6 Business Email Best Practices to Get You Back Your Time

6 Business Email Best Practices to Get You Back Your Time

How business email best practices can make everything better… I was soooo lucky and I didn’t know it. How? During my 20 years as a freelance copywriter, I worked primarily with smart people who communicated well and made smart use of email. That means I thought the average person was equally good at email. I was wrong. When I closed up We Know Words at the end of 2019 to focus on our farm and Better Faster Writer, I also started doing a lot of volunteer work as part of a marriage ministry that we had to take over. (That’s a...
Slash the Time You Spend on Business Emails with This Cheat…Dot Dot Dot

Slash the Time You Spend on Business Emails with This Cheat…Dot Dot Dot

A huge part of the average worker’s day is spent reading and writing business emails. Yet there are many ways to reduce the time you spend in the email vortex, as you can see here and here. But here’s the deal: You’ll drastically reduce the time you spend on business emails when you make sure your emails are read and understood. …drastically reduce the time you spend on business emails when you make sure your emails are read and understood. Get Your Business Emails Read Let’s tackle the first challenge for a minute: Getting...
Both Horses and Email Are Dangerous When in a Hurry. Here’s Why…

Both Horses and Email Are Dangerous When in a Hurry. Here’s Why…

I hurt. My whole left arm aches as does my left shoulder. The back of my left hand twinges when I use it and my left pinkie tingles. Why? Because I disregarded one of the fundamental rules about working with horses: Don’t be in a hurry. And I ended up with these aches and pains but—thankfully–that was all. It could have been worse. So…what happened? My iPhone wasn’t working. I took Chase and the dogs for a ride up the logging road thinking I’d get service once away from home, but I didn’t. That’s when I knew I’d have to go...
How Specific Email Subject Lines Save Time…and Make You Look Good!

How Specific Email Subject Lines Save Time…and Make You Look Good!

Email subject lines are often overlooked but have the potential to make or break your workplace communication and productivity… What’s the first thing people look at when deciding whether or not to open an email? The From name. And the second? The email subject line—and that makes the subject line key. This is something I emphasize when teaching email copywriting, but it is every bit as relevant to writing at work. While the email marketer needs compelling email subject lines to get a prospect to open an email so they’ll see the...
2 Ways to Get Faster at Business Email Writing (and Other Writing too!)

2 Ways to Get Faster at Business Email Writing (and Other Writing too!)

(Originally published November 2017) Do you wish writing didn’t take you so long? Or that you could dash off an email without having to think so hard about it, and labor over it? We spend so much time on business email writing, it’s no surprise it’s a pain point. And if it is a pain point for you, kudos to you for caring! Far too many emails are dashed off with little thought for how well they’re communicating what’s intended. Sadly, that leads to even more time spent writing and reading as we’re trying to understand each other, so...
Weak Workplace Writing Is Whittling Away Your Bottom Line

Weak Workplace Writing Is Whittling Away Your Bottom Line

What’s scarier than Halloween haunts? Sucky workplace writing! Halloween is here, but you know what’s really scary? The billions of dollars lost each year due to sucky workplace writing. How many billions? How scary can this really be? Oh, it’s terrifying, trust me: $400 billion. Every. Single. Year. If that number doesn’t scare you, it should. Picture 400 billion one-dollar bills piled up high and set on fire…a huge bonfire of money going up in smoke, leaving only a dusting of ashes behind. That’s $400 billion gone, just gone. Can...