Getting prompt email replies has been a life-long dilemma associated with emailing. Emails are the go-to mode of communication for every business person. And as such, the importance of emails cannot be overstated.
Whenever an email is sent, a response is expected from the recipient. If a response is not received, the purpose of sending the email is ultimately defeated.
As a business person, you might have concerns from time to time about the effectiveness of the emails you send. Although those concerns can be initially vague, they become more straightforward when you remember that every email is intended to achieve a result. The result depends on the theme of the project. Emails are sent to request information, communicate vital information to clients and co-workers, apply for contracts, and more. The purposes for emails are as varied as the business operations of the companies that send them.
While emails do not (and ideally, should not be expected to) have the same outcomes, getting email replies every time has some benefits.
Benefits of Getting Email Replies Every Time
There is an assuring aura around getting prompt email replies. It can give you a feeling of effectiveness, which can significantly boost your morale. And when your enthusiasm is raised, your co-workers also feel it. The work pace is fast, and business goals are more quickly met.
Notably and interestingly, you can consider prompt email replies as a metric for influence and productivity. Granted, what another person chooses to do (replying or not replying to your emails is one of those choices) is mostly beyond your control. However, you can take advantage of some hacks to increase your chances of getting prompt email replies.
How to get Email Replies Every Time
Businesses and individuals you communicate with via email receive tons of emails every day. As a result, the odds of you getting email replies are low. This reality is why you should strive to make your emails stand out. You can do so precisely with the following:
1. Directly Ask for a Response
If you want your emails to be replied to promptly, then state them in your email. Do it directly and assertively. This may seem just an easy method out, but it’s one of the most effective methods of getting prompt email replies. There are many ways to go about this. However, the most popular is specifically including “RESPONSE NEEDED” in the subject line. This addition can help to create a sense of urgency in your recipient. Immediately they see it; they automatically get triggered to reply as soon as they can. What makes this method most effective is it states translates your request to the recipient without them having to decipher t for themselves.
2. Make the Recipient Feel at Home
The logic to this is that making your email’s potential recipient as comfortable as possible makes them more inclined to reply. Several studies have revealed that emails written in more straightforward, less-flowery words tend to be more often replied to than those that are not. This tip makes sense: if your recipient needs to look up words or is generally made uncomfortable with your style, he might be pissed. The consequence of that will be an unreplied email.
We advise a third-grade language. It is the most effective. A recent study by the email productivity company, Boomerang, found that emails written in third-grade language have a whopping 36% advantage in response rate over those written in a college-level language.
3. Start with a Clear Request
While you should directly ask for a response to your email right from its beginning and use words that the potential recipient will be comfortable reading, you still should not relegate the importance of clarity. You can attempt to trip the recipient with your direct request for a response and be down-to-earth in your communication with them, but if they cannot understand your email’s theme or core message, they might still not be encouraged to reply at all.
A way to circumvent that is to Start with your request. Make it clear in such a way that they would not have to ask further questions. That way, you will be getting email replies right away. Do you want them to send a document regarding a shared business operation? Would you like to have lunch with them by 2 to discuss it? State this clearly.
4. Strive to Evoke Positive Emotions
A vital knowledge piece in copywriting: as humans, we base our consumer decisions on emotion and then rationalize them with logic. By and large, emotions are still the underlying factor for the goods and services we buy and our choices.
Imagine you had a terrible experience with a staffer of another company, and you want to complain to the customer support service. Of course, you can say (and maybe rightly so), “Mr. XXX is a completely obnoxious man…” This would not be very respectful and could go without getting any reply. However, framing your complaint as “I had a disappointing experience with Mr. XXX on October 15th. I do not know what the reason was, but I really wish he had treated me better…” This will even more easily fetch you an apology! This is an example of how to use your words to translate your emotions to get prompt responses.
5. Keep it Simple and Short
Finally, if you want to improve your emails’ response rate, start making them simpler and shorter. Studies have indicated that keeping emails short and straightforward has a magical effect on their response rate. The response rate is most optimal for emails between just 50 and 125 words. So, cut out all unnecessary details and go straight to the point of your email to get more email replies.
Conclusion
There you have five hacks that you should adopt to boost your chances of getting email replies.
- Do not hesitate to ask for a response directly.
- Make the recipient feel comfortable with your email.
- Start with your request and make it as clear as you can.
- Strive to evoke positive emotions even if the email is a complaint.
- Keep it short and straightforward.
Despite their ostensible simplicity, those tips are highly practical. In fact, it is estimated that they help to reduce response time by half. It does not matter whether it is a product recommendation email or an introduction email to land your dream job that you are writing or you just want to ask for a salary raise for your teammates via email, what is important is that with the guide here, you can get email replies every time.
