People Read Short Emails. Not Long Ones.

I was the volleyball coach for many years and I prided myself on good communication. I wanted parents to know EVERYTHING they needed to know in one swoop, and I also liked to sprinkle in a bit of encouragement on how well the girls were doing, the game plan for the upcoming week, etc.

Then one day, I realized people weren’t even reading my emails.

My best mom friend on the team texted me the day of the game and asked, “Where is the game today and what time should we be there?”

I was floored. I wanted to write back, “DID YOU EVEN READ MY EMAIL? IT’S ALL IN THERE!!!!”

But I didn’t. I just sent her the info, and a few days later, I asked her why she had to text me and I made sure she got my email. She grinned sheepishly and said, “Honestly, Katie, your emails are a bit long. I got through part of it but then I got distracted…”

I thought back and realized that the MOST important information was at the very end. And I began to wonder how many other people weren’t even making it to the end either.

Research shows that people only spend 11 seconds on average reading an email (source in comments) and that emails should be less than 125 words. No wonder people weren’t making it to the end. This is especially true for work emails, and not just for prospecting ones. Internal emails will be better too if they’re shorter.

Be ruthless. Delete until you feel uncomfortable. I bet you'll get more replies.

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