Emails, you get them, I get them, and together, we get way to many of them! With an average of 306.4 billion emails being sent and received per day in 2020, you can imagine that it is easy to send someone an email, only to see it getting lost in the inbox-flood that your recipient is experiencing. Just like you are.
Luckily, if you use your subject line wisely, you can increase the chance of being noticed in this flood, and getting your message across.
Supercharge the Subject Line
When browsing through your inbox, you most probably just skim over the sender and the subjects, like most people do, and as it is most efficient. Since using another name or email address as your own to send the message is illegal in most countries, and will at least make you appear a bit shady, we better take a look at the subject line, and how we can tweak that for maximum impact.
Subject Line Tips
- If your email is asking someone to do something, put the call to action straight in the subject line. For instance: “3 things to bring tomorrow”
- [Action Item] Adding this to your subject line will immediately make it clear to the recipient of your email that you need something from him/her. This one can be very well combined with the first tip of the list. But if your call to action is too long, this code can be used to tell your recipient that there is more inside.
- [Time Sensitive] It may look a bit blunt to use, but by adding this short code to your subject line, it clearly states to the recipient of the email that it is an urgent and important one. It will also act as a reminder when it stays in the inbox.
- [Please reply by (date)] Nothing is more annoying in the email sphere than having to send reminders to people after waiting way too long for a reply. Add this short code to your subject line to create a deadline for the reply.
- [Not Urgent] It doesn’t always need to be stressy and hush hush . So use this short code to remove the pressure from your recipients. They will be grateful!
- [NNTR, NRN, FYI] These tiny little shortcodes will be welcomed by your recipient. Whereas the “please reply by” code is rather strict and even a bit pushy, this trio is the opposite, saying that no reply is needed: NNTR (No Need To Reply), NRN (No Response Needed) and FYI (For Your Information).
- [EOM] This one is my personal favorite: End Of Message. If your whole message fits in the subject line (“Not coming to work, too drunk”), add [EOM] to the end of your subject line to tell the recipient that he or she doesn’t even need to open the email!
Conclusion
Emails in these busy days are not always the best way to communicate to other people, but sometimes they are the only option we have. Luckily, using these seven tips, your email communication is already up a notch!
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