7 Essential Strategies for Writing
Emails That Get Responses
Here are a few powerful email strategies that you need to use if you want responses:
1.The 5-Minute Straight-jacket Technique
2.Hack the Person’s Mind
Unfortunately, too many people simply jump into an email by brain-dumping whatever’s on their mind. STOP DOING THAT! This person is not your therapist or diary. In fact, it’s intellectually lazy to simply vomit what’s on your mind into an email. Show the busy person respect by carefully thinking about THEM and THEIR GOALS before writing yours down. And when you do -- when you take a few quiet minutes to think strategically -- you can dramatically increase your response rate.
USE THIS WITH: People you just meet; people you casually know; people you don’t know at all but aspire to get something from.
DO NOT USE THIS WITH: People you intimately know (close friends, contacts) as you don’t always have to have a goal with them.
It’s simple: Do your homework! Learn everything you can about the person you’re contacting. The more you know about the person, the more personal your communication can be, and the greater the likelihood of a positive response. At the minimum, to research a person you should
Read their blog archives -Read their Twitter account
especially on personal web pages or blogs.
Sound like a lot of work? It is! This is what separates email winners and losers. By the end of your re- search, you should try to have a handle on as many of the following points as possible, especially if you’re trying to build a long-term relationship:
Yes, it takes some time. But the people who invest the time hacking minds consistently get access to top-quality people. Acquiring this information beforehand is important for a few reasons:
First, it makes it more likely that you’ll be able to build rapport with the per- son when you communicate with him. For example, if through your research you discovered he competed in the Olympics as a ping-pong player, when she casually mentions his interest in ping-pong, you can make the connection and probe deeper.
Second, when you’re informed, you won’t ask basic, dumb questions. For busy people, this is one of their top annoyances: having to address a question that they have already addressed elsewhere. How many times do you think I’ve been asked, “What should I do with my money?” Too many times. Way too many. Most importantly, once you’ve hacked the busy person’s mind, you’re more likely to know what will catch his attention, what you can offer him, or what he is responsive to. USE THIS WITH: Anyone new you’re meeting: Research him, figure out his mo- tivations or frustrations, how you can solve them and fold that into your request.
DO NOT USE THIS WITH: People you intimately know (close friends, contacts) as you already know what they want.
Before you ask a busy person a question, make sure they haven’t answered it elsewhere.
In general, send relevant notes from your meeting, interesting industry stuff you came across, notes from conversations you had that would be interesting to him...anything that shows you’re thinking about him and offering him valuable informatio n. If you’re not looking for a reply, say so. If your update is purely informational, include the words “No reply necessary” up near the top. Later in this guide, you’ll find examples of real newsletters and email updates.
USE THIS WITH: Everyone you’re interested in having a relationship with, no matter how small. For the seemingly unimportant, include them on an auto- mated newsletter update list.
DO NOT USE THIS WITH: For someone who’s clearly expressed that they’re not interested in working with you (this is extremely rare)
Most people stay in touch too little, not too much. Busy people get a lot of email. The marginal cost of each additional email is minimal. When in doubt, send it. But make it good!
-Respect the power dynamic. You reached out to him. You are asking for his time. That means you should proactively offer to meet him at his location of choice and at a conve- nient time. To suggest a coffee shop near your office can seem aloof and even arrogant. -Work around the busy person. Use their time zone (don’t make them think). Explicitly offer to work around their schedule because they are busier. And acknowledge how many emails they probably get, so you’d be honored to get even 10 minutes of their time. -Wide/Narrow Formula. Be explicit that you can work around his schedule and meet any time -- but help him decide by suggesting specific times. For example, you might say, “I’m totally free on Monday and can accommodate your schedule. How does 3 PM work?” This technique works for content, too. For example “I’d love to talk about all of those things, but I think you’d particularly enjoy hearing about my trip to China.” Your goal is to minimize the back-and-forth of emails! USE THIS WITH: Anytime you’re trying to schedule a meeting with someone who’s agreed to meet you.
-As a courtesy, busy people will generally accept a small meeting or phone call if one of their contacts suggests him, even if they immediately know there’s no interest. (“Well, I’ll meet this guy as a courtesy to Mike since he’s helped me out in the past. It can’t hurt for five or ten minutes.”)
2.Hack the Person’s Mind
3.The Ramit 1-2 Punch
4.The UNODIR Strategy
5.Strategic Updates
6.Power Dynamics and the Wide/Narrow Formula
7.Social Proof
I’ll show you what they are and how to deploy the ones that are appropriate to your message. From now on, every time you email someone, you’ll have these tools in your “email quiver” to selectively use.
