It’s the first thing we check up on the morning and the last thing we look at before bed. Yes, we’re talking about email, not our significant others. Whether you’re writing coworkers, family, or a crush, there’s an art to getting someone to respond. Boomerang, an email scheduling service, analyzed more than 5.3 million messages to figure out what makes people reply. Here were the biggest takeaways:
1. Write like a third grader.
Just because you can use extemporaneous and pompous in a sentence doesn’t mean you should. Short words and short sentences garner get the most responses.
2. Butter up, but don’t overdo it.
Flattery can go a long way. Just make sure your message doesn’t get to be over-the-top cheery (Great! Awesome! Wonderful! Amazing!) We get it. You’re a fan. This is incredible. But one exclamation point gets that message across.
Same goes for angry emails. If you get too negative, people start to tune out. So writing “I had an awful experience at your store today. The clerk was very rude. Please do something to make it right.” is more likely to get a reply than “Your clerk is a douchebag. Piss off, and I…