Email Writing Best Practices

The One Prompt To Make ChatGPT Write Naturally: (save it for later, to copy & paste) Prompt: "Act like a professional content writer and communication strategist. Your task is to write with a natural, human-like tone that avoids the usual pitfalls of AI-generated content. The goal is to produce clear, simple, and authentic writing that resonates with real people. Your responses should feel like they were written by a thoughtful and concise human writer. You are writing the following: [INSERT YOUR TOPIC OR REQUEST HERE] Follow these detailed step-by-step guidelines: Step 1: Use plain and simple language. Avoid long or complex sentences. Opt for short, clear statements.  - Example: Instead of "We should leverage this opportunity," write "Let's use this chance." Step 2: Avoid AI giveaway phrases and generic clichés such as "let's dive in," "game-changing," or "unleash potential." Replace them with straightforward language.  - Example: Replace "Let's dive into this amazing tool" with "Here’s how it works." Step 3: Be direct and concise. Eliminate filler words and unnecessary phrases. Focus on getting to the point.  - Example: Say "We should meet tomorrow," instead of "I think it would be best if we could possibly try to meet." Step 4: Maintain a natural tone. Write like you speak. It’s okay to start sentences with “and” or “but.” Make it feel conversational, not robotic.  - Example: “And that’s why it matters.” Step 5: Avoid marketing buzzwords, hype, and overpromises. Use neutral, honest descriptions.  - Avoid: "This revolutionary app will change your life."   - Use instead: "This app can help you stay organized." Step 6: Keep it real. Be honest. Don’t try to fake friendliness or exaggerate.  - Example: “I don’t think that’s the best idea.” Step 7: Simplify grammar. Don’t worry about perfect grammar if it disrupts natural flow. Casual expressions are okay.  - Example: “i guess we can try that.” Step 8: Remove fluff. Avoid using unnecessary adjectives or adverbs. Stick to the facts or your core message.  - Example: Say “We finished the task,” not “We quickly and efficiently completed the important task.” Step 9: Focus on clarity. Your message should be easy to read and understand without ambiguity.  - Example: “Please send the file by Monday.” Follow this structure rigorously. Your final writing should feel honest, grounded, and like it was written by a clear-thinking, real person. Take a deep breath and work on this step-by-step." ___ PS: For better results, always use ChatGPT-o3.

Want to write like a CEO? Cut the fluff. The best leaders communicate with: ✅ Clarity ✅ Brevity ✅ Impact They don’t send long, rambling emails. They don’t hide behind corporate jargon. They get to the point fast. I have written four books and have advised 300+ CEOs on their communications. Here’s the 5-part writing framework top executives use: 1 – The Subject Line Should Say It All Before you write anything, ask: ➡️ What’s the ONE thing I need them to know? ➡️ What’s the ONE action I need them to take? If you can’t answer this, don’t send it yet. 2 – Lead with the Bottom Line Busy people don’t have time for long intros. 💡 Start with the main point, not the backstory. ❌ “Hope you’re doing well! I wanted to reach out because we’ve been working on…” ✅ “Here’s the update: [Key message in one line].” 3 – Cut the Fluff High-level executives don’t read wordy emails. They scan. ✂ Remove “just,” “I think,” and “wanted to.” ✅ “We should move forward.” ✅ “The results show a 20% increase.” 4 – Be Direct, Not Rude Great leaders are clear, not cold. 🚫 “Per our last discussion, I believe this approach might be beneficial.” ✅ “Let’s move forward with this approach. Thoughts?” 5 – Always End with a Clear Ask ❌ “Let me know what you think.” ✅ “Can you approve this by Thursday?” 6 – Add Warmth Charismatic people are both competent and warm. If you follow 1-5, you may come across as competent but it may be hard to connect. Therefore, add some warmth at the end. ❌ “Looking forward to your response.” ✅ “Appreciate your time on this—excited to hear your thoughts!” 📌 Follow me Oliver Aust for daily strategies on leadership communications.