4.The UNODIR Strategy
5.Strategic Updates
6.Power Dynamics and the Wide/Narrow Formula
7.Social Proof
I’ll show you what they are and how to deploy the ones that are appropriate to your message. From now on, every time you email someone, you’ll have these tools in your “email quiver” to selectively use.
1 The 5-Minute Straitjacket Technique
Before you touch your keyboard, I like to use the 5-Minute Straitjacket Technique, which means I turn off my phone, close my laptop, and think about
the person I’m trying to influence. Ask yourself:
-Why am I emailing this person? Do I have a short-term, transactional issue or am
I looking to build a long-term relationship?
- -What does this person I am emailing want? More success with his business? Help creating videos for his blog? Or opportunities to mentor young people?
- -Is this the right person for me to be contacting, given my goals?
- -Is now the right time to send this email?
- -How will I know if this email is a success?
Unfortunately, too many people simply jump into an email by brain-dumping whatever’s on their mind. STOP DOING THAT! This person is not your therapist or diary. In fact, it’s intellectually lazy to simply vomit what’s on your mind into an email. Show the busy person respect by carefully thinking about THEM and THEIR GOALS before writing yours down. And when you do -- when you take a few quiet minutes to think strategically -- you can dramatically increase your response rate.
USE THIS WITH: People you just meet; people you casually know; people you don’t know at all but aspire to get something from.
DO NOT USE THIS WITH: People you intimately know (close friends, contacts) as you don’t always have to have a goal with them.
2 Hack the Person’s Mind
My friend Charlie Hoehn coined the phrase “hacking someone’s mind,” but master communicators have been doing this for generations. Here is Charlie describing, in depth, how he managed to engage -- and get hired by -extremely busy people.It’s simple: Do your homework! Learn everything you can about the person you’re contacting. The more you know about the person, the more personal your communication can be, and the greater the likelihood of a positive response. At the minimum, to research a person you should
Read their blog archives -Read their Twitter account
- -Do a Google search on their name and company
- -Do a Google News search on their name and company
- -Do an IceRocket.com blog search on their name and company -Read their online bookmarks (e.g. delicious.com) -Visit their company web site, especially the About Us section
- -Check their LinkedIn profile
- -Check their Facebook profile
especially on personal web pages or blogs.
Sound like a lot of work? It is! This is what separates email winners and losers. By the end of your re- search, you should try to have a handle on as many of the following points as possible, especially if you’re trying to build a long-term relationship:
- -His career background and trajectory.
- -The details of his job day-to-day as much as possible.
- -His personal interests: what she reads, what she does on the weekends, her favorite books, articles, movies, and other cultural tastes.
- -His relationship status. (Someone who is married with kids thinks about her life/time much differently than someone who is single.)
- -Mutual friends you may have. (Via Facebook and LinkedIn.)
Yes, it takes some time. But the people who invest the time hacking minds consistently get access to top-quality people. Acquiring this information beforehand is important for a few reasons:
First, it makes it more likely that you’ll be able to build rapport with the per- son when you communicate with him. For example, if through your research you discovered he competed in the Olympics as a ping-pong player, when she casually mentions his interest in ping-pong, you can make the connection and probe deeper.
Second, when you’re informed, you won’t ask basic, dumb questions. For busy people, this is one of their top annoyances: having to address a question that they have already addressed elsewhere. How many times do you think I’ve been asked, “What should I do with my money?” Too many times. Way too many. Most importantly, once you’ve hacked the busy person’s mind, you’re more likely to know what will catch his attention, what you can offer him, or what he is responsive to. USE THIS WITH: Anyone new you’re meeting: Research him, figure out his mo- tivations or frustrations, how you can solve them and fold that into your request.
DO NOT USE THIS WITH: People you intimately know (close friends, contacts) as you already know what they want.
Before you ask a busy person a question, make sure they haven’t answered it elsewhere.
