It's an email, not rocket science. 🚀
You may think you sound brilliant, but your reader must work harder to understand what you’re saying.
Do you know what happens when your reader works harder? They stop reading.
Complexity kills reply rates.
Complex writing introduces what's known as cognitive load.
Cognitive load is when someone starts diving into the details, and your eyes glaze over. Your short-term memory is momentarily overwhelmed, and you stop paying attention.
Try to write at a 5th-grade reading level. A 5th-grade reading level is the sweet spot for generating a positive reply.
70% of emails are beyond a 10th grade reading level.
The reading level is a measure of how complex the writing is.
It's measured as a grade level because it's designed to estimate if a person at that grade level of education can understand it.
It's a byproduct of the number of words, characters, and syllables.
How do I do this?
Lavender shows you the reading level of your email as you type.
Use:
Use short words
Use common words
Use simpler sentence structures
Don't use buzzwords
Maximize your whitespace
e.x. Is something “Mission Critical”?
Just say it’s “Critical,” “Dire,” or it needs to be done ASAP.
ASAP vs. As Soon as Possible
ASAP is always read with more urgency. Things will get done regardless of convenience. "As soon as possible" is the politer version, which means as soon as it's convenient.
Yeah... this is a weird place for a callout on ASAP vs. As Soon as Possible, but this doesn't come up naturally anywhere else.