The Key To Writing Good Emails

Ben Grynol
3 min readMar 1, 2021

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Is email effective?

Lately, I’ve been talking with a number of people about the effectiveness of email. For what it’s worth, I’m a huge fan of it – when it’s used correctly.

I recently started using Superhuman as my go-to platform for writing, triaging and managing email communication. The experience is 10x better than any other platform, and the speed at which a person can process email is at least 5x faster.

Yesterday, a friend sent this article from The New Yorker, which is what inspired this post.

It’s not the first time I’ve read something like this, but it did get me thinking. For what it’s worth, here’s my take on email (and some of the studies that have been done around its effectiveness).

Many people use email incorrectly

Many people use email as a means of communicating (in addition to Slack, Text, Google Docs, etc), instead of a platform for managing communication

  • When email is chunked out and clear with its purpose and what is required from the message, it works well
  • When people send long emails without any clear takeaways or reasons for the email, it causes cognitive overload and stress (especially when more than two people get the message and it’s not addressed to any one person when there is an action item)
  • The key to email is the same as editorial — never bury the lede

How to Structure a Simple Email

  • Create a clear title to prime people’s expectations about the reason for the email and what is required from it (ie — Informational, For Review, Action Required, etc)
  • Address who the email is to, if there is one or more clear decision makers that need to take action
  • Put headings for each sub-section
  • Write in bullets under each heading
  • Add a call to action in the body of the email (ie–Ask, Question, Next Steps, etc)
  • Specify a date that something needs to be completed by
  • Set a reminder to follow up on the message one day before it’s due
  • Close the loop with everyone on the email, and inform them about what was decided to move the email forward — do this on the day that you said you would (ie– Thanks for everyone’s input…following up to close the loop on this email. We’ve decided to do XYZ, and no further action is required, etc)

Here’s a screenshot of a simple email:

Email in Startups vs. Corporations

  • I’ve heard about the study cited in The New Yorker article previously — some of the things that aren’t listed are whether or not the companies that were studied were startups or corporations
  • In startups, things move much quicker than corporations and it’s not possible to be effective and grow, while having a “bystander effect” outlook on email and moving communication forward — this is especially true for teams that are entirely remote (like Levels and GitLab)

Takeaways

  • When used properly, email can be effective
  • When people use too many communication platforms incorrectly (like making important decisions through a text message), then those platforms become ineffective, as compared to email
  • Long live email ❤

Agree or disagree? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯….@bgrynol on Twitter

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Ben Grynol

Head of Growth: Levels / Startup Team: SkipTheDishes / Co-founder: Thisten, Top & Derby / Host: Character Podcast / Rotman MBA