email persuasion

Email is a legitimate art form and unfortunately, everyone gets one (or more of them).

It’s a confusing communication channel.

You have personal communication mixed in with professional discourse.

It’s also a form of record-keeping, but it’s also a place to market and entertain.

Here are some tips on how to use it:

For professional discourse

• Be precise with subject lines:
• You want specific, action-oriented subject lines to ensure your email is prioritised.
• Keep emails as concise as they need to be:
• Aim for 3-5 sentences max, delivering your point quickly and respectfully.
• If there is more data for action, attach it.
• Use plain simple language.
• Maintain a polished, courteous tone, and avoid slang or casual phrases. Less is more.
• Structure for clarity:
• Frame what’s being written.
• Use bullet points or tables for readability.
• Make sure formatting works on a mobile device.
• Be sure to call out the action:
• End with a clear call-to-action (e.g., "Please confirm by COB Wednesday").
• Use templates if possible:
• Create templates for recurring tasks and deploy them to save time.
• Proofread your work:
• Always double check for typos, grammar, and tone before hitting send.
• Time your sends:
• Schedule emails for optimal response (e.g., early morning or post-lunch ect).
• Use CC and BCC strategically:
• Include only necessary recipients; use BCC for large groups to avoid reply-all chaos.
• Follow up promptly:
• Respond quickly and promptly, even if to acknowledge receipt and set expectations.

While all that sounds great, it’s important to note some techniques to keep you out of hot water. There is a psychology to email, and if you get it wrong you’ll cheese people off, especially people that live on it.

Here’s some tips to nail it:

• Write in recipients' names last, and double check them before hitting send:
• When drafting, or even replying to an email—it’s smart to remove the names as you draft it. It’s frustrating if you accidentally hit send—or worse, add the wrong person.
• You should always double check emails added, particularly on sensitive topics, to ensure you don’t get yourself into hot water.
• Email isn’t really ‘safe’ in transport so if it's sensitive encrypt it:
• Don’t use email to send secure information.
• Send it via a more secure medium and encrypt it.
• Avoid forwarding chains:
• Don’t just grab an email chain and forward it again. You never know what prior people have said in previous discussions is sensitive. The author of those emails may not want the information going to new parties. Take care here.
• Use clear disclaimers:
• Include a confidentiality notice for emails containing proprietary or client data.
• Limit reply all:
• Respond only to necessary parties to reduce clutter and accidental disclosures.
• As a general rule, don’t delete email:
• An inbox is a record of what comes and goes.
• You’d be shocked at the number of times you’ll delete something you think you don’t need that you later do. It doesn’t hurt to leave it there.
• Beware phishing:
• If any email comes into your inbox asking you to do something you have to verify it is valid.
• Phishing hackers are getting exceptionally good.
• They may have real details of your company, or payments you owe, and they’ll reach out to remind you of payment, to the wrong account of course.
• With AI this is going to be weapons grade persuasive.
• I’d go as far as to say, you can’t trust any email anymore. You almost need to verify requests like this via other means to satisfy yourself of authenticity before making moves. Be warned here.
• I wouldn’t act on anything financial in response to an email period.
• Take a chill before sending:
• Sometimes email is a dumb way to communicate.
• If you have an issue with someone's work, or want something reviewed, you really should just call the person.
• An unintended tone could really harm relationships. Be mindful that email is a dangerous form of communication.
• Use secure networks:
• Don’t connect to insecure public internet connections. And don’t send emails over them. They could be intercepted.

For personal / social emails

Emails of a personal kind should not behave like work emails. I’d recommend you separate personal emails from work emails as much as possible. Here are some tips to keep people in your life happy over email.

