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Tips on Writing Better E-Mail

by Gary Blake
Director
The Communication Workshop

In American business, the use of e-mail is exploding. A hundred million people are expected to be e-mailing by 2000, up from 66 million today. The typical office worker sends and receives an average of 40 e-mails daily, according to a Gallup poll. Many of those e-mails are filled with extra words; many could be cut in half ... if their writers were trained to write carefully and care about the reader’s attention span.

In insurance, e-mail is replacing the US mail as a chief means of interacting with attorneys, physicians, claimants, and vendors. Too few insurance people recognize that this revolution in communication has resulted in a need to flush away old- fashioned phrases, get to the point quickly, keep messages brief, and motivate the reader to read the message itself.

The following six tips are designed to help you improve your e-mail style and to make sure that your e-mail is effective intrinsically as well as fitting the new electronic expectations of a wide range of cyberclaimants and others.

1. Use the “Re” line to capture attention and motivate the reader to read on. While the “Re” line at the top of an insurance letter has traditionally been reserved for a boring-but-necessary regurgitation of claims numbers, policy numbers, and other easily summarizable claims information, the “Re” line in an e mail has a wholly different purpose. It is a short, pithy phrase that gives you an overview of the e-mail’s subject matter.

The “Re” line should not only summarize what you are about to say, but should, when necessary, motivate the reader to take action. Therefore, very short “Re” lines can be mysterious or meaningless (e.g. “Training”) and I’d urge you to be more specific (“Your ideas for new claims training courses”).

Since the traditional “Re” line has been redefined in e-mail, you are not likely to -- nor should you -- write a phrase like “in the above captioned claim....” First of all, the re line of an e mail may not have that information, and second, even if it did, you could write, “in the Jones claim ...” The trick is to keep the reader reading and not to distract the reader by referring to “Re” lines in this awkward footnote fashion.

2. Answer the question “What do I want the reader to know, do, or believe as a result of this e mail?” in the first paragraph. Letters almost always ramble; rarely does the letter writer come out with his or her main message in the first paragraph. They work up to it, and, in the process, alienate readers. With e-mail being traditionally short, readers expect a first paragraph to do more than just introduce a thought. They expect it to summarize why you are writing--what you want the reader to know, do, or believe.

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