of emails you can customise for a given situation. Templates are great for emails you send out frequently, such as onboarding emails or customer service responses. You can create a template for these emails once and save it for later use. 

Having templates on hand makes it easy to compose emails quickly and consistently. You can also use templates to write emails ahead of time and schedule them to be sent at a specific date. 

Conclusion

These seven tips should help you instantly improve your email writing. By taking the time to consider your audience, using simple language, getting to the point, and using templates, you can ensure that your emails are effective and well-received. With practice and dedication, you’ll be writing great emails in no time!