Although email writing isn’t the most exciting skill to learn for success at work, it is one of the most important. Much of the daily communication between employees, between employees and their managers, between employees and clients of services, and between employees and other people outside the workplace in relation to work in progress is conducted by email. As a result, employees in a wide variety of industries spend much of their day reading and sending messages of varying lengths.
A well-written email can be key to moving a project forward, clarifying a situation, and making a decision. Email can also help establish and build a good relationship with a client and make sure that no misunderstandings occur.
Good email writing is not about grammar. Rather, good writing means the writer has fully understood the reader and organized the message so action can be taken as efficiently as possible.
Clear Emails Make Work More Efficient
Second, clear emails make work more efficient. People receive a lot of emails every day, and few people have time to read between the lines and decipher long emails.
Looking at strong email examples on Really Good Emails can help you improve your own messages by showing how effective emails organize information, introduce the main point clearly, and guide readers toward the next step.
You can apply a clear structure and subject line to almost any professional email. This means the same principles you use for marketing emails also apply to updates to your manager, follow-up emails to clients, or even requests to other departments.
When an email is well written, the recipient will immediately know why they received it and what action they may need to take. They will also have the information ready to forward to someone else later, if needed.
Good Email Writing Builds Professional Credibility
In many situations, people first contact you by email. Therefore, emails can create a very good or a very bad first impression of you and your work. Your emails will shape how your coworkers, clients, and manager perceive you.
As long as an email is clear, organized, respectful, etc., it can leave a good impression. However, an email full of vagueness, extra information, confusing requests, etc. can create more problems than necessary in a given situation.
And a good writer never makes anyone read more than they have to. In terms of tone, emails can be informal; however, there is no excuse for poor writing or vague wording. Make sure that you are never ambiguous in your emails, and remember that they will be taken seriously.
This means that while formal emails suit proposals to new clients, updates to managers may need more context and should still be clear and organized.
Better Emails Reduce Misunderstandings
Most workplace problems stem not from big disagreements but from small miscommunications.
An unclear deadline, two people’s different understanding of who is responsible for doing a task, a client’s wrong interpretation of a request that the sender intended to be understood differently—these are only a few of the many simple problems in the workplace that can be caused by unclear communication.
Specific details about important information can prevent confusion. Using “soon” instead of a specific date can create confusion about when something will be completed. “Take a look” can also confuse because it’s unclear whether feedback, approval, or another action is required.
Similarly, include enough information to prevent ambiguity, but avoid excess information that distracts from the main message.
Email Skills Matter for Career Growth
The value of strong email communication increases as you progress in your career. Managers, team leads, consultants, and senior executives use email to communicate decisions, assign tasks, coordinate cross-functional teams, and connect with people they rarely meet in person.
As employees progress in their careers, written communication becomes even more important.
In addition, employees who maintain clear written communication are easier to work with. This means people who consistently share accurate information, ask the right questions, and reply to messages in a timely fashion.
While these habits may seem trivial at first, consistently following them can lead to numerous benefits, including coworkers knowing what to expect from you, you managing fewer clarification requests, and you providing consistent communication to your clients.
Email Writing Is a Skill Worth Practicing
Just because you use email all the time doesn’t mean you are getting better at writing it. Email writing is a skill you can develop with practice.
There are several simple things to check before sending off important emails. Is the purpose of the email obvious? Can you take out any excess words? Do others know what will happen next? Could other people misunderstand something that you’ve written?
Taking a moment to consider these questions before hitting send can dramatically improve your email communication.
Many simple communications happen via email. However, email is still one of the oldest digital communication channels in use today. Using email effectively in your professional career can save time and reduce stress, avoid misunderstandings, build better working relationships, and help others act on your ideas more easily.
Workplaces these days are busier than ever—and full of messages. So when you need to write an email, make sure you write a good one.