Email Tips

What makes an email effective? Let’s take a look at the key components.

TO, CC, & BCC

Who really needs to be on this thread? Adding an extra person or cc-ing an additional person can add weight and keep folks in the loop. It can also be seen as aggressive, so be mindful of who you bring into a thread.

Adding someone to bcc can also have a downfall if they accidentally reply all or don’t entirely realize that they are intended to be a silent observer in this conversation. When in doubt, write the email and create a separate thread sharing the content with your intended observers.

SUBJECT LINE: PUNCHY, INFORMATIVE + IMPORTANT

Think of the subject of your email as the most critical take-home message. Here are some typical subjects you might write:

  • Action needed: Please review doc by 5 pm today

  • Agenda items needed by Tues @ 9 AM

  • Introduction: Kate [VC firm] <> Bethany [startup co]

  • Can we meet today?

  • Pre-read materials for all-hands meeting 10/20

Busy people often sort emails by subject, so it’s helpful to summarize the most important message in your subject line. It also makes it easy for folks to flag the communication if they can’t get to it right away and manage themselves to get any action items completed on time.

GREETING

  • How formal do you need to be? If you’re not sure, “Dear [insert name], “ is pretty safe.

  • If are certain you don’t have to be formal, consider “Hi, [insert name,]

  • Make sure to spell names correctly, triple-check to make sure you know

  • Be careful with titles; if you’re not sure if someone is a Dr, Mrs, or Mr leave it out

  • It’s rude to skip the greeting and just get into the content unless you are back and forth on a thread already with someone. Even so, try to always respond with a greeting to keep it cordial and polite

CONTENT

Keep it brief

Try to be brief and succinct in your communication. The shorter the better. Feel free to link to docs or attach additional materials, but you’ll lose people if your email is too hearty or long.

Use formatting and white space

Try to make sure that if your email is more than a few sentences, you think about using bold headers, underline key dates, and use bullet points to call attention to key information. White space is a powerful tool to draw attention to whatever matters most.

  • Like this.

The white space helps that comment stick out, right? :)

Be thoughtful about your tone

Try to imagine the recipients reading your email. How would it feel to be on the receiving end of your communication? Strong language, capital letters, and punctuation can sometimes have unintended consequences. Check whether or not your message conveys the right feelings. If you are experiencing big emotions around the content, consider sitting with your email for 24 hours before sending it.

Make sure you’d be OK with your email being forwarded

It’s so easy to share emails. Before you send anything in writing, double-check that you’d be OK if an unintended audience were to read your message before you send it. If not, maybe pick up the phone and have a conversation instead.

Check for typos, accurate links, and mistakes

It can be helpful to read your emails aloud to see if you can catch mistakes before pressing send. For higher-stakes emails, consider asking a third party to read the email for typos before sending them. Whenever sending emails to a large group, try sending it to yourself as a test to check that all of the links go to the right places and that you’ve set the accessibility accurately for Google documents.

How to use calendar links gracefully

It can unintentionally come off as really rude or dismissive when you give important people your Calendly link for scheduling. Instead, try prefacing your calendar link with a message along the lines of:

“To simplify scheduling, here’s a link to my online calendar. Please let me know if there’s a better way to coordinate finding us a time to connect…”

It’s super efficient to share that calendar link, however, it can easily come off as “I’m more important than you,” which is absolutely not the message you want to give to VIP people like investors and board members. So, feel free to use it - with caution.

CLOSING

It’s polite to have a closing to your email. Consider one of the following:

  • “Best, “

  • “Cheers,”

  • “Sincerely,”

Make sure to have your name and signature set up so it auto-fills when you write emails. It’s helpful to link to your company website or as a refresher if someone forgets who you are.