What do you do if your emails are too long and confusing?

Crafting clear and concise emails is essential in corporate communications. If you find your emails are too lengthy and perplexing, consider these strategies: a)Simplify Content: Identify the primary message you wish to convey. Strip away extraneous details and focus on what’s truly important. Use short sentences and paragraphs. b) Organise Thoughts: Structure your email logically. Introduce the main idea, followed by supporting points, and conclude with a clear call to action. Utilize subheadings and bullet points to break down complex information. c) Be Concise: Review your draft and eliminate redundant words. Use active voice for directness. d) Use Visuals: Words sometimes are not enough. Use visuals to convey complex information.

If your emails are too long and confusing, aim for clarity and conciseness. Start by defining the main purpose of your email in one sentence. Use bullet points or numbered lists to organize information. Break text into short paragraphs, each covering a single topic. Include a clear call to action, specifying what you need from the recipient. Before sending, review your email to remove any unnecessary details, focusing on essential information. Use simple language and avoid jargon. This approach ensures your emails are straightforward, enhancing readability and response rates.

Always think of emails as stories to engage your audience. When presenting a new product, first show why it was developed and how it is connected to the company's values and strategy, giving it a bigger meaning. Then present what the product is, what it will improve and finally what the desired outcomes are. Always remember to follow the other steps of being concise, using visuals resources and simple language.

Seventeen milliseconds is the time we take to decide whether we'll continue reading the email, post, or video on our screen, and if we realize that this content doesn't please us, we move on to the next. This information is from the book "Smart Brevity," which I highly recommend for cases like these, where professionals need to develop the skill of being more concise. Understanding that communicating effectively and getting straight to the point is a sign of respecting the other person's time changes our perspective on communication in all formats and platforms. When writing emails, it's essential to remember your main message, why it's important, how it will work, and what will come next.

On average, a person receives more than 100 emails per day. While infographs are a great way to stand out, it's important sticking to follow some design fundamentals so you don't end up with an overwhelming amount of fonts, colors, and images. Another strategy is to build an attractive CTA that leads to a video or landing page where more visual tools can to be deployed.

After writing your email, revisit it as the reader. Everything you want to convey needs to fit into the dimensions of your computer screen - without having to scroll. Does the most information and call to action pop? If not, edit the text down to get rid of filler words and phrases and unnecessary details. Instead use bullet points and links to resources that the reader can optionally navigate to. If possible, avoid sending long email chains that require endless scrolling. Instead, summarize it in your email or highlight the portions of the trail that you want to draw attention to.