Practical Advice: How to Write Email

by lisa ~ June 18, 2009

I believe being a good writer is like being a good singer or a good neurosurgeon: It’s an innate talent. Training will help perfect your craft but no amount of coaching will turn someone’s who’s tone deaf into Audra McDonald.

But practical advice of the type contained in a BusinessWeek special report on managing a virtual workforce can help everyone. In fact, email is one of the building blocks of business today, even more so than PowerPoint and business plans. In the section titled “How to Create E-Mails That Generate Action,” author Stacey Hanke provides real-world ideas that are applicable to everyone from CEOs to administrative assistants.

“When face-to-face communication isn’t an option, your words and the structure of your e-mails need to be effective and powerful,” she wrote. “The challenge is getting your reader to open your message, read it, and take action.”

She provides four useful tips for writing actionable emails. The last one may be the most important: “Create your message with a clear, concise objective. Structure your message in a way that immediately communicates your purpose, action, and benefits.”

Many flacks are former journalists (myself included), who learned to write in the inverted pyramid style. They also learn to find the news and write a good lead, which makes pitches so much more effective.

For those who don’t have a journalism background, taking Hanke’s advice to heart will help enormously.

To read the full BusinessWeek article, “How to Create E-Mails That Generate Action,” click here.

Lisa Tibbitts is a former journalist who morphed into a corporate communications professional with an MBA in marketing. Follow her on Twitter: http://twitter.com/FinancialPR.

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