Subject: 5 Ways to Improve E-mail

Rethinking how you and your business handle e-mail can mean increasing productivity and improving communication for all involved

by Carmine Gallo

If you're the average business person, you slog through more than 100 e-mail messages a day. Most e-mails are long, confusing and often incomprehensible. Kevin Ryan, author of Write Up the Corporate Ladder, teaches business professionals to write e-mail messages that are more likely to be read. Recently, Ryan shared tips with me that go beyond the typical "rules" governing e-mail use.

1. Break It Up

According to Ryan, breaking up anything you write—from a one-paragraph e-mail to a 30-page annual report—makes it easier for your reader to comprehend. Many business writers overlook using subheads, bullet points, numbers, paragraph breaks, and other techniques to create white space that allows a reader's eyes to rest and absorb information in easily digestible bites. Here is an example of an e-mail that is easy to read because it incorporates these elements:

Hello Team,

I look forward to meeting with each of you at the sales conference next month in New York.

Please be prepared to discuss:

•Your role in last quarter's planning session

•Three new ideas for this quarter's planning session

•One or more ways to reduce overhead

•One or more ways we can increase customer satisfaction

Working Dinner

We will also hold a dinner just for our sales team at a new French restaurant that comes highly recommended, so please pack formal wear. Our CEO also will be attending this dinner, so prepare a three- to five-minute presentation summarizing what you did to improve sales last quarter. Send me a memo outlining your presentation by the end of next week.

Reports Due

As a reminder, I need your monthly reports by this Friday.

Looking forward to seeing you all again in New York.

Best, [name goes here]

2. Write Like a Reporter

In journalism school, I was taught to cover the "who," "what," "where," "when," "why," and "how" questions in every story I wrote. Ryan recommends that you begin your e-mail by answering only the questions that apply to what you are trying to communicate and then stop writing! For example:

Please delete the planning meeting in the second-floor conference room on May 23 at 1:30.

In this case, the "who" is covered because only the meeting attendees received the e-mail. "What" refers to the planning meeting. "Where" is the second-floor conference room. "When" is answered by the date and time, and the "how" is simple—delete it. Once the questions are answered, there is no need to continue writing. Just stop.

3. Establish E-mail Protocols

When Ryan asks his workshop attendees for the source of their frustration, the vast majority blame internal e-mail communications. Many companies find that establishing e-mail protocols helps everyone communicate more effectively. Here are some examples of company-wide protocols:

•The subject line must contain the acronym NAR (no action required) or AR (action required) along with a very specific main topic about the content

•Use "Reply All" only when necessary

•E-mails should not exceed 100 words (if a reader wants to know more, she can ask)

•Reread your finished draft at least once for clarity, grammar, and spelling

•No unnecessary e-mails (e.g., "Hey, thanks!")

•E-mail-free Fridays. This means you must pick up the phone or speak to your colleague in person

4. Begin with the Results

Most people want to hear the results first, but when we write, most of us tend to build up to the punch line. Ryan suggests we write the results first. For example, begin an e-mail with "Last quarter, sales were XYZ…" and then offer the details. This makes the information easier to digest and easier to retrieve later.

5. Use Replies as Your Cue

The informality of e-mail communication has contributed to a decline in clarity. Comprehension suffers when e-mail correspondence begins to look like cell-phone text: Shorthand acronyms (BTW for by the way), improper capitalization, and incomplete sentences all create unnecessary frustration for the reader. We all know that e-mail communication can be informal, but Ryan suggests making the first e-mail correspondence to a new client, vendor, or colleague formal. Once the initial e-mail is sent, gauge the formality of the relationship based on the first reply. If a client writes, "Dear Mr. Gallo—" and signs off "Sincerely yours," then that should be my cue that a more formal conversation would be welcome.

One final piece of advice. It's O.K. to write a one-sentence e-mail. For reasons neither Ryan nor I can explain, many people feel as though they must write more than that. Maybe they think longer e-mails will make them sound more intelligent. Who knows? But one thing is clear—if you want your e-mails to be read and understood, keep them short!

Carmine Gallo, a business communications coach and Emmy-Award winning former TV journalist, is the author of 10 Simple Secrets of the World's Greatest Business Communicators and Fire Them Up! He writes his communications column every other week.