10 ways to power up your email communication

10 WAYS TO POWER UP YOUR EMAIL

IMPROVE YOUR BUSINESS PERFORMANCE WITH EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION SKILLS

COMMUNICATION

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10 Ways to Power Up Your Email Communication 3

People send billions of emails every day.

A report by the Radicati Group estimated that 294 billion

emails are sent per day (2010). Not only are a lot of emails

sent, but these emails also contain a lot of information. An

overwhelming 87% of people use email to share information

(CMB Consumer Pulse Report).

No other means of sharing information even comes close.

Facebook is a distant second.


Business professionals deal with hundreds of emails each day.

Although email offers us an efficient way to send communications

to people without the need to coordinate schedules or set up

meetings, standard email often encourages misunderstandings.

“According to recent research published in the Journal of Per-

sonality and Social Psychology, I’ve only a 50/50 chance of ascer-

taining the tone of any email message. The study also shows that

people think they’ve correctly interpreted the tone of emails they

receive 90 percent of the time.”

Source: Stephen Leahy, Wired Magazine


Standard email is the communication

method that produces the most

misunderstandings. But why?


According to research by Justin Kruger and Nicholas Epley, it has

to do with our perception of recipient biases and the environment

in which we create emails.

When we create email messages, we assume that others think and

perceive things the same way that we do.

But emails are written in a vacuum without the benefit of interaction.

We are victims of our own thoughts without the benefit of sensing

the other person’s feelings and intentions, things we would typi-

cally recognize through body language, facial expressions and tone

of voice.

STANDARD EMAIL DISCONNECTS US FROM OUR RECIPIENTS.

Email generally suffers from lack of feedback. There is little give and

take to the conversation. Blocks of thoughts are created and sent, and

blocks of thoughts are returned.

Because there is no measurement of understanding, misconceptions

flourish and parties involved in the conversations become suspicious

of others’ intentions.

EMAIL COMMUNICATION IS MISUNDERSTOOD MORE OFTEN THAN FACE-TO-FACE MEETINGS OR PHONE CONVERSATIONS.

FACT:

Standard email accelerates the exchange of information but not always

the right type of information. It does not promote the positive social

bonds to get things done and disconnects us from our recipients.

So what do we do about it?

SO WHAT IS THE BOTTOM LINE?


Here are 10 ways you can power up your email communication.


CREATE CLEAR AND UNIQUE SUBJECT LINES1

The subject is the first thing your reader sees,

and it can provide substantial clues regarding

the content of your email and what action you are

expecting. Vague, nondescript subjects such as

“Hi” don’t help the reader understand what you

are trying to accomplish. Instead, do the follow-

ing 3 things:

#1 Connect your subject line to your mes-

sage. Save “hello” for the body of the email.

#2 Be specific. If you are setting a meet-

ing at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, include this infor-

mation in your subject line rather than just the

word “meeting.”

#3 Ask for the expected response. Do

you want someone to review a document or

RSVP for a meeting? State it in the subject:

“Please review” or “Please RSVP.”


BE EXTREMELY CIVIL AND OVERLY POLITE 2

It is easy to shoot an angry email to some-

one but so hard to reverse the damage that is

done. It is also easy to be perceived as being

uncivil when that wasn’t the intention.

Go the extra mile with a personal greeting,

“please” and a “thank you” in your email. It

will set the right tone for conversations. More

specifically, at the beginning of an email, write

“Hello Bill” or “Hi Angela” before diving into

the subject.

When asking for something, use “please.”

Yes, I know that it’s common sense, but it’s

also commonly forgotten. And don’t write in all

caps. It’s the equivalent of YELLING.

On those occasions when you really do feel

frustrated or angry, consider calling or meet-

ing with the person to discuss your differenc-

es. Email is not a good medium for resolving

conflict because it lacks social interaction.


SCHEDULE TIME TO RESPOND3Most people respond to incoming emails

within six seconds, less time than it takes for

the phone to ring three times. This creates

a huge disruption in productivity. Employees

will switch applications 30 to 40 times per

hour to view emails.

When you consider that it takes an average

of 64 seconds to recover your train of thought

after interruption by email, this is 20 hours of

wasted time every week!

Schedule time to respond to emails by set-

ting aside 30 minute blocks of time three

to four times a day. This will eliminate a lot

of the waste involved in switching between

tasks, and it will reduce the anxiety that sur-

rounds email for one-third of all people.

If you need to, remind yourself that email is

not your master. It is simply a tool to make

communication easier.


IMPROVE ENGAGEMENT WITH MULTI-MEDIA 4

If you have a critical message that needs to

stand out from the hundreds of emails bom-

barding people every day, you should consid-

er enhancing the delivery format beyond just

basic text to something more attention-getting.

Attachments and links to videos can provide

more explanatory power and make your mes-

sage more impactful.

We are a visual society that responds much

better to messages with multi-media compo-

nents, like videos, pictures, and surveys.

Your best options for engaging your readers

involve adding one or more visual stimuli to

your text. To put it simply, less words and more

visuals.