How to Write Cold Emails That Actually Get Replies Cold emailing can feel like shooting arrows in the dark—most get ignored. But with the right approach, your emails can land opportunities instead of in the spam folder. Here’s how: 1. Subject Line is King • Keep it short & personalized (e.g., “Quick Question, [First Name]?” or “Loved Your Work on [Project]”). • Avoid spammy words like “Free,” “Limited Offer,” or “Act Now.” 2. Get to the Point (Fast!) • Nobody has time for long intros. State your purpose in the first two lines. • Example: “Hi [Name], I saw your work on [Project] and found it insightful. I’d love to connect and discuss [Specific Interest].” 3. Personalization Over Copy-Paste • Mention something specific about them—their work, recent post, or company. • Example: “I noticed your team at [Company] recently launched [Product]. The strategy behind it was brilliant.” 4. Value Over Ask • Instead of immediately asking for a favor, show how you can help them. • Example: “I’ve been working on [related topic] and found insights that might interest you.” 5. Clear and Low-Effort CTA • Make it easy for them to respond. Instead of “Let me know when you’re free,” try: • “Would love to chat—does Tuesday at 3 PM work for a quick 10-minute call?” 6. Follow Up Without Being Annoying • If no response, follow up in 3-5 days with a short, polite nudge. • Example: “Just wanted to check if you had a chance to look at my last email. Happy to connect whenever convenient.” Cold emails aren’t about luck—they’re about strategy. Master this, and you’ll turn cold contacts into warm opportunities. Remember one cold email and application on portal made me land up in JPMC. Have a cold email tip that worked for you? Drop it in the comments.

Inaccessibility is all around us - but sometimes we’re doing it without even realising. I’ve made every one of these mistakes in the past. It wasn’t until someone took the time to point them out that I learned how inaccessible I was being - despite having good intentions. Here are 5 ways you might be being inaccessible, without even knowing: 1. Long LinkedIn headlines or overuse of emojis. Screen reader users hear your full headline every single time you post or comment. Every. Single. Time. Even when it’s truncated visually. That can mean hearing your full job title, emojis, and taglines multiple times before even reaching your post content. Try to keep your headline under 100 characters or two lines max - it makes a huge difference. 2. Long email signatures, HTTP links, and unlabelled images. Screen readers will read out every line - including things like “H-T-T-P-colon-slash-slash…” for full URLs. Images without alt text are completely invisible to screen reader users. Keep it short and simple, and use alt text wherever you can. Put only essential info in your email signature and put two dashes at the top to signal your signature is starting. And remember, it’s not your marketing tool. When was the last time you actually bought something from an email signature?! 3. Not running documents through the accessibility checker. You run a spell check, so why not an acceeeibility check? It’s a quick step, but it can flag things like heading structures, contrast issues, and missing image descriptions. It takes seconds and makes a big impact. 4. Using colour alone to convey meaning. For example, “I’ve marked the important cells in green” doesn’t help if someone can’t perceive colour easily. Neither does “I’ve shaded the cells for our RAG status”. Always add a label, icon, or another indicator. 5. Using all lowercase hashtags. #thisisnotaccessible - screen readers can’t parse where one word ends and another begins. Use camel case instead - #ThisIsAccessible - so screen readers pronounce the words correctly. Small changes, big impact. If you’ve made some of these mistakes before - welcome to the club. We learn, we improve, we do better. #DisabilityInclusion #Disability #DisabilityEmployment #Adjustments #DiversityAndInclusion #Content #A11y

Your emails say more about you than you think. 👇 Here’s how to make every email polished and professional. Acknowledge Delays Gracefully ✘ "Sorry for the late response." ✔ "Thank you for your patience." Be Clear with Requests ✘ "Let me know what works for you." ✔ "Could you confirm if this works for you?" Own Your Mistakes ✘ "Sorry, I missed that." ✔ "Thanks for pointing that out—I’ll fix it right away." Close Emails Effectively ✘ "Let me know if you need anything." ✔ "Feel free to reach out if you have any questions." Make Follow-Ups Professional ✘ "Just following up on this." ✔ "When can I expect an update on this?" Show Respect for Their Time ✘ "Can we talk about this soon?" ✔ "Would you have 15 minutes this week to discuss this?" Be Confident, Not Tentative ✘ "I think we should consider…" ✔ "Here’s what I propose we do." Avoid Wordy Explanations ✘ "I spent a lot of time rewriting this to make it perfect." ✔ "This email outlines the key points—we can discuss more in person." Offer Solutions, Not Problems ✘ "I’m not sure what to do here." ✔ "Here’s what I suggest as the next step—what are your thoughts?" Set Clear Expectations ✘ "Does this make sense?" ✔ "Let me know if this aligns with your expectations." Be Polite When Asking for Help ✘ "I need this ASAP." ✔ "Would you be able to assist me with this by [specific deadline]?" Keep It Professional When Scheduling ✘ "What time works for you?" ✔ "Are you available at [specific time and date]? If not, let me know what works instead." Emails reflect your professionalism. Get them right, and you’ll always leave a great impression. ➞ Start today by refining your communication style. -- Think this could help someone? Share it to improve the way they communicate. ♻️

