October 24, 2005

Making Even Basic E-mail More Effective

It’s no surprise that employees spend so much time reading e-mail—one to three hours a day, according to a survey by Information Mapping—or that they report most messages are poorly written, unorganized and contain no clear action steps. The surprising thing is that at least some of these confusing and useless e-mails are created by professional communicators, working on behalf of senior managers. How can we be part of the solution instead of part of the problem?

We’ve all had this experience: a senior manager asks for help drafting an e-mail message about a new program. Time is short, and the content is extensive. We end up writing a six-paragraph e-mail that, like the Eveready Bunny, just keeps going and going and going. It’s not badly written, but we know even while pressing the “send” button that it’s not effective.

What should we do differently? Here are five suggestions to make e-mails more useful:

• If you have time and resources to create a graphic e-mail, do so—A compelling design and layout are key to developing an effective message. Create a design that uses one to two simple graphics or images that support the message along with short, concise paragraphs and bullets. Use color and bold to highlight key points and active links. The e-mail should also be designed so recipients will see as much of it as possible within the viewing window. And test the e-mail to make sure links work and it meets the needs of your employees.
  
  
• Even in a text-only e-mail, include a succinct summary statement and navigation upfront—Much like the “inverted pyramid” format used for news articles, e-mail messages should contain the most crucial information right at the beginning. Furthermore, let people know what will be covered in the message (a bulleted list is fine) and make subheads throughout the message correspond to the list so people can quickly scan the message and find what they’re looking for.
  
  
• Use e-mail for big picture concepts— Most people won’t read a long, detailed e-mail message, which is why e-mail should not be used to outline every point of progress that’s been made against the corporate goals for the last six months. Instead, use e-mail to frame the big picture and give employees a link for more detailed information if they want it.
  
  
• Clearly outline required action steps—If readers are supposed to take action as a result of your message, clearly outline what it is. Too often action items are buried within messages.
  
  
• See if you can cut (even a little bit)—You already know that the ideal length for e-mail messages is a single screen or less, so that the user doesn’t have to scroll down. If your message is longer, start by looking at it closely to see if cutting is possible. If it’s absolutely necessary to write longer messages, at least make sure the rest of the message adheres to the other rules outlined above.