We love email — it’s quick and efficient, and is an incredible asset to businesses today as long as the power doesn’t go out! Here are a few things to keep in mind for making email communications even more efficient:
- Make your subject line mean something. We all get a lot of emails every day, and a descriptive subject line is important when you want your message to get attention over other messages the recipient deems less important. In addition, a subject line that includes the main topic of a message will be much easier to find in the future when you or your recipient needs to search for it.
- Refrain from replying to an old message when you are actually sending a new message. Replying to a message about “last week’s status report” when you’re really sending a new message about “important changes to the web site” can easily cause your new message to be overlooked. This goes back to the item above about subject lines… “Re: Status Report” seems much less important than “Important Changes for Web Site.”
- Use the “To:” and “Cc:” fields appropriately. The “To” field should be reserved for recipients who are directly affected by the message, or who may need to take action as a result of reading the message. The “Cc” field, on the other hand, is for those who only need to be aware of the message, and who are not expected to reply or take action.
- Use the “High Priority” feature sparingly, and only when truly needed to communicate an urgent issue. Individuals who always mark messages as “High Priority” quickly wear out their credibility and are less likely to have real “high priority” messages viewed as such. Using good, descriptive subjects are more effective in getting your message noticed when they are not true emergencies.
- “Reply to all” has its place. Avoid “replying to all” when you’re just sending a note back to the sender that nobody else needs to see. Your friends and coworkers will appreciate it.
- Set a schedule. If possible, try to set a schedule for reviewing your new messages — maybe every 2 hours, or 4 times a day. The point here is that you’ll be more productive if you don’t let every arriving email message take you away from the current task at hand.
- Sometimes a phone call beats an email. Not everyone checks messages as soon as they arrive, so if your message is truly urgent, it’s a good idea to follow-up with a phone call. In addition, some conversations are better had when you can hear the other party’s voice… for example, when talking to clients about their ideas for a creative concept, we can often have a 10 minute call to accomplish what could take 8 to 10 back and forth messages via email (saving both parties a lot of composing and reading time). In addition, not everyone expresses themselves well in email – so when your message could be misconstrued or you’re not understanding what the other party is trying to say, give ’em a call!
