I havewrittenalotof stuff recently thats more on the instructional side and I promise you that this isnt going to become a Substack thats entirely how-to guides. I also realize that the content has begun to oscillate rapidly between cultural analysis and How To Do Stuff but hey its free right? If I charged money Id feel worse about it. Anyway I was thinking recently about how my job works and how much of it really comes down to writing an email that makes someone do something. Its definitely reductive to say thats theonlything but it is also remarkable how often the process comes down to whether I can get someone to do something based on an email or a DM. Which is why Im writing a newsletter thats basically all about how that works and what it means. Some of this may seem obvious but based on 99% of PR pitches I see it isnt well-known. Why Am I Sending This Email? And Why Am I Sending It To This Person? Oftentimes emails are sent with little regard for their purpose or existence. Sometimes it may seem like they have a point a PR person sending a story idea thats barely if at all related to you for example but doesnt seem to have that logic flowing through it. The very soul of what you write should be dedicated to actually doing something and everything in it should be part of that purpose. Furthermore the email needs to actually apply to the person its going to. This means you should research them and understand not only who they are and what they do but how you can make the email youre sending applicable to them. For example a bad PR pitch is usually bad because its purpose getting a story is fairly vague and doesnt actually connect to the content of the email itself. A good PR pitch is written and delivered to someone that its applicable to and actually does stuff to get that thing to happen. In essence youre not getting a story youre trying to get the person in question to talk to the client click a link read a thing and take action upon it basically making it easy to do the thing you want so that the other thing you want will happen. If Im pitching a reporter with the intention of getting them to cover something Ill send them a short email saying what its about and end it with a clear call to action either herere the assets for the story (assuming theyre a reporter that would write a story based off of an email some quotes and images which does happen in specific industry press) or the same thing but it ends with the assets (because they will need them) and a question of when theyre free to talk to the client in question. You want to make it clear what you want and give them the person reading it specifically everything they need to ideally make the decision you want. This applies to basically any situation you find yourself in where you need something. You want to be writing something for the person reading it thats applicable to them with clear intentions. What Do I Want? And What Do They Need To Know? Say youre complaining to a hotel manager that you had a bad stay. The temptation that a lot of people have is to go nuts with threats and nasty words to scare them. That doesnt motivate anyone! What you want to do is lay out exactly what happened the consequences of what happened and what you would like in return. You can even layer on that youre unhappy and that you wont be staying there again unless theres compensation. The important thing is that the email isnt simply a screed of anger and poison even if you feel that way the person in question likely didnt personally do the bad thing and even if they werent helpful at the time being persuasive and illustrative is a hundred times more effective (and moral) than hurting someone. In the realm of PR writing an email to someone about something should generally come down to some basic things: Whats the thing? Whats new about it? Why is it relevant to me? What do I need to do to either learn more or potentially take action on this? Say Im pitching Gumbus.AI raised $40 million in a Series B. Theyre a company that uses AI to tell you the best vendor for enterprise clients. Most likely a reporter wants to know on receiving this email who funded them when the news is going out what the company does (in short but also not so short that it makes no sense) and why it matters to them. The latter part can come simply from good targeting reading their stuff and understanding what they cover so you can simply write an email that endearingly tells themthere is news its happening here the news is this and this is the person to talk to. It may be a little simpler say a reporter you read a lot of that you want to grab coffee with or learn exactly what they want to hear about. Make the email short and sweet hey I read a bunch of your stuff I know you write about XYZ but would you wanna grab coffee and chat about what you care about in detail? Or perhaps its a simple are you interested in this kinda thing I read your stuff and its on the edge I think? In many cases with reporters its not exactlythe thingto say I want you to write about this story mostly because their evaluation of whether something is a story doesnt really come from just an email. What youre doing is giving them the tools to make that evaluation themselves and usually them taking a call is a sign that yes there is potentially a story that they need to investigate themselves. If youre trying to talk to an investor about investing most likely your short email should include the metrics that would matter to an investor total addressable market revenue (unless you dont want to share it in a quick email) growth % over X amount of time unique things about you and cruciallya very clear ask at the end hey can we grab 30 minutes with you? Can I send you my deck? You dont need to includeeverything you need to includewhats necessary. Be Useful (And Easy) Whatever it is youre asking make it the easiest thing in the world to actually deal with. Want them to talk to you for 30 minutes? Give them your calendar availability or aCalendly linkso they can pick one themselves. Need them to speak to a client? Be ready to respond and loop in said clientand please god respond quickly. Want them to write a story about something based off of your email? Include everything theyd need pricing screenshots or images facts and figures and make it super easy to read like in a Google Doc. Pitching a story that you want to write for an outlet? Make it a tight 4 or 5 bullet point thing that clearly illustrates a narrative how youd get the story done and how much time itd take and make it clear youre available. Sending a proposal? Lay out exactly what youd do who youve done it for how much itd cost and when you can start. People who are very good at getting people to do stuff do not do so using black magic. They do so by offering people as quick and easy a decision as possible directly aligning it with their interests and making the process of saying yes as easy to say as no as possible. And they accept a no gracefully any response is usually a thanks for reading anyway or if it remotely challenges it is similarly quick and easy to read and address or dismiss. A lot of people treat the very basics of communication as a monolith. They want to cram every slice of information into it as possible and write what they believe is a compelling email when most compelling things arent based on the linguistics involved but on the actual content of the words the person is reading. Obfuscating fact with fanciful language is a great way to get ignored. Writing a huge amount of text is a great way to get ignored. Anything you do that will make the person say nah Im not reading that is useless to you. Pragmatism is always your goal. Always. And even if its a no you always want to get your emails or messages read and responded to. If thats not the goal what the hell is? This post originally appeared on the Wheres Your Ed At newsletter. Read more here. The post How To Write An Email (or Message) People Will Read And Respond To appeared first on The Future Buzz. Original source: http://feedproxy.google.com/r/TheFutureBuzz/3/oVBE6FTB828/ The post How To Write An Email (or Message) People Will Read And Respond To appeared first on connect social networks. via Connect Social Networks http://connectsocialnetworks.com/how-to-write-an-email-or-message-people-will-read-and-respond-to/