4). The UNODIR Strategy
Tired of bureaucracy? Use the UNODIR Strategy to get something done at work. Like many people, I’ve often wanted to bang my head on my desk while trying to get something done at work. That’s because everyone believes they need to have a say in something, leading to too many worthless opinions stopping proj- ects from going anywhere. When you really need to get something done and you’re tired of waiting for everyone to weigh in, that’s when you want to apply the UNODIR Strategy. But be warned: You can get in trouble for this, so be sure you know what you’re doing. As with many innovative acronyms, this one comes from the military.5). Strategic Updates
How do you build upon a successful meeting and email exchange? By staying in touch, of course. This is one of the most challenging -- and important -- strategies of all. You want to keep the lines of communication open. A good rule of thumb is to send quarterly updates by email. You also want to meet in person or talk on the phone as frequently as seems possible. Of course you need to keep in mind that this is a busy person and he might not want a new BFF. Only contact him as often as he seems receptive to and cater your updates to his preferred style. Email? Blog posts? Figure out what works for him. Make it about HIM. Some great opportunities to check in are when you see his name in the news, or read an article he wrote or was quot- ed in, or you read an article about a competitor that you thought he should know about. It’s very unimpressive to send a blank note saying “Hey – what’s new with you?”In general, send relevant notes from your meeting, interesting industry stuff you came across, notes from conversations you had that would be interesting to him...anything that shows you’re thinking about him and offering him valuable informatio n. If you’re not looking for a reply, say so. If your update is purely informational, include the words “No reply necessary” up near the top. Later in this guide, you’ll find examples of real newsletters and email updates.
USE THIS WITH: Everyone you’re interested in having a relationship with, no matter how small. For the seemingly unimportant, include them on an auto- mated newsletter update list.
DO NOT USE THIS WITH: For someone who’s clearly expressed that they’re not interested in working with you (this is extremely rare)
Most people stay in touch too little, not too much. Busy people get a lot of email. The marginal cost of each additional email is minimal. When in doubt, send it. But make it good!
6). Power Dynamics and the Wide/Narrow Formula
Congratulations! You got a “Yes.” But it’s not over yet. Just because a busy person has agreed to meet with you doesn’t mean it will happen. Especially since it’s so easy to drop the ball during the scheduling process. Screwing up the logistics pro- cess is a prime example of what I call the “Failure of the Last Mile.” The quintessential example of last-mile failure is when a person spends hundreds of hours planning an event, thousands of dollars on catering and chairs and speakers…and then forgets to send an email the day before reminding the attendees to actually show up. The event is a flop because the event planner missed that very last step, the “last mile.” So let’s make sure that doesn’t happen when scheduling the meeting:-Respect the power dynamic. You reached out to him. You are asking for his time. That means you should proactively offer to meet him at his location of choice and at a conve- nient time. To suggest a coffee shop near your office can seem aloof and even arrogant. -Work around the busy person. Use their time zone (don’t make them think). Explicitly offer to work around their schedule because they are busier. And acknowledge how many emails they probably get, so you’d be honored to get even 10 minutes of their time. -Wide/Narrow Formula. Be explicit that you can work around his schedule and meet any time -- but help him decide by suggesting specific times. For example, you might say, “I’m totally free on Monday and can accommodate your schedule. How does 3 PM work?” This technique works for content, too. For example “I’d love to talk about all of those things, but I think you’d particularly enjoy hearing about my trip to China.” Your goal is to minimize the back-and-forth of emails! USE THIS WITH: Anytime you’re trying to schedule a meeting with someone who’s agreed to meet you.
7 Social Proof
I’ve saved the most powerful technique for last: The best way to break through a busy person’s inbox is to get introduced through a trusted referral. I cannot emphasize this enough: Getting an introduction from someone trusted by the busy person dramatically increases your odds of a positive response. For example, using a subject line of “Mike suggested I get in touch” virtually guarantees a response from a busy person. This is because: -Busy people use their social network as a filter for credibility (“If my friend Mike recommends him, they’re probably good”)-As a courtesy, busy people will generally accept a small meeting or phone call if one of their contacts suggests him, even if they immediately know there’s no interest. (“Well, I’ll meet this guy as a courtesy to Mike since he’s helped me out in the past. It can’t hurt for five or ten minutes.”)
HOW A BUSY VENTURE CAPITALIST VIEWS REFERRALS
“While we accept business plan submissions from everyone, we’ve found that the most effective introduction is from someone who knows you and knows us. We place a much higher priority on deals that are referred/endorsed by people we know and trust. That includes people employed by existing First Round Capital portfolio companies, lawyers, accountants, entrepreneurs, bankers and recruiters. We also are big fans of LinkedIn – if you use LinkedIn, please feel free to reach out to us through your network.”
“While we accept business plan submissions from everyone, we’ve found that the most effective introduction is from someone who knows you and knows us. We place a much higher priority on deals that are referred/endorsed by people we know and trust. That includes people employed by existing First Round Capital portfolio companies, lawyers, accountants, entrepreneurs, bankers and recruiters. We also are big fans of LinkedIn – if you use LinkedIn, please feel free to reach out to us through your network.”
