Making Email More Effective

Email. It is an essential tool for communicating and simultaneously a pain to manage. We have all seen numerous articles that show that this is a significant source of frustration for people in all types of companies and industries. For those in the travel industry currently being inundated with "wave season" emails, keeping up is even more challenging.?

I want to share a few very simple ways to make email communication more effective. This isn't about all the marketing we receive in our inbox, but those day-to-day emails used to communicate with those we do business with.??

Good email communication is the responsibility of both the sender and the receiver. Without coherent copy responding is difficult. Without a good response, we end up in a back-and-forth email chain that frustrates everyone involved.?

When composing an email, there are a few key things to remember:

First, the subject line matters. It helps us prioritize what to open and allows us to find things later easily. I like to be specific with my email subject lines without telling the entire message.

I find a subject line like "Topics for Next Marketing Meeting" to be far more helpful than "Marketing Meeting" or just "Marketing."??

Second, make the content as easy to consume as possible. If you have three questions you need answers to, then make sure to bullet or number each item to make it clear. Before you click send, go back and reread what you wrote and make sure it is clear. Our brains move faster than our hands on a keyboard; sometimes, the message gets lost due to that delay.??

Finally, did you copy people who need to be copied and only those who need to be copied? There isn't one person in the workforce who says, "I really wish I got more email," so let's be kind and not fill up inboxes with unnecessary messages.??

Now, as the recipient of an email, you have a responsibility to consume what was sent to you. How many times have you emailed someone and asked three questions and gotten a response to one while the others have not even been acknowledged? Frustrating, right???

Before you respond to an email, please read it in its entirety. Don't just skim it or glance through it. Seriously, read the email from start to finish – and only then should you respond. After you write your reply, go back and review both your response and the original email to ensure you have covered everything. This will dramatically reduce that incredibly annoying back-and-forth email chain that makes everyone crazy.?

One of the reasons email responses are often incomplete is that people feel they must immediately respond to messages when they come in. When you are rushing through a task, you aren't going to do it well. That's when you go into skimming mode and don't fully comprehend what you received and, therefore, don't reply in full.?

So, remember that you do not have to respond to email the moment it comes in. Let me say that again. You do NOT have to respond to email the moment it comes in.

I am a strong believer in managing email in blocks of time. I do not have email notifications turned on that would show a preview when an email comes in. It completely distracts me from what I am doing and derails my thought process entirely. Instead, I get into my email and handle what needs to be handled right away and mark some things to handle later.??

At Gifted Travel Network , we use Teams for quick messages that need a timely response. This channel works much better than email for asking quick questions or something that needs a more immediate response.??

My next goal is to utilize AI to filter my email to better prioritize the messages I receive. If you found an AI tool you love, please share it in the comments below! Once I find a good one, I'll share it in a future article.??

While none of this is rocket science, I hope it is a good reminder of tips for effectively managing that beast that is our inboxes.