Crafting Email Messages that Get Read

“If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.”

Mark Twain?

Although scholars may debate whether or not Mark Twain wrote, “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter” more than 150 years ago, the sentiment still stands on its own: It can be time-consuming to craft engaging and compelling messages. Writing out an important communication is only the first step. It’s the crafting that happens during the editing process that is key to productive communications.

Messaging comes at us from all angles in the form of push notifications, signage, voice mail, social media, chatbots, meetings, phone calls and more – all day, every day. But email continues to prevail in the category of “overload.” It has been generally recognized that the first electronic mail was sent in 1971 and by the ’80s its success prompted many software providers to offer email features to their established platforms.

Email (as it became known) was welcomed as an efficient new communications tool, at least until the birth of the unavoidable and repetitive nuisance now known as “spam” in the mid-1990s. Faced with this new threat, users flocked in earnest to programs that would block this content, yet there still seems to be too much email that makes it through.

As a result, our human filters are now more apt than ever to briefly scan and hit the delete button, or simply ignore and delete the message without ever reading the content.

So, where does this leave us in the private club industry, when we’re regularly using email to communicate important information to members, boards and committees, and even our associates? We certainly can’t stop using it, but we can hone our craft to help ensure that more people read our messages.

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??????? Use empathy. Research has shown that we are less persuasive via email than we think we are, because of its lower “compliance effect.”

By its very nature, email is missing the crucial nonverbal cues like body language, facial expressions and inflection that are normally present in face-to-face communications.

These cues help us build trust and empathy, which in turn helps us to influence others to engage with and respond to our messaging. If we shift our paradigm to using email as a two-way dialogue, it forces us to think about engagement. We’re often so focused on pushing out a message that we neglect to consider how it will land for the receiver. Recipients are more likely to read a message (and do what we’re asking, such as take a survey, join a club, follow a rule, book a reservation, etc.) if it conveys a win-win where something is in it for them.

??????? Don’t muddle and meander. In dissecting the typical email, it usually becomes evident that the key message could have been communicated in at least half the words. And, by the way, although AI could be credited with improving the overall quality of what we read, it has also contributed to the addition of even more unnecessary words.

So, just get to the point. Taking the time to edit out what you don’t need will make what remains even more memorable.

??????? Articulate your objective(s). Use concise sentences and end your message with a clear and specific desired next step. “Let me know if you’d like to discuss” is not as clear as “Are you free at 2 p.m. to discuss?”

??????? Spam filtering. If you’re unusually challenged by undelivered messages, it wouldn’t hurt to remind recipients how spam filters work. Anti-spam regulation has been a good thing in so many ways, but one “unsubscribe” will block your messages forever, even if the receiver didn’t intend to do that.

??????? Is email the right channel? Before pushing send, consider whether or not email is the best way to deliver your message. Would it be more productive to deliver it another way, or at least supplement it with additional channels?

??????? Layer your strategy and market it. Send a summary reminder of the multiple channels within your strategic communications program at least two or three times a year. This keeps the various channels top of mind and empowers members to seek out the information “they didn’t know about” on their own.

Following these guidelines and best practices will not only result in a shorter letter. It should also make your email messages easier to read and more compelling and effective overall.

Julia Kelly is vice president of sales and marketing for Troon and focuses on the private club portfolio. She can be reached at [email protected].