How To Get People To Respond To Your Emails

Email Marketing Responses

With the number of email users worldwide forecasted to rise to 2.9 billion users by 2019, email is the communication tool most frequently used in business today due to its ease, speed and ability to communicate with others on the go. But with most of us receiving several emails each day, it’s easy for messages to get lost or ignored.

If it seems like nobody is answering your emails, there are certain techniques you can use to increase the likelihood you will get a response which we will outline in this blog post. And remember, people are busy so don’t be afraid to follow up.

Add Click Notifications To Your Emails

In addition to the various email marketing tools available, there are also tools you can add to your mailbox, such as Streak or Drag, which notify you when your email has been opened, if any of the links in the email have been clicked, or whether attachments have been viewed. Tracking emails saves us time because we don’t have to send time-consuming “just checking if you got my message” emails.

Tracking emails also gives us the additional benefit of knowing when to follow-up and the kind of timeframe we can expect them to respond within. Having said that, you should still give the recipient time to respond since many people don’t check their email multiple times a day or may rely on a phone call from you to indicate the urgency of the matter.

Keep Your Emails Short

People are busy, so they are more likely to choose to tackle short and concise emails before finding the energy to work through long and laborious emails. Providing the reader can see what you are talking about right away, they will also know what action they need to take, so focus on the topic at hand above all else.

Various studies demonstrate that our brain likes to be presented with three choices, so try cutting your email into three short paragraphs, or offer them three options. To make things even shorter, you can write your email in the subject line, such as “Free at 1pm for lunch?” followed by EOM (end of message), although bear in mind that this should only be used for informal communication.

Give Them An Action and Provide A Reason

Telling the recipient what you need to hear from them and how they need to reply or by when is more likely to generate a response since you are giving them a clear action. The less specific you are, the less likely they will know what to reply.

You should always give a reason for your email so the recipient doesn’t simply think they are doing you a favour by replying. Harvard Social psychologist, Ellen Langer performed a study which found that people were more willing to comply with a request when the word ‘because’ was used.

Have some tips on how to get more email responses? Share them with us in the comments below or tweet us @yocalenetwork

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