9 tips to improve your email writing skills

Whether you’re self-employed, freelancing or the owner of a small business, you could be handling countless numbers of emails every single day. These tips will help you improve your email writing skills.

Why email writing is important

It’s not uncommon for email to be your primary method of communicating with your customers and other businesses. Yet, there are many problems that can accompany this written form of communication. As it turns out, there are many people that are unaware of how to effectively write an email to have the effects they desire.

Alice Josephson, a business writer from Academized explains,

“Writing an email can seem like an extremely simple task but when you consider the repercussions of getting it wrong, it can suddenly seem rather daunting. Miscommunication, sending the wrong impression of your business to a potential customer and even sounding offensive are all real risks of what can happen if you don’t take the time to write your content properly and thoroughly check it.”

Whether you’re writing to your customers, partnership businesses, trying to create partnerships or attempting to generate leads, here is a list of nine tips and tools to help you make the most of your emails.

Be precise

When communicating through email, always be specific with what you’re talking about. For example, if you’re emailing one of your business partners, it pays not to write something like ‘I need this task completed by tomorrow for a client’. Although nine times out of ten they may know what you’re talking about, why risk the miscommunication?

Optimize your subject line

As you may receive countless emails every day, so does everyone else. Make your email stand out and are fit for purpose. If you receive an email with no subject line or a subject line that seems irrelevant, what do you do with it? Many people will agree that, if you don’t know who the email is from, you’ll just delete it. This is especially important if you’re contacting new businesses in the hopes of creating a partnership or trying to generate business leads.

Be formal when appropriate

Especially important if you’re communicating with customers or other businesses, try to remain as formal as possible. This means including all your appropriate contact information in the details or signature part at the end of the email.

Edit and proofread

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This goes for any form of written work but is still a factor that is overlooked time and time again. Edit and proofread your work to ensure it makes sense and is grammatically correct. This includes spelling, sentence structure and punctuation as a well-written, perfect email says a lot about you as a person and as a business.

Get help if you need it

If you’re approaching potential buyers, potential partners and especially your customers, an email may be the only way you ever communicate to one another so you want to be sure you are getting it right the first time.

To help you reach your goals and develop your writing skills in the best way possible, here is a list of online tools you can use to better your writing talents:

Word Counter – As well as highlighting your mistakes as you go, monitor the number of words you are using, allowing you to stay concise and stick to the point.
Paper Fellows – A free to use online writing community full of writers and professionals from around the world who can provide you with the essential feedback back you need to develop your writing skills.
Microsoft Editor – Not the best speller? Microsoft Editor is a grammar and spelling checker, built into Outlook and Word or available as an Edge or Chrome browser extension, which is used to make sure your emails aren’t filled with typos.

Be consistent

Working hand in hand with the tip above, make sure all your emails are consistent in quality and style. This shows the reader that you put hard work into everything you do, even down to the emails you send. This tip works effectively with both customers and other businesses.

Manners cost nothing

As the old saying goes, being polite in emails costs nothing but a few extra seconds of typing but makes a world of difference. Using words such as ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ can go a long way with potential customers and leads and can open your business up to new opportunities every day.

Find your voice

The voice of your email is one of the hardest parts to master. Trying to remain engaging and informative in your emails without sounding blunt can be a difficult and stressful task. Before clicking the send button, read through your email a couple of times, just to be sure you are giving the impression you want to give.

Teamwork is best

Reading this list thinking that you may not be the best writer in the world? Not a problem, there are a ton of online writing services out there that are both affordable and guarantee your emails will be of high quality.

The Microsoft 365 team is focused on sharing resources to help you start, run, and grow your business.

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