How to Guarantee Email Responses from Even Your Busiest Colleagues

There’s nothing more frustrating than emailing a co-worker with an urgent response—and hearing only crickets in reply.

But can you really blame your busy colleagues? After all, despite spending more than two hours per day trying to wrest their inbox into submission, the average person only manages to respond to one-third of the emails they receive.

While you can’t help your team members get fewer emails, you can make your emails likelier to get a response. Read on to learn how.

Timing

First, improve your odds of getting a response by sending your email at an optimal time.

What’s an optimal time? Well, if you know your recipient well, think about when he or she seems most energetic. For example, if your boss is a morning person, you’ll want to shoot your message over around 9 A.M. But if they tend to get more energetic as the day goes on, do it around 5 P.M. instead.

When you have no idea what your recipient is like, your best guess is to email them at 10 A.M. their time, according to MailChimp.

The Email Subject Line

Writing subject lines is an art. After all, you want your subject line to grab your recipient’s attention—which means it needs to be engaging and descriptive. However, not too descriptive, because if you use more than 50 characters (or roughly 14 words), your title will be cut off.

Bad Email Subject Lines:

• “Request” (too vague)
• “Would Love Your Help With This” (still too vague)
• “I Need a 30-Page Report Tomorrow By Noon On the Results We Got From A/B Testing” (too specific and too long)

Better Email Subject Lines:

• “Feedback on Latest Newsletter Design?” (clear, not too long)
• “Would Love Your Marketing Expertise” (flattering, specific)
• “Quick Question About Sales Report” (promises to be speedy)

If your email needs attention within 48 hours, you can add “Urgent,” “Semi-Urgent,” or Timely” to the subject line.

For example, “Urgent: Numbers for Kinsey Presentation”.

Length of Your Email

Keep your message itself as short and concise as possible. In general, you should aim for one paragraph or less. Anything longer, and people tend to skim your email or decide to “save it for later”—and “later” usually ends up being “never.”

To save space, delete polite but meaningful pleasantries, such as “Hope you’re doing well!” or “Loved your suggestions in last week’s meeting!” If it feels too brusque to launch straight into your request, you can go with “Happy (day of the week)!”

When you’ve cut out everything you can and you’re still running several sentences over one paragraph, ask yourself whether you’re trying to accomplish too many things with a single email.

If the bulk of your email is giving the recipient information, consider writing up a mini-report instead and sending it as an email attachment. If you’re asking the recipient to complete multiple tasks, consider sending each as separate messages.

The Body of the Email

You should begin with your request or action item. This strategy guarantees the recipient will see what they need to do, even if they skip the rest of the message.

Follow your request with some context. Why is your request timely, important, or worthy of a response?

Incorporating a deadline is also a good idea. It can feel presumptuous to give deadlines to your peers or even your superiors, but they’ll actually appreciate it—rather than thinking about how and when they have to do a task, all they have to focus on is the how.

Also read: 10 Proactive Ways to Build Engagement From Your Team

The Call-to-Action

Since the request portion of your email is so important, let’s look at it a little more closely. You should strive to be as explicit as possible about what you’d like your recipient to do next.

Here’s what that might look like:

“Let’s meet to discuss. Are you available Monday at noon or Tuesday between 10 AM and 3 PM?”

Or:

“If you have any recommendations, please let me know by Thursday at 5 so I can incorporate them before the client pitch.”

Or:

“Andrew has asked to see the report by Monday, so it would be great if you could send me those names today or tomorrow at the latest.”

If you’ve included an attachment with pertinent information, your call-to-action might look like:

“The attachment has all the info you need—all you need to do is take a look and give me your decision on whether or not to move forward by tonight.”

Sample Emails

To get an idea of what an effective message looks like, check out these two examples.

Subject line: Latest Proposal from Sterling Cooper

Dear Claire,

Happy Friday! Do you have the latest proposal from Sterling Cooper? Don Draper’s assistant was supposed to send it to us yesterday for approval.

Thanks,

Aja

This email works for three reasons. First, it’s short. Second, it immediately gets to the point. And third, it gives a brief explanation, so Claire knows why she’s being asked.

Subject line: Would Love Your Expertise on SEO Presentation

Hi Pete,

Would you be open to giving me some feedback on the attached SEO presentation? I’m speaking with the leadership on Friday, and your expertise would be greatly appreciated. If you can, I’d love to get your thoughts by Wednesday night.

Thank you,

Aja

Like the previous example, this message cuts right to the chase. It also provides a deadline and some background—all within a paragraph.

Also read: How to Write a Cold Email for a Job inquiry That No One Can Turn Down

Putting It All Together

If you want the short and sweet version summary (hey, you’re busy too), here’s what we covered.

1. Send your emails when your colleagues are at peak alertness
2. Keep the subject line under 50 characters and make it specific
3. Aim for one paragraph
4. Include your request in the first sentence of your email
5. Provide a deadline

Follow these guidelines, and you’ll get responses from even your busiest colleagues.