How long do you generally spend reading a business email?
When I pose this question to Worktalk Email Effectiveness program participants, responses run from five seconds to one minute. This is sobering. Remember that long email you struggled to compose? Odds are that it was skimmed for a few seconds before the reader moved on to the next priority.
Given the fleeting opportunity to engage your readers to open your emails, you must take advantage of the subject line. This is the first path to persuading readers to open your email and give it their time.
Here are five tips from the Worktalk Email training that will help you write subject lines that do the job.
- Use the Three P’s to hook the reader’s attention.
The Three Ps are purpose, person, and point. Before you write, ask yourself, “What is my purpose? Am I informing, persuading, or requesting?” Then, analyze your reader and their inner questions. “What person is reading this, and what does that person need to know?” Finally, clarify your point before you start to write. This will prevent you from rambling.
So, if you’re writing to request a meeting that will enable you to confirm the budget for an important project, you might say:
SUBJECT: Available to meet to finalize the Q3 2024 budget?
This touches on your purpose – requesting a meeting, your person – who wants to finalize the budget, and your point – the basic request.
- Change the subject line when you change the subject.
People rely on subject lines to help them keep track of various topics. If you change the topic three emails down in an email chain, you will be hard-pressed to pick up the thread. Just start a new email or subject line when you change the subject. Remember, it’s free!
- Never leave the subject line blank.
In my email training, I have met many people who automatically delete emails with blank subject lines. Either they figure it is spam, or they are so annoyed that the writer did not respect them enough to take a few moments to state the subject of the email that they are just not interested.
That position may be extreme, but leaving the subject line is a mistake because it squanders your opportunity to hook your reader’s attention.
- Be straightforward, not witty or cute.
The days of cute subject lines are over. Cute, witty emails are likely to backfire. Readers are overwhelmed with emails and just want to know what you want from them..
So rather than writing:
SUBJECT: Hey! Gotta minute?
Follow the next tip…
- Give the essential message in the subject line.
Using the Three P’s, you will succeed at writing your essential message that aligns with your reader’s interests.
Are you requesting action? Say so, and specify the action. Are you sharing a topic of crucial interest? State it in terms that will resonate with your reader. Do you want to confirm a lunch date? Just state your point.
Sharing the essential message in the subject line enables your reader to make an informed decision about whether and when to open your email.
Call Worktalk When:
- Companies lose customers due to poor messaging from sales and customer service teams;
- Clients complain about communication from professional service firms’ staff members;
- Employees need to humanize the output of AI-assisted writing programs so it doesn’t sound fake;
- Employees need help developing the right prompts for AI-assisted writing programs to generate more effective outputs;
- Employees waste time repeatedly emailing one another because their messages are unclear.
Contact Worktalk today. Click here.
Click here to read more blog posts on emails.
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