Emails that get answered

The email that receives no reply generally failed for identifiable reasons, and almost all of them are about how it was written rather than about the recipient.

The subject line

Which determines whether it is opened and when.

State the content and any action: "decision needed by Friday: supplier choice" rather than "quick question" or "catching up".

Include a deadline where one exists.

Be specific enough that it can be found again in a search six months later.

Avoid urgency markers unless genuinely urgent, since they lose their force.

And change the subject line when a thread changes topic, which people rarely do and which makes threads unfindable.

The first line

Which is read in the preview.

State the request or the point immediately.

Not "I hope you are well" followed by three lines of context and then the request in the fifth paragraph.

The recipient should know what you want before deciding whether to read the rest.

And where the email is a reply, state what you are responding to, since the recipient has no memory of the thread.

Being specific about the ask

The most common failure.

"Let me know your thoughts" produces silence, because it requires the recipient to work out what response would be useful.

"Can you confirm whether option B is acceptable, by Thursday" produces a reply.

State: who needs to do what, by when, and what happens if they do not.

Where several people are copied, name who is being asked, since a request to a group is a request to nobody.

And ask for one thing, since multi-part requests receive partial responses.

Length

Shorter than feels sufficient.

Most emails can lose half their words.

Detail belongs in an attachment or below a clear summary.

Long emails receive delayed responses, since they are deferred to a moment that does not arrive.

And a long email asking a short question is the worst combination.

Structure

For anything beyond a few lines.

The request first.

Context second, and only what is needed.

Detail below that, or in an attachment.

Bullet points for anything enumerable.

Bold for the deadline and the action, sparingly.

And white space, since a solid block of text is not read.

Tone

Which is easily misread.

Email strips tone, and brevity reads as brusqueness to some recipients.

Which means a small amount of warmth is worth its length: a greeting, an acknowledgement, a closing line.

Avoid sarcasm and irony entirely, which do not survive the medium.

Avoid excessive apology, which weakens the request.

And read anything sensitive as though you were the recipient in a bad mood, which reveals most of the problems.

Following up

Which is legitimate and frequently avoided.

A single polite follow-up after a reasonable interval is normal and expected.

Reply to your own message rather than sending a new one, so the context is present.

Restate the request and the deadline briefly.

Do not apologise for following up.

And if a second follow-up produces nothing, change medium or accept the answer, since a third email will not work.

Recipients

Where thought is required.

The people who must act are in the to field.

The people who need to know are copied.

Everyone else should not be there, since unnecessary copying produces the volume that makes email unusable.

Reply-all only where everyone genuinely needs it.

And blind copying is generally best avoided in professional contexts, since it is read as concealment when discovered.

When not to send an email

Worth knowing.

Anything sensitive, emotional or likely to be misread — which should be a conversation.

Anything that has gone back and forth more than twice, which indicates the medium is wrong.

Anything written while angry, which should be drafted and left overnight.

Anything that requires discussion rather than a decision.

And anything you would not want forwarded, which is the general test.

Managing what arrives

Briefly, since it affects what you send.

Batch processing at set times rather than continuously, since interruption is the main cost.

Replying briefly, which sets the norm.

Being explicit about response times.

And declining to be copied on threads that do not require you, which is a request people rarely make and which usually works.