Shop Talk: Write Emails That Get Responses

Before you craft that perfect email message, keep this in mind: you're more likely to get a response if you write like a third grader!

According to data from the mail plugin app, Boomerang, emails written at a 3rd-grade reading level were optimal. They provided a whopping 36% lift over emails written at a college reading level and a 17% higher response rate than emails written even at a high school reading level. 

The main parts of your reading grade level score are the number of syllables in your words and the number of words in your sentences. So try simpler words and fewer words per sentence than you normally would. 

Other tips about what really matters when you send that email:

Write with emotions! Another significant factor in determining response rates is how positive (words like great, wonderful, delighted, pleased) or negative (words like bad, hate, furious, terrible) the words in the message are. Response rates for positive emails peaked about 15% higher than neutral for emails with a slightly warm tone. After that, response rates declined as the amount of positive language exceeded what would look “normal” in an email.

Write short (but not too short!) emails. The sweet spot for email length is between 50-125 words, all of which yielded response rates above 50%. Response rates declined slowly from 50% for 125-word messages to about 44% for 500-word messages. But wait...before you send a Hillary style email (10 words...total!) take note, emails under 50 words showed a much steeper decline in response rates. A 25-word email works about as well as a 2000-word one, with only a 44% chance of getting a response.

Same goes for subject lines! Use short (like super short) subject lines! Subject lines with only 3-4 words (excluding email conventions like Re: and Fwd:) received the most responses. Once again, though, the response rates dropped slowly as more words were added.

Does asking questions help increase response? The answer is yes! Emails that asked 1-3 questions are 50% more likely to get a response than emails asking no questions.

Interested in learning more about how to write effective emails, including which words to use and  which words to avoid? Check out this infographic!