Make it easy to respond

If you can sum up your email in a simple yes or no question, do that!

I’ve talked about adding a “TLDR” to the beginning of emails or communications to respect the time of your reader and I’m here to say that making emails easy to reply to is also a form of respecting the reader and ensuring you get more responses and better responses.

Instead of saying: “Hey, I would love to get your opinion on “X topic,” thoughts?”

Instead say: “Hey, I am researching “X topic” and would love to get your opinion on it. Could I stop by your office at 4:45pm on Thursday for 10 minutes?”

The second question conveys more context about your project and gives the reader a chance to see if they are interested. You have also set up a date and time on their turf (convenient!), and you phrase it so they can literally reply “yes” and that is all the work they need to do to respond.

Just like that you’ve set up a meeting and shown a concern for the time and effort of others.

Make it easy to respond whenever you can. It’s usually more often than you or I realize.