6 Tips To Keep Your Fears From Holding YOU Back - to Make Email Work For You In 10 Minutes
6 Tips To Keep Your Fears From Holding YOU Back - to Make Email Work For You In 10 Minutes
This is a quick 10-minute article that will help to improve your email communications, and get you out of your own head.
Everyone has their fears. We're afraid of being judged, we're afraid our words won't be heard, we're afraid that people might not like us. It's easy to get caught up in these negative emotions when fear gets in the way of making good decisions, especially when it comes to business or work emails.
The tips below will help you keep your fear at bay so you can focus on the task at hand: improving email delivery and getting through the work day with more and better signals from those around you.
1. Read the entire body of your email, because people can't respond to the subject line or first paragraph
Most people just glance at the subject line and read the first few lines before deciding what to do next. If you ignore your recipients' first email response, they will never hear back from you. This is a big mistake that will make your emails appear more unprofessional and uninterested than desired. It's like dropping a half-eaten sandwich in a mail box; no one is going to bother reaching for it. This may seem like an obvious tip but most people don't take this one into consideration.
The solution? Just read the email. Seriously. Take a deep breath, focus on the opening paragraph and start your response there. Don't just read and reply to the first line, read what they said and then return it back in your message. Body language counts too. Avoid sending any text that seems rushed or off balance in any way. You need to look like you're listening to them and truly want to know what they have to say.
2. Stop talking about yourself - because people don't care
Your goal is to get in the head of the person reading your email. Don't start out with a long-winded confession about how great you are, what you're going to do, and how their lives will be changed for the better if they just give you a minute of their time. They don't care, and if you were talking to someone in person, you wouldn't spend this much time talking about yourself. If you come across as self-serving or greedy, your recipient will just close the email box or put it aside not to be looked at later. Remember that your email is not about YOU!
The solution? Focus on them. They are not reading your email to see how great you are, how talented you are, or how much money they'll make out of them. They are just looking for information and their time is valuable. Give them an opening that invites them to answer and then offer the minimum amount of information required to keep the conversation going.
3. Don't use textspeak
Textspeak is one of the worst things you can do in an email, because it shows that you're impatient, disorganized, or unskilled at writing good English. It also shows that you don't care about the recipient. This form of communication is quickly becoming extinct, because the younger generation are tuning out words that suggest that it's easy to read and understand them.
The answer? Stop using abbreviations and textspeak in your emails so you won't come across as boring or unintelligent. Most people pick up on this trait very quickly, so make sure you develop a good sense of tone and personality to set yourself apart from the crowd. Also, listen and be aware of your tone when speaking on the phone with someone. If they can't hear you well enough, they'll just put their finger over the receiver or turn off their speakerphone and call back.
4. Don't use too many words - because they don't care
A lot of people have a problem with this one. It's easy to get carried away with yourself and start writing page after page of emotions and thoughts because you're scared to death that they'll think you're a lousy writer. The problem with this way of thinking is that you end up writing more than what the other person is expecting to read, so they stop reading well before the email ends. You probably spent all day on that email trying to get it just right, only for it to become an exercise in futility with your reader losing interest in the first few lines.
The solution? Use direct and to-the-point language. It's nice to have a well-written email with excellent grammar and proper spelling, but if it takes you 20 minutes to write a paragraph that could be written in five, then you're losing time. Good grammar is something we should all have learned in school and you still need to be well aware of your mistakes. If your reader can't read what you're trying to say, they'll just press the delete button.
5. Stop trying so hard - because people know when you do
If your emails sound desperate or needy, it makes you look like a person who can't take care of their own business without someone else helping them out. This can easily turn people off, so make sure you don't try too hard to get their attention. People can tell when you're begging for something, so it's best not to come across as someone who goes around asking for things all day long.
The solution? Know when to stop for the day or week. You will never know what the other person is thinking until they respond. Some people are about to pull your leg and others are just taking a bit longer than usual to respond back to you. If it's been more than a few days, it's time to let it go and focus on other pressing issues at hand before reaching out again later on. It's the same concept as testing a water faucet for a few moments before taking a full gulp.
If you follow these rules, you'll find that your emails will be more meaningful and personal than in the past. The most important thing is that get your message across clearly and keep it short and sweet, so your reader will want to respond back at some point. If they don't, then respect their decision and move on to someone else. No one has enough time on their hands to read every email that comes their way, so remember this before hitting send!
It's easy to notice when someone is interested in you or really wants something from you because they will be polite and nice when speaking with you.