8 ways to get employees to read through emails

Like newspaper editors writing headlines, effective communicators weigh their words carefully when crafting email subject lines.

But that’s just the first step of getting a recipient to read and act on your email message.

“Once you’ve captured someone’s attention, you need to hold it and deliver your content effectively,” says Michael DesRochers, founder and managing partner of PoliteMail.

Here are some ways to get people to devour your messages:

1. Be brief.

Keep emails to 111 words or fewer, says Kristin Graham, principal for culture and communications at Amazon. PoliteMail’s 2019 Benchmark data also reveals a readership peak at 250 words and a steep falloff in readership as emails get longer than 500 words.

“When you think about how many emails people get a day, this ‘sweet spot’ of [111] words is an ideal way to quickly grab someone’s attention,” Graham says.

“If you can’t get across the main gist of your email in approximately 111 words, you may need a meeting or face-to-face, versus an email.”