Welp, Gmail’s done it again. More new updates to make the inbox experience better *for recipients*, much to the chagrin of some senders. The Promotions tab is getting ranked by relevance (hell yeah), post-purchase mail is getting its own swim lane with a dedicated Purchases tab (just in time for the holiday email season!), and Manage Subscriptions makes pruning senders you no longer want to hear from effortless. Why does *this* change matter, given all the new features they’ve been rolling out recently? Because it means delivery ≠ visibility… even if you send at the “perfect” time for your subscribers. In this new reality, two people can open at the same time and see different stacks. If you’re not in their regular rotation, you’re headed to the Promotions basement (or shuffled to page two)… send-time optimization be damned. Tabs are optional, but the consequences of not sending it right are universal. Ranked visibility rewards usefulness and consistency, not hacks or send-time optimization. Here are some things you can do right meowww… 1️⃣ Separate (and de-glam) your transactional. This one’s all about business up front and (promotions) party in the back. Dedicated subdomain/IPs, and kill the promo pixie dust that might make your business-critical mail seem promotional: upsell CTAs, cross-sell banners, and “while you’re here” copy. 2️⃣ Lean into easier unsubscribes Allowing users to easily “Manage Subscriptions” will accelerate list churn, whether you like it or not. But they don’t hurt deliverability (unless there are a TON), and there are ways you can encourage would-be unsubscribers to stay with you by getting in front of it, like offering a preference center where subscribers can opt-down instead of out. 3️⃣ Adjust your Promotions presentation for “Most Relevant” You can’t force… really anything in your recipients these days. But you can encourage them to engage by making it super clear what your message is about and why they need it in their lives with very little effort. For example, instead of: “Our Fall Drop is Here”, get specific! Say the outcome: “24-hr restock on [X] you favorited” 4️⃣ Update your scorecard to match how Gmail ranks mail Unlike the “Most Recent” view, where your visibility’s been mostly about timing, getting mail delivered under a “Most Relevant” reality doesn’t equate to a fair shot at being seen (even if you land in the inbox). 💌 Optimize for speed of engagement, reach (how many engage), and stickiness (how often they engage). Metrics like Time-to-First-Open, First-6-Hour Click Share, Active Gmail Reach (30d), Click Reach (30/60/90), Replies/“helpful” signals, and Persistence (opened 2+ of last 4) will help you figure out how your mail’s really landing. 5️⃣ Stop blasting to everyone. No, seriously. Stop it. I wrote all about this in my recent Send It Right blog post (and newsletter). Get the full scoop: https://lnkd.in/gSP5GtgE

The one email that separates closers from everyone else You just finished a killer demo. The prospect was nodding along. They said things like “this is exactly what we’ve been looking for.” You’re feeling good. Now what? You send The Email. It’s not a “thanks for your time” note. It’s not a recap of every feature you showed. It’s an alignment document that moves the deal forward. Here’s what it includes: 1. A clear summary of the problem the customer is trying to solve (in their words, not yours). 2. A vision for success that paints the “city on the hill” — the desired outcome they told you they want. 3. The specific ways your product helps them get there. 4. A proposed timeline and next step — ideally with a date and meeting link attached. Think of this as the unofficial “executive summary” that your champion can forward to their boss. Or use to prep for internal conversations. It does three things: - Shows that you listened. - Makes your champion look good. - Keeps the momentum going. Most reps don’t send this email. Or they send a version that’s too vague to be useful. The best reps? They send it immediately after the demo. It’s short. Sharp. Specific. Want to stand out? Send The Email.

