Dear Stephen,
I'm a very ambitious furniture executive who started in sales and now I'm a regional VP. My next goal is to leapfrog at my company or the next company to becoming a National VP and keep going all the way to the top!
Throughout my career, I've been criticized for writing emails that people tell me are too long. As my career is growing, I'm trying to understand: is there a professional work email etiquette or a standard length for what an email should be?
I admit — I'm very verbose. I grew in my career because I'm very good at sales, and most of my success has come from writing engaging cold-call letters to clients. Admittedly, they're long. I want clients to feel that they understand the products I'm selling and the services I'm delivering. After I send the letters, I'm usually able to get an appointment to meet with them in person, and very often I've been told that they couldn't wait to meet me because they found my letter very compelling.
There have been times, however, when my bosses and colleagues have criticized my emails for being too long. Even when I send personal emails, I get the same criticism from my friends and family. I've mostly been ignoring it, but now, as I'm planning the future of my career, I want to know — what is the correct length of an email, whether it be to your boss, a subordinate, or a customer? What's your advice?
Signed,
Virtually Verbose
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Dear Virtually Verbose,
This is a great question, and I'll give you my personal answer, which is that there is no right or wrong for how long your emails should be. But there are, however, some parameters and conditions that should guide the length of your email based on who it's going to.
My own rule of thumb for judging how long I should write an email "response," for someone like me who tends to write long emails, is to base the length of my response on the length of the email I've received. It's as simple as that. Whether it's coming from a customer, my boss, or anyone, really; if they write short emails, I send a short response. I mimic the length of how people write to me and I match their style in future communications. If the person you're writing to tends to, however, write longer emails and you're okay with answering in a longer format, then by all means, type away!
I will candidly tell you that I've been told by some clients to please shorten the length of my own emails. They have no interest in reading a long email, and when I'm told that, I immediately comply, no questions asked. (At The Viscusi Group, the customer is always right). Like I said, I tend to write longer than average responses to a given email — it's just who I am.
Here's the important part: if you're writing to a boss, you should always know your boss' style and their tone and answer accordingly. The same rule applies to customers.
Mimic the way that they write to you. As far as how to write to your subordinates and your peers, write the way you want but keep in mind if you know you're dealing with a colleague or subordinate that has a low attention span or some ADHD, long emails may be self-defeating. Because let's face it, they're simply not going to read it all, and your point will be lost.
Here's another tip that's important for writing emails today:
Recently, I've become keenly aware that most of my clients who are high up in leadership tend to read their emails on their phone, or often in transit — day or night with time differences. That's a very important reason to write a short email. It's easier to read on the phone, and if you can get your point across with fewer words, then that's what you should be doing.
Back to your personal story and what you've told me about your career, you seem very ambitious and I suspect you're going to go far, so here is a tip:
I'm in a business where most of our clients are the CEOs of companies big and small. I can tell you one observation on any email I've received from a CEO: They are typically no more than three lines, and they always reply to me within a half hour of my sending. All the CEOs I've dealt with have had this in common; they answer fast, and they answer short. For executives and potential executives, or anyone who wants to learn more about this style of emails, I recommend the book "Smart Brevity – The Power of Saying More With Less" by the influential journalists from Axios and Politico — Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, and Roy Schwartz.
So that's an important lesson that I've learned, and I want to pass it along as a tip to you. CEOs I admire answer short and to the point.
Signed,
Stephen