INCLUDE NON-VERBAL CUES 5Psychologists say that up to 50% of commu-

nication is non-verbal. If you like technology

and want to take your emails to the next level,

include a simple webcam video of yourself dis-

cussing the contents of your message.

Including video in your email lets recipients

see your body language and hand gestures,

as well as hear your tone of voice.

Instead of recipients having to guess about

your emotion or tone, they can see and hear

it.

Face-to face communication through video

eliminates the uncertainty and doubt about

your intentions. Your recipients will be able to

see if you are concerned or merely seeking

information, or if you’re serious or joking.


6 CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING

Creating and attaching surveys to your mes-

sages can provide you with valuable feedback

about comprehension. These surveys also

give you the opportunity to focus attention on

the right parts of the message.

There are also tools that let you gather indi-

vidual feedback or aggregate feedback from a

group and create reports.

The possibilities include:

• customer surveys

• training assessments

• team building

• compliance tracking

With this information you can send follow-up

emails to make sure that everyone is on the

same page.


7 USE MESSAGE CONTROL

Have you ever sent an email to the wrong per-

son? Or maybe you wished you hadn’t written

what you did. You’re not alone.

Unfortunately, with standard email there is no

way to get your message back or prevent the

recipient from seeing information not meant

for them. You can prevent this awkwardness,

though, if you use a system with message-

control features.

For example, Ving lets you edit or deactivate

parts of a message or an entire message with a

click of a button. If you forgot to include a docu-

ment or made a mistake in your text, you can

change it very easily with Ving.

In addition, a message may become dated and

unimportant over time. With a secure interactive

messaging system, you can “turn the message

off” so it doesn’t live forever.


8 According to “You Won’t Finish This Article:

Why people online don’t read to the end,”

most people read only 50% of an email,

webpage, online article, etc., before they

bounce to the next thing they have to read.

This implies that anything too long will just

be skipped, skimmed over, or ignored by

half of your recipients.

KEEP IT SHORT AND SIMPLE

Remove all unnecessary information to

keep your messages short and focused.

For example, if you ask about an update

on a project, mention it specifically. Don’t

ask “what’s going on with that proposal?”

Instead, write “please provide me with a

status update on the company proposal

we discussed on Thursday.”


9 CREATE AN EMOTIONAL RESPONSE

When communicating internally, you must

make your employees feel something. Emo-

tions sell. When people feel, they are more

likely to take action.

Take a great commercial, for example. Some

make you laugh and some make you cry. The

point is when you have an emotional connec-

tion you pay more attention to the message in

front of you.

Another way to create an emotional response

is to tell a brief story in your messages. Stories

have a way of stimulating the listener by al-

lowing them to mentally put an image in their

minds.

When employees are fully engaged with the

reason they are doing something, they become

more productive, accept change more easily,

and may even take on more responsibilities.


10 NEVER RELY JUST ON EMAIL ALONE

You have probably heard the old saying “nev-

er put all of your eggs in one basket.” This

applies to email, too. Never rely on just one

channel of communication to get your mes-

sage across.

If you’re communicating with your employ-

ees, for instance, never assume that they’re

on the same page with you because you sent

them that one email that one time.

When managers want to deliver important

messages, it’s important to deliver the same

message multiple times in different ways

(i.e. face-to-face meetings, video messages,

phone calls, memos)

Recent studies have shown that managers

who ask their employees to perform a given

task more than once are more successful in

completing projects.


Let’s review the 10 ways you can power up

your email communication.


The Top 101. CREATE CLEAR AND UNIQUE SUBJECT LINES

2. BE EXTREMELY CIVIL AND OVERLY POLITE

3. SCHEDULE TIME TO RESPOND

4. IMPROVE ENGAGEMENT WITH MULTI-MEDIA

5. INCLUDE NON-VERBAL CUES

6. CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING

7. USE MESSAGE CONTROL

8. KEEP IT SHORT AND SIMPLE

9. CREATE AN EMOTIONAL RESPONSE

10. NEVER RELY JUST ON EMAIL ALONE


About 50% of emails are misunderstood, and a little over 40% of corporate email is ignored.

Adding visual elements to your emails (like video messages or pictures) that include non-verbal cues decreases the pos-sibility for misunderstanding and confusion.

Standard email accelerates the exchange of information but not always the right type of information. It does not promote the positive social bonds to get things done and disconnects us from our recipients.

SOME KEY TAKEAWAYS

Standard email hasn’t evolved very much over the past 20 years, but now there are tools available that improve the way we exchange information with each other.

These cloud-based tools help your messages stand out from the crowd. Now you can create attention-grabbing messages and also receive data on recipient in-teraction.

Ving is an all-in-one communication tool that ensures your most important mes-sages are read, understood, and acted on.

With Ving, you create and share multi-media messages that capture real-time recipient interactions viewable on the engagement dashboard.

HR professionals use Ving to:

► Communicate policy updates ► Streamline onboarding

procedures ► Improve management

communications ► Increase employee engagement ► Boost compliance training

Try Ving for free!

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