4 Next-Level Email Moves to Upgrade Your Communications

4 Next-Level Email Moves to Upgrade Your Communications4 Next-Level Email Moves to Upgrade Your Communications Once youve got the basic structure of an email down pat, and you know what mistakes to avoid, its time to focus on making your drafts stand out from the myriad emails fruchtwein people get every day. Here are four strategies to take yours to the next levelSending an email that is remotely negative , or even neutral, can put you in a tricky place. And as with any written communication, there may be room for misinterpretation.In the absence of other information, our interpretation often defaults to the negative, explains Dan Post Senning, an etiquette expert at the Emily Post Institute. When youre talking about negative communication, youre missing the information that is tone of voice, the twinkle in your eye, the good humor that you intend something with or even the genuine care or concern with which youre offering critique. So be really careful. When some thing reads as negative to you, it probably comes across as even more negative to someone else.You wouldnt want to get an email that reads, Dear client, or which references your work in public relations when youre actually in sales, because it would immediately show that the sender is either mass emailing you, or they didnt do the proper research and find the right contact. Similarly, youll want to make sure that every email you send is crafted specifically for the recipient, and that youre sending it to the right person.So even though it may be tempting to use templates , its important to personalize it and keep in mind the communication style of the recipient before hitting send. To accomplish this, a quick Google search or a peek at the recipients LinkedIn or Twitter feed can do wonders. Before sending, try putting yourself in the recipients shoes for a gut-check on tone and content.If youre sending an email, youre likely looking for a timely response. But with the large amoun ts of emails most people sort through each day, things can end up getting lost. As a general rule, a follow-up message should never come less than twenty-four hours after sending the initial email.In other words Dont be the person who sends a follow-up request two hours after sending. In extreme cases, that kind of behavior can even get you blocked. When youre taking more time and actually caring about the person on the other side of the email, youre immediately going to see a much higher response rate. I had to learn that the hard way, says Cole Schafer, founder and copy chief of Honey Copy.Most of the messages you send will likely be on the shorter side, which is great for rapid responses and getting things done. But for longer emails, scannability is the name of the game. Thats when things like bolded font, bullet points, underlined sentences and a TLDR (too long, didnt read) section come in handy.There are a lot of factors to keep in mind when composing an email , and theres a wide margin of error. But after all is said and done, it isnt about perfection. Its about effective communication.I think people feel this pressure that you need to be this perfect communicator with this huge vocabulary and these perfectly structured sentences. And I dont know that thats always the case because youre just two people, communicating, says Kat Boogaard, a Wisconsin-based freelance writer.This article was originally published on Grammarly . It is reprinted with permission.