If you met at a conference and exchanged words about marketing strategies, and you’re emailing now to ask the recipient to review your new app for marketers, you’re connecting the right dots. Once again, this approach works best if your previous meeting is relevant to the topic at hand. Even if the recipient seems unlikely to remember, the fact that you did remember goes a long way toward establishing a rapport. Perhaps you connected briefly at a conference. If you’ve met the recipient before, it never hurts to say so. The sender may wonder whether you actually know the definition of brief. Don’t promise to keep it brief and then go on for paragraph after paragraph. There’s just one rule with this opener-if you’re going to use it, you’d better actually be brief. It, and the number of paragraphs in the email I see before me, tells me that the sender values my time and made an effort to keep things short and sweet. “I know you’re swamped, so I’ll be brief.” Saying you read an article is one thing, but mentioning the beach vacation photos you saw on Instagram will come off as creepy. There may be a hook there.) And also, don’t make your message too personal. (Unless maybe they write murder mysteries. It would be awkward to congratulate someone on the publication of their recent novel if you were writing to offer them a deal on life insurance.

First, don’t use a personalized opener unless it actually relates to the topic you’re writing about. Include a sentence or two at the opening of your email to show you’re familiar with the recipient’s work, like this:Ĭongratulations on publishing 80 Shades of Green last week! I’m sure it’s thrilling to have the product of your creative labors out in the world. You don’t have to stalk someone on social media, but doing a little research can go a long way. If you’re writing a high-stakes email that needs to get results, it never hurts to do your homework. And if they pitch something that reflects the knowledge they’ve gained about my style and the topics I care about, it’s more likely to be something I can use. I have to admit, I admire their dedication to getting to know me, even if it comes with an ulterior motive. And, just when I think I’ve somehow earned a fan, I’ll get a letter from them asking me to accept a guest blog post or do some sort of cross-promotional content swap. In my work as an editor, I’ve had people follow me on Twitter or Facebook, commenting on and sharing every article I publish. Show that you value the recipient’s time by getting down to business right from the start. Although the response rate diminished slowly after that, talk to any busy person and they’ll tell you they prefer emails that are brief and get straight to the point. The email app Boomerang conducted a data study and found that emails between seventy-five and one hundred words in length had the best response rates. Here are my five favorite alternatives to the ubiquitous greeting. I’ve sent a few, too (we all do, from time to time!). (A rather conservative estimate, at that.) I’ve seen many an “I hope you’re doing well” cross my inbox.

This preparation systematically transforms the hope into confidence, which can then be leveraged in the final deployment of the plan.Grammarly helps you communicate confidently Write with GrammarlyĪs an entrepreneur, editor, and PR professional, I estimate that I’ve sent at least 73,000 business emails over the past twenty years. practicing all the necessary steps to overcome every obstacle.developing a detailed plan to meet each challenge.slicing every obstacle into discrete challenges.The remaining preparation steps flow intuitively from there: Expect the worst begins to identify the obstacles that must be overcome to achieve success. Hope for the best is a baseline mental preparation that motivates and supports all other preparation activities. from prae 'before' + parare 'make ready' (see prepare). Late Middle English: via Old French from Latin praeparatio(n-), from 1.0 The action or process of preparing or being prepared for use or consideration:ġ.1 (usually preparations) Something done to get ready for an event or undertaking:

Related words for hopefully