• Don’t send personal emails to friends' work emails:
• You might think it’s friendly, but on the whole—individuals may not want the weekend's drinking stories written on professional email. You want to keep them separate.
• Use personal greetings:
• Write ‘Hi Sarah’ instead of ‘Hey’.
• If it’s a personal email you should consider it like writing them a letter. Take the time to make it personal otherwise it’s probably not a good use of the tool.
• Lose the professional email techniques but don’t be over chatty either:
• Match the recipient's style, and avoid being too formal or too casual.
• Just respectfully and clearly convey the information you need to convey.
• Don’t overload the recipient with a novel:
• People on the whole hate reading emails.
• If it’s long and complicated, pick up the phone.
• Respond quickly for personal notes:
• Aim to reply almost immediately if the person is close to you.
• Even if it’s just to say you're busy and you’ll respond in a day or two.
• Ensure they know where you’re at.
• Avoid sensitive topics:
• I’d steer clear of controversial or deeply personal issues; (even if it’s a relationship).
• Why? Later on these words will sit in an inbox. They could cause you embarrassment. Or they could hurt the other half. Or things might not come across right. Keep personal stuff out of email. This stuff ages badly.
• Respect privacy:
• Assume everything you write in an email can be seen by the world.
• Respect your own privacy first and foremost, but also avoid sharing information in emails to others that other people may not want in written form.
• What you think is acceptable may not be accepted by others. This can shred trust.
• Sign off warmly:
• Use a friendly closing (e.g., “Best wishes” or “Talk soon”) to end on a positive note.
• Be careful with attachments:
• Ensure personal photos or files are appropriate and virus-free before sending.

Now, how to use emails to get what you want for business

I’m not a fan of this, honestly.

It’s such a saturated market—but in truth it works.

Email marketing works, but mostly for people that are already inclined to buy from you.

This section sets out some tactics for business email use to try and maximise conversion.

The subject line is critical

Here there are a number of techniques to consider—and all of them are designed to elicit an emotional response. Problem is dodgy marketers use the same tactics.

Here are the models:

• Catering to a curiosity gap:
• “The particular technique applied could save you 3 hours a week—check it out”
• The benefit frame:
• “Automating X will help you reclaim your weekends”
• The personalised message:
• “Alex, I noted you wanted to learn about agents—can I help?”
• The urgency frame:
• “Entries to speak at the conference close on Friday at 5pm”
• Social proof hook:
• “Join 10,000 others who’ve transformed their workflow with this tool”

The body of emails can follow proven frameworks

These strategies when implemented in authentic ways are proven to work.

Again, use with caution and try not to spam people, but here are the structures / patterns you can add to emails.

Once upon a time these techniques were the realm of marketers.

AI will now EAT these alive. Tell the AI what you want—feed it the content—and it’ll just pump it out. You could even train it to sound like you. The effort and barriers to accessing these tools is massively falling. That is the opportunity here.

Clever copywriting tips

How you write can make a huge difference in your results.

More and more people want authenticity, so be careful with ‘marketing’ language. But the concepts are psychologically proven—and here’s a few you could adapt:

• Be persuasive in framing the content in terms of ‘you’:
• If someone is looking to automate something you could say ‘You’ll automate’—vs “The technique to automate is X”
• Be clear in framing before and after:
• Talk about now, and talk about a state in the future and be clear about the two. This is particularly powerful when trying to get someone thinking past the sale.
• Micro commitment language:
• The button to respond could say, ‘Reply Yes’—instead of email. This is to frame the psychology of commitment.
• Emotional triggers:
• Tap into FOMO, curiosity, or the desire for mastery (“Don’t let competitors outpace you”).
• Clarity over cleverness:
• Be straightforward and pragmatic. Just talk to hard benefits, rather than obscure marketing garbage.

Another word of warning. Authenticity matters.

Don’t assume that writing everything perfect in a complicated and lame template will deliver the sale. Sometimes ruthlessly personal notes to customers can cut through everything.

Don’t be afraid to create your own style with email.

Email, and traditional marketers' use of it have ruined email.

Don’t be a jerk with it and add to the problem.

And DON’T just start crap newsletters. No one wants another lame Newsletter. I’m sorry. They dont.

At scale you want the also master the following - go look them up

• A/B subject lines: Test two variations for open rate lift.
• Call-to-action placements: Experiment with CTA at top vs. bottom.
• Timing and Frequency: Use analytics to identify best send days/times and avoid fatigue.
• Engagement Tracking: Monitor open rates, click-throughs, and reply rates to refine content.

But don’t obsess it. If you get this good at marketing, you can hire a marketer to manage this.

Conclusion

Email is a crap medium today, but if used correctly it can still be a weapon.

Compartmentalise it—between professional, personal, and business.

Less is more. Really think about every email. What are you trying to achieve by sending an email.

If you don’t know, don’t bother