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How to Email Busy People

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Re: How to Email Busy People

#51

Post by bane »

I've found that sending emails when you know they'll be at work (so they'll notice it) is tremendously useful -- say 9am, 2pm, 5pm. People will tend to answer immediately incoming messages before a long queue of messages from the previous day that need attention.

A little shameless self-promotion, that's exactly one of the use-cases we envisioned for our company's product, Momentomail ( http://www.momentomail.com ).

My co-founder and I actually do this with each other, schedule messages so they'll be received sometime in the morning when we're both likely to be working through our mail queue from the end of the day and night before.

Re: How to Email Busy People

#52

Post by joshu »

i get a ton of email from people who want stuff. i try to reply but it's a barrage.

Some stuff that makes it easier:

- understand that I am likely to read your email on an iPhone. keep it brief, don't write an essay.

- if i reply and say something like "interesting, please send an executive summary" or "i'd love to see a demo" then do that or offer something equivalent/better. i do not want to meet you to see your demo, etc etc etc.

- don't ask for extremely unlikely things and expect a reply

- it takes me a week or two to get to low-priority stuff. don't email me and ask for a detailed response within an hour. if you do have a deadline, tell me so, so i can prioritize appropriately. i'm looking at you, journalists.

- if you are pitching a startup, don't pitch investors who have clear and obvious conflicts.

- if you are offering an advisory role, be up front about offering equity or something.

that said, i try my best. that guy who had acquisition questions a few months ago on Ask HN? i got him to someone who got the deal done.

Re: How to Email Busy People

#53

Post by rglover »

For someone just getting involved with this space, these tips definitely seem helpful. Seems like this is a bit contingent on prior contact and not first-time intro. Should it be in person > then e-mail? A bit confused...

Re: How to Email Busy People

#54

Post by jrockway »

Include a Short, Professional Signature My standard signature includes my name, company, blog, Twitter, and LinkedIn. If I want a phone call or fax or meeting, it'll include phone number, fax, address.

Four lines is not short. Nobody cares about your blog, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

I sign my emails either "--Jon" or "Regards, Jonathan Rockway" depending on who the intended recipient is. If you want to read my blog, just type my name into the nearest search engine.

Re: How to Email Busy People

#55

Post by mattraibert »

SeoxyS wrote: post #16

>If you can fit the entire question into the header, just do it and include #eom at the end, which means 'end of message'. Yes, it feels weird. Do it anyways. This I cannot agree with, however. I receive a fair amount of email, and I just cannot stand when people do this. It annoys me to no end and will most likely earn an instant-delete to the email.

Any reason? Or just a pet-peeve?

Re: How to Email Busy People

#57

Post by tomjen3 »

localtalent wrote: post #20

I'm trying to work out emailing for sponsorships for projects that we're running. It's generally cold-calling, but not a shotgun approach - we work pretty hard to come up with companies who would have something to gain from the project. I'm going to try some of these tips, but would an email with 'Seeking Sponsorship' in the subject get caught in your personal spam filter?

That's not very accurate or descriptive, unless I know you and what you were doing.

Re: How to Email Busy People

#58

Post by SeoxyS »

mattraibert wrote: post #55
SeoxyS wrote: post #16

>If you can fit the entire question into the header, just do it and include #eom at the end, which means 'end of message'. Yes, it feels weird. Do it anyways. This I cannot agree with, however. I receive a fair amount of email, and I just cannot stand when people do this. It annoys me to no end and will most likely earn an instant-delete to the email.

Any reason? Or just a pet-peeve?

Mostly a pet peeve, I guess. The subject should describe what the message is about, the body is the message. After opening the message, I automatically look down to read or skim the body. When there's nothing there, it annoys me to no end.

Worst case… at least repeat the subject in the body. Also it annoys me to no end when messages aren't formulated in correct english. (Text-speak is a big no-no.)

Re: How to Email Busy People

#59

Post by tallanvor »

jrockway wrote: post #54

Include a Short, Professional Signature My standard signature includes my name, company, blog, Twitter, and LinkedIn. If I want a phone call or fax or meeting, it'll include phone number, fax, address. Four lines is not short. Nobody cares about your blog, Twitter, or LinkedIn. I sign my emails either "--Jon" or "Regards, Jonathan Rockway" depending on who the intended recipient is. If you want to read my blog, just…

This is an example of where the person who came up with a term screwed up. You're talking about how you sign your email, but the post is talking about the signature line (or lines), which are not a substitute for signing your message.

For personal emails I don't use a signature, I just sign it. For business emails I sign the email and have a signature line with my name, title, business group, phone numbers, and group website. --This information fits on one line and is easy to refer to or ignore as per the recipient's needs.

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