Give your emails some edge

We wake up to them, we sleep on them and always try our best to send them at the right time to the right people. We stress over when and where to send, respond, and analyze – it’s practically a never-ending cycle, and to say we’ve taken the everyday task of dealing with emails for granted is an understatement.

However, to underestimate the use of email as a professional skill would be undermining our potential as there is a way to not just make the receiver, but yourself potentially feel more confident and creative all-around.

Remembering the simple truth that words carry power will help to get you started. With this in mind the goal is not to transform your style or who you are, but to give your messages even more power with the press of your fingers!

Freshen them up

Regardless of what time of day it is, your email should never be too peppy, yet not too serious either. Depending on the subject’s nature, the goal is clear and concise, but with a few hopefully positive twists in between. Tell a joke, add a highlight about either yourself or them, pay a compliment; but only one of these per email, and try to switch them up with each conversation. 

Be conversational

A lot of the time emails come off as too short and basic so, consider adding some length. To do this, you could mention an area of your day or life that’s going well, or maybe needs improvement as long as it holds relevance to the conversation. One benefit from this is that it helps add to and show who you are, and in most cases, it can prompt your recipient to do the same. 

Work on the “what-ifs”

Channeling your thoughts as to how the other person may react can be productive, but only for so long. Instead of stressing about sounding completely right, remember your basic grammar lessons along with sentence structure. Some lines can be longer than others, and it helps if the smaller ones contain a big word or two. There is no basic rule of … thumb for a proper email, as long as it fits tried and true professional standards.

An email can never be perfect, but we must keep in mind that from the time we open our eyes to when our head hits the pillow, the things we type, even privately, hold effect days, weeks and even years later. 

The final message to send and receive is that adding edge to your emails not only makes you stand out but stand up in your overall presence. The next time your recipients check their inbox, these tips can ensure they’ll be intrigued to hear from you!

Written by Blog Contributor: Amber Chisholm