Member-only story
The Non-Definitive Guide to Sending Good, Kind Emails
From someone who’s been sending them for 30 years
I’ll make this (moderately) brief, just like a good email should be. And straight away, I want to clarify that this story isn’t about email content. That’s up to you. This is about context — length, layout, courtesies.
Over 290 billion emails are sent and received every day, expected to grow to nearly 350 billion by 2023. Also by that year, more than 4 billion people are expected to use emails. Wow.
With so many notes exchanged, we want to get them right. And while the medium is designed for brevity and ease, there should still be some tact in how we communicate with people.
Over three decades I’ve grown to consider five elements with every single email I send, which I hope you might find just as useful.
The Subject
I start here because it’s usually one of the last things people think about. And you can tell when they do, because the email will be about some major upcoming project or an important deadline, but the subject will read “An idea…” Write your subject before anything else to help guide the trajectory and tone of your message.