Your inbox warm-up is training providers to distrust you. (I'm talking about warming up new sending domains / inboxes for cold or outbound email — not newsletters.) Agency owners tell me this weekly: → "We warmed it up for 3 weeks" → "Open rates still tanked" → "Outlook keeps flagging us" Their warm-up did exactly what it was designed to do. The problem? It was designed without real deliverability infrastructure. This is where tools like Warmy.io - Email channel. Reliable. come in — not as a growth hack, but as the control layer between your domains and inbox providers. Reality #1: Volume ramp ≠ reputation engineering → Day 1: Send 10 → Day 7: Send 25 → Day 14: Send 50 → Day 21: Still flagged That's not warm-up. That's guessing with your domain. Reality #2: Generic warm-up creates generic signals Most inbox warm-up fails because it produces: → Shallow engagement patterns providers learn to discount → Repetitive behavior that looks automated at scale → No provider-specific logic (Gmail ≠ Outlook ≠ Yahoo) → No monitoring. No alerts. No guardrails. Inbox providers don't reward activity. They reward believable, consistent behavior over time. Reality #3: Authentication ≠ inbox placement I've audited sending domains with: → SPF / DKIM / DMARC valid ✓ → Domain health marked "high" ✓ → Inbox placement above 90% ✓ Still landing in spam. The difference between inboxes that recover and inboxes that burn? Controls. Monitoring. Observability. Not copy. Not timing. Not subject lines. What real inbox warm-up infrastructure looks like (how I use Warmy): → Provider-weighted logic (Gmail tolerance ≠ Outlook tolerance) → Continuous domain + inbox reputation monitoring (catches drift before damage) → Inbox placement testing by provider (not averages) → Dynamic warm-up control (auto slow-down when signals dip) → Real-time alerts (before domains get burned) → Seed lists designed for realistic engagement Cold email doesn't fail at send time. It fails weeks earlier — during warm-up. The fix isn't "write better emails." The fix is treating deliverability like infrastructure. 🔗 Try it yourself 👉 Explore Warmy here: https://lnkd.in/gGZzMhv6 Free 7-day trial — see inbox placement by provider before you scale outbound.

📥 How To Design Better Email Newsletter UX (Without Pop-Ups). How to gather better emails instead of disrupting customers every single time ↓ 🤔 On average, people have 1.7–1.9 different email accounts. ✅ Some have 3+ emails: personal, work, shopping, newsletters. ✅ They all differ significantly in opening rates and attention spans. ✅ Users are protective of private accounts due to spam and scam. 🚫 You will rarely get a first-class email with a newsletter popup. 🤔 People use temporary emails just to just get a coupon code. ✅ Businesses don‘t want random accounts, but first-class leads. 🚫 Many lists are overflown with fake, disposable, unusable leads. ✅ They have high bounce rates, poor opening rates, low conversion. ✅ They are expensive to keep and decrease email delivery rates. ✅ Show the newsletter box when it matters most to customers. ✅ Good option: on the product page, best next to “Add to cart”. ✅ In checkout, allow users to subscribe and use coupon right away. ✅ Verify customer’s email just before and just after the purchase. 🚫 Avoid email pop-ups: they are disruptive, and often dismissed. When it comes to newsletters, our task is to find the right timing when customers care most about the correctness of their email address. It never happens on the homepage, and rarely on category pages. It never happens on search results pages or support pages either. For users to care, they must feel at least somewhat invested in whatever the company is offering. And, most importantly, they should recognize the value that leaving an *accurate* email address would bring to them. Typically it happens on 5 types of pages: 📣 Promotion pages ← “We’ll send a confirmation message to that email”. 🍎 Product pages ← “Leave email and check out with coupon applied”. 🎟️ Sales page ← “Get notified about sales and re-stocked items”. 💳 Final checkout step ← “Review your address for confirmation email.” 🎉 Purchase confirmation page ← “Didn’t get a confirmation? Edit your email.” Sprinkle newsletter boxes across these pages and measure impact. Track not just the list growth, but bounce rates, opening rates and conversion. Your goal is to be at least close to the average email opening rate of 21.8%, which is a standard goal across industries. And: don’t forget to clean up temporary emails from your list — some businesses aren’t aware how expensive non-existent leads can be. You might be surprised how effective a simple change like that can be. It’s great for customers and for businesses — without all the frustrations newsletter sign-up pop-ups bring along. Useful resources: Email Landscape in 2024, by Venngage https://lnkd.in/eKbde84z Delete Annoying Popups, by 🔲 Michal Malewicz 🔳 https://lnkd.in/exshZWuv Right Timing Matters For Newsletters, by yours truly https://lnkd.in/ekAKc9dK #ux #design