Business communication: how to define email voice tone?

Business communication: It’s not what you say, but how you say it

The well-known expression “It’s not what you say, but how you say it”. It very well characterizes the business communication including emails. Emails need body language and tone of voice. That’s why you have to make them clear, relevant, and appropriate. Otherwise, you can face misunderstanding and distrust and eventually lose all connections between you and the people whom you are sending emails to.

The better email is the one that’s clear, informative, and uses bullet points. And another types of email doesn’t work because it begins with illogical, lacks focus, and includes irrelevant details. Email can be a powerful tool for communicating with your customers so it`s better take a lot of time to carefully craft emails.

And of course emails are easily shared. People can save your message, can forward it on to anyone. That’s why it’s vital to avoid sending inappropriate or irrelevant emails that could spread like a viral meme, hurting your brand.

Easy steps to make your email communications work hard

To your happiness, there are few steps you can take to make sure your email communications work hard to strengthen your relationships and have the right positive impact your brand’s marketing efforts.

Before creating your email, you need to clarify for yourself what goals it will pursue. Emails can be about anything, but they usually fulfill 1 of 2 purposes: to inform or to confirm. To inform can mean recapping a meeting, providing status updates, sharing a document, or making an introduction. To confirm can mean verifying an appointment, asking for information from a colleague, or reaching out to a vendor for a price estimate.

If you want feedback from customers, make sure your call to action is clear. For example, if you want to set up a meeting, you might write: “Please let me know if this date works. Or let me know when you’re available.”

Once you have a clear goal, do a quick mind check: Is email really the best way to business communication that purpose? If you need to get information as quickly as possible, email might not be an effective format. For this reasons better use messengers or make a phone call. People usually scan email in the morning or in the evening.

Also, email isn’t ideal for issues needing detailed discussions, like extensive brainstorming. It can make it hard to ask follow-up questions or give clear, concise remarks. When it comes to difficult or sticky situations, email is no replacement for heartful tete-a-tete conversation. Email might save you an awkward business communication up front, but it can also lead to confusion and feelings of resentment in the future.

At last, email isn’t the best way to share private or sensitive information. Emails and email services are vulnerable. So there is a possibility that your letter will fall into the hands of intruders.

You don’t have to be Shakespeare

So you’ve decided that your goal is worthy of your electronic message. How do you craft an effective message? Lucky day: You don’t have to be Shakespeare. You just need to know how to get your point across. Start by making sure that your email is concise and imbued with meaning.

If you spent the whole day typing out an email that now reads like a Charles Dickens novel, make edits and create an abridged version. Do not forget that your subscribers will be reading the email on theirs phone. To make sure your email is succinct enough, quickly scan it and see if you can pull out all the main points.

Next, make sure to use an appropriate tone of voice. When you’re writing a business email, you’re representing your brand or company.

Even if it’s a shipping confirmation or a password reset email, make sure the language is consistent with your brand’s tone of voice. Adjust your tone according to the recipient. Writing a reprimanding email to a delinquent vendor or employee might help them respect your priorities. Sending a strongly-worded email to your CEO might not be a good idea. The words you choose to use can also affect the tone of your email.

Words and phrases like “Yes, but,” “actually,” “sorry,” “kind of,” “in my opinion,” or “I’m no expert” might seem like harmless fillers, but they’re actually “shrinkers” which can make your emails, purpose, and even you, seem weak.

Also, phrases like “I think,” “I believe,” and “I feel” can make you seem indecisive. If you’re giving your opinion, provide a reason for your decision and your thinking behind it, and open it up to a business communication.

For example, instead of “I don’t think this color works,” say, “The green does not align with our brand style guide. Please refer to it for color selection purposes.”

On the other hand, make sure not to come off as overly aggressive. You may think that writing in ALL CAPS or using exclamation points emphasizes your opinion, but to your recipients it may come off as angry.

Take a moment to think about all the “shrinker” words you have a habit using. If you exclude them, you’ll polish your text to shine.

Here you saw how to make your email communications work and how to fill your email to bring your text to the ideal. More on the topic on our blog tegra.co

Useful email services that help you start your email campaign:

GetResponse — an email marketing platform that enables you to create a valuable marketing list of prospects, partners, and clients, so you can develop relationships with them and build a responsive and profitable customer base.

ConvertKit — an email marketing solution for those who are interested in increasing conversions and optimizing their sales funnel.

Emailoctopus — an email marketing service for users of the cloud-based email-sending service Amazon SES. Its features include app integrations, blog automation, responsive templates, real-time analytics, and more.

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