6 Strategies for Emails That Spur Others to Action

In email, where you put content trumps the message itself.

Reviewed by Abigail Fagan

Key points

• Studies reveal that readers are likelier to open emails with subject lines specifying actions.
• Email audiences respond best to email when messages reserve elaboration for later paragraphs.
• Realistic deadlines in email spur action from audiences, but unrealistic deadlines deter it.

Email is the unquestioned workhorse of communication. Because of its immediacy, writers often mistakenly think of email as an extension of speech. Instead, email can also have the unforgiving durability of print. And, because email costs us nothing to send, we send and receive too much of it.

Follow these six rules for writing email to minimize fall-out from email gaffes and maximize effectiveness.

1. Convey Required Actions and Due Dates in the Subject Line

Despite receiving organizational email they seldom open, writers forget that the subject line is the single most important line in the entire email. The subject line may be the only line your audience actually reads, while a good subject line (and an important sender) dictates whether your reader ever sees a word of the email’s main message. In fact, readers are likelier to open emails with subject lines that feature instructions. Lead with a verb, follow with an object, and end with a deadline. Good examples include Need Your Quarterly Report by Friday at 4pm or Sign up for Training on Claude AI before Wednesday. Sales or marketing emails also gain more punch when you lead with a verb: Make Your Videos Click-Magnets.

2. Focus on WIIFY (What's In It For You)

Most writers believe readers need immediate background or a rationale for the email’s content. In reality, readers care only about two things: what they need to do and what will benefit them. As a result, your opening paragraph should lead with at least one reason why the reader will benefit from complying with the request that will inevitably crop up in the email. Then you should tell readers exactly the what, how and when: what action you want them to take, specific steps they should take to complete the action, and, most importantly, a deadline. Put this content in the opening paragraph with the deadline in the last sentence, where readers remember it best and longest.

3. Anticipate How Your Audience Reads Email

Unlike an email from a long-lost friend, readers will seldom read your email as carefully as your mother would. Readers will likely read your opening paragraph but will relentlessly skim, scan, or even skip the rest of the email. For this reason, always put the required action and deadline in the opening paragraph and reserve the background and rationale for a second paragraph.

4. Email ≠ Speech ≠ Texting

Email can seem deceptively close to speech because you can knock one out in seconds and send it an eye-blink. However, you should think about what you need to tell your audience, rather than figuring your message out on the fly—a step that typically generates the inefficient messiness of speech. This kind of speech-on-the-page sucks up readers’ time without clearly telling your audience what response you seek from them. When organizations treat email as “business critical” messages, employees report less email volume—and also minimize their experience of email overload.

Even if you avoid trampling on whatever goodwill readers potentially have toward you, your rambling email will get you a reputation for time-wasting emails that require at least two more emails for clarifications. And this reaction will typically prompt your audience to avoid opening your emails, unless they face some sort of penalty for just skipping over them or even deleting them, unread. In one study, passive-aggressive emails predicted employees’ productivity—or lack of it, as rude email, received in the morning, led to afternoons of aimless browsing online.

5. No Deadline = No Action

Even if your email makes a simple request, if you fail to include a deadline, you’ll likely discover you receive zero responses from your audience. The reason? To manage busy schedules, most readers work toward deadlines, rather than outcomes. Typically, deadlines significantly improve response rates, even for national surveys and mass mailings.

With deadlines, the time frame can act as a spur to action—or deter your audience from responding. Ideally, for requests that require significant work from your audience, use a timeline at least 30 days ahead. But be prepared to follow up with reminder emails a week before the project’s actual deadline, reminding your audience of how this action ultimately benefits them. For requests that require minimal effort from your readers, give a deadline five to seven days out from your email. And, as researchers have discovered, if you provide deadlines with too much lead time, your audience will procrastinate until you remind them of the looming deadline.

6. Never Send an Email When You’re Angry

If someone has annoyed you intensely, write a response. Then tuck that email, unsent, away on your desktop for at least three days. Consider this amount of time a cooling-off period that enables you to gain perspective on the initial email and your response. Nasty emails damage relationships and employee productivity—costing some organizations millions in legal tussles and damage to reputations.

Email can permanently damage your relationship with a client, colleague, or superior. Even more than hurtful words you can never unsay, an email is even more long-lasting than a published article or book. Offended readers can easily search for it, share it, and reignite their anger at you.

A Final Test

If you would never say something face-to-face to a friend, colleague, or client, avoid putting it in an email. Unlike speech, email lacks any indication of tone—and emojis will only buy you so much slack.