Emails That Get Action

I want to share some lessons I have learned about writing emails to influence people to take action. 

People are flooded with information and so much of it is junk.  We are training ourselves to filter out more and more because we are simply overwhelmed.  When we treat every email like it is a letter or a whitepaper, we run the risk of being filtered out.  Some people brag about not reading more than the first two sentences of any email.  When crafting an email, begin with the end in mind and be clear about what you want people to do with your email.  If it needs to be a formal communication, write your ‘letter’; if you want people to take action use a different approach: 

People notice the to:, cc: and bc:, they notice how many people are on the message distribution and they notice the order of the names.  Some pundits advise listing names in the to: and cc: in order of hierarchy putting the most senior person first.  If I am sending an FYI message, I follow that advice.  If I need action taken, I list the names in order of the people I most need action from (regardless of rank).  I only cc: people who need to be in the loop but from whom I require no action. 

Manage your distribution list very carefully.  For example: Let’s say you are in accounting, and it is timesheet week.  A reminder to everyone two days before the due date is fine.  When the deadline is a few hours away, only send reminders to people who have not yet submitted their timesheet.  Each subsequent reminder should only go to people who have not yet submitted.  Only copy their manager when the deadline has passed.  Yes, this might require some fancy spreadsheet skills, learn them!  Each time you remind people who have already completed a task that they need to complete a task, you are training them to ignore your messages. 

Take advantage of the subject line.  Use words like ‘ACTION NEEDED – blah blah’ or ‘FYI – blah blah’ or ‘FOR RECORD – blah blah’ in the subject line.  Include at least 1 keyword someone might use to search for the email. 

For supreme clarity.  Send a first message only to people who need to take action.  Put the subject first in the subject line and then add ‘ACTION NEEDED’, ‘XYZ – ACTION NEEDED’.  Then forward the message to the in-the-loopers with the same XYZ subject but change the ‘ACTION NEEDED’ to ‘FYI’ or ‘FOR RECORD’.  Advantages for you: This has an inbox management advantage because when you sort by subject you can group all responses from your action people a little separate from your in-the-loopers.  Advantages for your recipients: This expedites email review time and helps prioritization and time management. 

Restructure the body.  Try this structure in the body of the email: have a bullet for each action needed starting with the person’s name, the action, and the due date.  Reserve details for a — more information— section below the action list. 

Example: 

Subject: ACTIONS for Monthly Project Report 

Body 

Team, 

This month’s project report is due to the client Friday morning at 10am.  Please provide the following outstanding items. 

Danny: Progress Photos - noon Wednesday 

Jack: Open RFI List – Tuesday 5 pm 

Jack: Change Log – Tuesday 5pm 

Kenny: Issue final draft for review – Wednesday 5 pm 

---More Information--- 

Progress Photos – We need at least 3 pictures of current work in progress for each area and at least 1 picture showing work completed this month.  Each picture needs to be labeled with a location, description, date and time. 

RFI List – Include only open RFI’s and RFI’s due in the next 10 weeks.  List by due date. 

Change Log – Include only open items.  Group the list by first by approved changes and then potential change. 

The client gave us great feedback on last month’s report, let’s keep it up! 

As with everything, write emails with purpose and on purpose. 

Figure out what works best for you, your team, and your recipients. 

You may want to standardize one or more email techniques for inclusion in employee and/or team onboarding.