How to get better at emailing

Who else takes a lot longer to inbox zero your emails than to answer messages on Facebook or WhatsApp?

For some reason, I find sending emails a lot harder and that's why I tried to find out how to get over this aversion for emails as they still are an important way to communicate. I summed up my findings and hope that they are helpful to you, too. Let me know if you have more tricks to perceive sending emails less difficult. It's about overcoming the fear of cold-emailing and cold-calling and the connected rejection, that is too frequent. Learn to deal with rejection by persisting and not by going somewhere else.

Tricks include: how to catch the attention of busy recipients

1. Subject line
   People with cluttered inboxes will allocate the time they spend on every email based on the subject line. People chose to read emails according to two criteria: 1. importance and 2. out of interest. Create a subject line that will either focus on utility or on the curiosity of the recipient.

2. Why did you send them the message?
   Why should they be the person responding to your request? Make clear how you came to send them the email and what you know about their work. This will conclude in telling why they are the person that should read your email. Create a personal relation, for example by stating an uncommon commonality.

3. Do your homework
   Don't ask people busier than yourself for answers that you could have found in 10 seconds by using Google. Explain how you already tried to find the answer yourself and why they should step in now.

4. Be consice
   Send short messages. The longer your text the more unlikely it will be answered - try to keep it below three or four paragraphs. State who you are, how you did your homework and are thus sending the message to them. Then, ask a simple but thought-provoking question that is related to them and their work. You need to start a dialogue if you want them to reply to future emails. Sometimes it's smart to not directly ask for help, but wait for a couple of email exchanges to take place before.

5. Encourage an answer
   People tend to answer when they feel that they can make a difference - not when you make them feel obliged to do so. Say thank you, how the help changed something for you and how you appreciate their effort.