How To Write Emails That Get Read
As a producer, I email people often. I email crew about how to get to set. I email freelancers about creative concepts. I email locations about what we need.
A lot is riding on these emails. When my emails are unclear, it delays the whole production. I’ve written a lot of unclear emails on my journey to writing clear emails.
Here are a few things that really help me get the point across.
Don’t Bury the Lead
Start with the most important thing. If it’s a call sheet, link the address at the top. If it’s a rate increase request, make the subject Rate Increase Request.
I used to start all my emails with a long, “Hey everyone, I hope you all are doing well and had a great weekend, I know I did, blah, blah, blah.” While this made me seem like a chill guy, it wasn’t a clear email. I still think it’s important to convey good tone, so instead of starting with the pleasantries, recently I’ve been ending with a short, “We’re all stoked for this shoot, we’re going to make something awesome!” Boom. Short and sweet.
Use Bullet Points
If you have a few important pieces of information to get across within an email, use bullet points. Important points buried inside of sentences are hard for people to extract. Do the work of extracting the important stuff for them by using bullet points.
Bullet points:
Are quicker to read
Are easier to reference on the fly
Interrupt the paragraph structure, so they’re easier to see
I use bullet points to call out important points and to show a step-by-step process. Try them out!
Use Bold Text
If you’re sending a project kickoff email, start each section with bold text. That way, people can easily skip around to what’s most relevant to them. They can also quickly reference the information they need later. When I hire freelancers for productions, I use bold section headers like Concept, Creative, Team, Timeline, Rate, and a few others.
Quick note: never use all caps or bold text to emphasize a point within a paragraph. Bold and all caps sentences, or words within sentences, read as if you’re screaming at people. It’s a really quick way to make everything feel really awkward.
Thanks for reading! Happy emailing.
