Welcome to SpeakerSue's newsletter! Here's what you'll get:
- 8 critical tips for writing smart smartphone messages
- Shocking research on best days to email
- Non-shocking research on best time of day to email
- Short tweets, helpful twips
- Don't Kill Your Co-Worker! Play nice, with this email tip!
Tips to be smart on a smartphone
Even if you don't have the newest iPhone, you probably spend a ton of time emailing from your smart phone. Here are productivity tips to sound smarter:
- Write as little as possible. If you can just send a one - two sentence response and be done with it, do it. Other than that, have a standard response ready: Thank you for your email. If this is urgent, please let me know. If this can wait, I'll be back in the office (or, back to my laptop) at TIME, DATE and will respond then. Thanks!
- Avoid abrev. Texting or tweeting: Heard gr8 preso 2day, is fine, but definitely isn't appropriate in email. Even the most text savvy person can be stumped by some abbreviations, so why take a chance miscommunicating your message? (Did you know LOL can mean both laughing out loud and lots of love?) LOL
- Don't insult your reader. Adding a disclaimer like "This message has been sent from my iPhone. My apologies for brevity, typos or any spelling errors" doesn't excuse you. Being blunt, having typos or misspelled words is just rude, not because I'm Miss Manners but because it takes recipients longer to read — and figure out — your message. Respect their time by taking your time to make the message accurate. Respond with care. (Yes, people who know you may cut you slack but when your message is forwarded as part of a thread, you may be wishing you took a few extra seconds to write right.)
- Include all necessary info in signature line. Make it easy for your reader to find you. It's likely they're reading on their smartphone. Provide everything they may need to give you the result you want.
- Eliminate philosophy — no matter how green it might be. There are few things more irritating than having to read the writer's statement on life to get to important information. This includes all statements admonishing readers to consider the environment before printing. Who made you Al Gore? Do yourself and your recipients a favor and delete your favorite quote, aspirational thought or cute saying.
- Consider designing your message for smartphone use. My iPhone asks me if I want to download the rest of the message. Rarely do I touch the yes option. So send one message with just your message (ABC) and another with the subject line: Attachments for ABC. It will be easy for me to ignore the attachments while I'm on the run and easy for me to find them when I'm back in front of my computer. (Thank you, Guy, for this tip!) On the other hand...
- Paste the attachment into the email if it's critical for the recipient. Many times attachments are impossible to open, so, if it's important, instead of creating an attachment, paste it into the body of the email. It better be important to them, though, not just to you. (Thank you, Nikki!)
- Use a short, truthful subject line. Help me decide if I should read your message now (before they close the airplane doors) or if it can wait until later. Don't create disappointment (and ill will) by writing a subject line that overpromises the message content.
Are you reading my blog? Check out the post: The one most important thing you can do to sell more easily.
Shocking research on best days to email
With email, the research changes day to day. Last year, researchers said that Monday was the second worst day to email (Friday afternoon was the first worst). So, who would think that Monday now turns out to be one of the best days to get an email marketing message opened? According to eROI Marketing, Monday was the second best day in Q3 to send email. Everything depends on what you're selling, of course. (Are people dreaming about a weekend getaway early Monday morning? Maybe. It's more likely though they're busy with work Monday morning, and that your message will be more powerful, Wednesday.) But don't avoid Monday anymore because "no one opens marketing messages on Monday." Seems like they do. But the best day? Wednesday. For now.
Non-shocking research on best time of day to email
Open rates increase as the day progresses. This makes perfect sense. Time management experts advise people to avoid opening any email before they get their "A" work completed. And even those of us who can't help but check first thing (okay, even before brushing our teeth) won't open non-essential stuff until most of the "A" stuff is done.
Don't Kill Your Co-Worker! Play nice, with this email tip!
The biggest problem with email is that readers filter whatever the sender writes through their own context. Cubemates fight, friends wonder, customers bail and bosses explode not because of what the sender intended to say, but because of how the reader understood the sender's words. The next time you read an email that seems like the writer is from Uranus, be curious. Give him/her the benefit of the doubt by taking a moment to think about why a normal, decent human being would write what you think s/he wrote. Is there the possibility you are misinterpreting the words? If you still can't find an alternate intent, then email (or better, phone) and say: Hi Name, I'm wondering what you meant by ... because I think I'm misunderstanding it. Then, be quiet and wait for the response. See, we really can all get along!
Want your entire team to learn how to communicate more professionally, productively and in a more civil manner? Attend: Don't Kill Your Co-Worker!: How to use email to play nice and get brilliant results.
Or, I can create a program just for your department or organization. Using your own group's email examples (cleaned up to protect the guilty!), I'll design a program to show them how easy it is to reframe messages to get better results, and make the work day more productive, more professional and nicer, too. Call us today: 480-575-9711 or email Kristin@SpeakerSue.com.
All the best,
Sue
Sue Hershkowitz-Coore
480-575-9711
You have our permission to copy the information contained here only as long as you give us proper credit and copyright. Please include this in entirety: “Copyright @2010. High Impact Presentations. For more information, contact Sue Hershkowitz-Coore at 480-575-9711 or visit www.SpeakerSue.com.” If you’d send us a copy or a link, that would be wonderful, too.
Webinar
Don't Kill Your Co-Worker!:
How to use email to play nice and get brilliant results
Day: Tuesday, August 10
Time: Noon – 1:00p PDT
3 – 4p EDT
Short tweets, helpful twips: @SpeakerSue
How to write an email that will impress your boss http://speakersue.com/blog/
about 8 hours ago via Tweetie for Mac
"Have a nice day" isn't selling. End w/ reason that matters to recipient not a cliche. How to begin... http://bit.ly/atB9jr
June 16, 2010 10:47:36 AM MST via Twitter for iPhone
Gold is in the follow-up! RT @susanroane It’s up to you to get clients thinking about you between orders. (cont) http://tl.gd/1vaoue
Want to save up to 80% of the time you now spend writing? Plan it. Do it. Check it. (Plan outcome. Then write. Edit last.)
10:45 AM Jun 12th via Twitter for iPhone
Email mastery: Think MBA: My purpose for writing, Benefit to the recipient, Action required. Focus on the last 2 to accomplish the 1st.
10:51 AM Jun 3rd via Twitter for iPhone
What conversation aren't you having? It's up to you to stop making it okay for others to take advantage of you.
6:08 PM Jun 2nd via Twitter for iPhone
Well-crafted emails are quick & easy for recipients to read & make clear the action they should take.
1:03 PM Jun 2nd via Twitter for iPhone
RT @spokanecharlot: important from @speakersue @mpiwsc"when composing an e-mail, its not about you, its (cont) http://tl.gd/1gonrs
Relevance and Authenticity. The new black.
10:43 AM May 24th via Twitter for iPhone
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