The art of email

Emails have become a critical form of communication. If you can be a better emailer you will not only receive more responses but you can also be more convincing in getting someone to take action.

Firstly, start with the subject. Always put a subject on your emails - it makes it easier for the person to find your email at a later date if they know what you were reffering to in the subject. Obviously make the subject relevant to what you are writing about and keep it short.

Ideally your emails will be no more than five lines. Get to the point as quickly as possible, the longer your email the less it is likely to be read. If there are many points to cover consider using bullet points - otherwise by the time the person has read the whole thing they might forget your first couple of points. One good thing I read about writing in general was Barbara Minto's "The Pyramid Principle". A summary can be found here: http://www.12manage.com/methods_minto_pyramid_principle.html.

Consider ending your email with the action that you want, e.g. "would a meeting at 2 pm Wednesday October 12th suit you?". When inserting a date (e.g. 12th Oct) consider putting the day of the week as well (it makes it easier for the person responsding to know if it is on a Wednesday rather than a Friday for instance).

As with anything just put a little thought into your emails and they will improve over time. You will come up with your own tips and 'best practices' on writing these. Please also add some of your tips to the comments field of this post so I can also improve my writing!