How to Laser Your Email Messages

If you're in business and use email, you've likely learned to KISS (keep it short & simple). However many people still think that writing an email should be like writing a letter to Aunt Sally. Letters are traditionally long and detailed. With email, however, you need to be laser-like, or risk losing your reader half-way through the first paragraph.

If you spend a lot of time with email like I do, you really appreciate emails that are short, to the point, and stick to one topic (this makes it easier to find the information later). Use plenty of white space to make the email easy to read. Do this by using short 2 to 3 sentence paragraphs, and keeping the length of the email to 4 or 5 short paragraphs. If you go much longer than that, it might be set aside for reading later.

It's also important to put some thought into your Subject line so that the recipient has a clue as to what the email is about. For example, rather than saying, 'I have a question for you', you could say, 'Question about our meeting tomorrow'.

Something else that can be very helpful when replying back and forth to emails is to change the Subject line if the subject changes from the original email. I've had a hard time finding an email by subject line when the person sending me the email replies to me and the topic we're talking about doesn't have anything to do with the Subject line any more.

And here is the most useful tip I can give about lasering your email messages. When having an email discussion, cut out parts of the email that no longer apply, and place your reply underneath the paragraph or sentence you're replying to. Here's an example of an email dialogue:

==========

At 10:36 AM 10-28-04 -07:00, you wrote:

>> Wow, I can't believe the leaves are almost completely off

>> the trees already! We're going to spend our weekend

>> raking...how about you?

The leaves have barely started turning colors here so I don't

think we'll be raking for a while.

>> In fact I'd like to go out to a movie this weekend but have

>> no idea what's playing. Any suggestions?

Do you like animated movies? I hear Shark Tales is pretty

good!

>> I'm looking for some quick and easy recipes that I can whip

>> up in a half-hour or so. If you have any web sites or

>> cookbooks you can recommend I'd appreciate it.

Check out Minute Meals (http://www.allfood.com/mmeal.cfm).

They have a quick and healthy section you might like.

==========

Pretty easy to read, isn't it? It's just like a conversation. You'll notice that each reply is listed directly under the original statement (which had been reduced down to only the message that needed to be responded to). Most email programs will automatically put the >> in front of the original email, so you can easily see who wrote what.

If you're a business user of email, I encourage you to sharpen your skills for sending and replying to email. It will save you time and energy so that you'll have more time for bigger and better things!

About The Author

Jean Hanson is a Certified Professional Virtual Assistant. Discover how partnering with a virtual assistant will give you more time to do the things you love to do! Visit her at http://www.vaofficesolution.com. Jean is also the author of the eBook, Virtualize Your Business - http://www.virtualizeyourbiz.com.

---

Taking Care of Busines... E-mail

In this digital day and age, communicating through email is... Read More

Email MarketingTips - 3 Reasons Why Business Must Use Email Communications

Whether a company sells light fixtures to large corporations or... Read More

8 Tips to Increase Response in Email

Opt in email marketing is no different than normal direct... Read More

Why Autoresponders Are An Essential Tool For Your Business

Did you know that one of the major purposes of... Read More

BlackList Monitor Gives Businesses Options to Ensure Opt-in Email Gets Through

Email may be fast becoming the preferred means of business... Read More

Opt-In Email to Increase Website Traffic and Boost Online Sales

Sending messages and information to people who have given you... Read More

Creating A Newsletter And Making Your Website Magnetic

Creating a newsletter is an ideal way to drive repeat... Read More

Should You Be Writing A Newsletter As Part Of Your Online Business?

Let's start at the beginning - why do you need... Read More

4 Tips On Taming Your Email

I remember when I was first introduced to email. I... Read More

People Accusing You of Sending sp*am? Five Email Marketer Must Know Tips

People tend to forget their subscriptions. Sometimes they don't even... Read More

Using Mirror Pages Effectively

Thought I would share with you a very effective technique... Read More

The Flu and List building Go Hand In Hand!

What does the flu have to do with building your... Read More

Are You Backing Up Your BIGGEST Asset?

Have you ever accidentally lost an important file on your... Read More

Three Steps To Building A 50K Email List In Less Than 90 Days

One major asset that every internet or affiliate marketer needs... Read More

Essential Rules For Effective Email Marketing

If you want an email campaign to succeed, you don`t... Read More

How to Choose the Autoresponder Right for Your Business?

Let's give a definition to autoresponder first. So, what is... Read More

An Aspirin or an Autoresponder!

Tired of silly old email enquiries? Say hello to autoresponders!If... Read More

Reports of My Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated -- Email Marketing

Recently, there has been a lot written about email and... Read More

Track Customer Response With an Autoresponder Service

Another powerful reason for making the switch from using the... Read More

Is Your Autoresponder Truly Promoting Your Company?

Getting other people to promote your web site is one... Read More

Email Laws That Could Bring You to Jail Even if Youre Not Spamming

First things first, I'm not a legal expert and so... Read More

The Gold Is In Your Mailing List

Let me ask you a question, "What is the most... Read More

Increasing Email Deliverability

Most email marketers know that it is important spam-check email... Read More

How To Avoid Having Filters Eat Your Emails

You've probably read 1000 times that "the money's in the... Read More

The Name Squeeze ? Should You? Shouldn?t You?

This is a little "beauty" of an idea if you... Read More

Click for Success!

Being online for the last five or so years has... Read More

How?s Your E-mail Etiquette

In a fast moving global economy, e-mail offers you the... Read More

Lesson #7: Three Extra Tricks That Can Boost Your Bottom-Line!

Let's recap what you've learned so far...In the first lesson,... Read More

Improve Newsletter Delivery with an Autoresponder Service

Another powerful reason for making the switch from using the... Read More

Improve Email Deliverability: 15 Tips for Email Marketing Success

Delivering email newsletters and sales messages to opt-in subscribers and... Read More

The 12 Most Common Newsletter Design Mistakes

Your newsletter's success depends on its design. An attractive, easy... Read More

The List Is The Thing

Many companies begin their online sales ventures with the wrong... Read More

How To Write E-mail Messages For Phenomenal Results

Would you be interested in getting 10 times better results... Read More