How to Write Effective Project Management Emails
There is a-l-o-t involved when running a successful project: the manager and team relationships, the myriad of tasks that need to be completed, the budget, the deliverables, etc.
With all the moving parts that ought to be handled effectively, project managers can’t afford to have poor communication skills, especially when sending emails.
When project managers send poorly crafted emails, misunderstandings can occur, delaying the project for days.
Of course, we’re just scratching the surface.
Poorly crafted emails can cause disunity, needless purchases, friction between managers and employees, etc.
To avoid these needless yet frustrating hassles, we’ll share reliable tips that will help you write effective project management emails.
1. Use a professional-looking email signature
To command respect, you need to act and “look” respectable.
In a virtual setting, the “looking” respectable bit can come down to something as simple and minute as having a professional-looking email signature.
Give the email signatures of the people working in your company a closer look, and you’ll notice that most executives have professional-looking email signatures. In contrast, those who don’t have managerial roles don’t bother with having one.
As a project manager, you need to look as professional as possible; therefore, you need to add a stunning email signature.
The good news is, it’s easy to bring your entire team on board with having a professional email signature. For example, there are Office 365 email signature management tools that let you centrally manage and sync your company’s email signature. With the email signature management tool, you can auto-sync your signature through API integration instead of instructing your teams to copy and paste an email signature template.
2. Add your most important point on the first line
Chances are, your teammates are uber busy with accomplishing their list of to-dos and making sure everything about their scope of responsibilities is squeaky clean. That’s not easy to do, considering the variables involved when working on a project.
That’s why when sending your emails, add your most crucial point/s at the first line of your email.
This makes your email punchy, and it ensures that your most important message is read and not ignored.
The last thing you should do is add the meat of your message in the middle of your email. Your team might read your first lines and decide to set your entire message aside, thinking your message isn’t urgent.
3. Write a call-to-action (CTA)
This bit is crucial. If you don’t add a clear call-to-action on your email, you leave your readers guessing what they should do next.
This is especially the case when you point out several gaps or problems in your email about the parts of the project that the email recipients are handling. It leaves them confused about what gap to deal with first.
Even if you pointed out opportunities and not problems, the readers still won’t know for sure which opportunity you’d like to take action on unless you tell them clearly what you want them to do.
Adding a CTA removes any kind of guesswork on the readers. This adds clarity and allows the team to move forward in the same direction.
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4. Include bullet points
Adding bullet points improves your email’s readability, organizes information, and works as an optical break. These points can make your email messages easily digestible.
Think of bullet points as a summary of sorts. It allows you to convey your crucial points piece by piece in a manner that’s easy to find and understand.
5. Include a timeline
Now that you have a professional-looking email message, one that’s well-organized, with bullet points, and have a clear CTA, you need to add a timeline to let the recipients know how urgent your needs are.
Imagine how problematic it could become for your project if one of your teammates thought they could delay your task for weeks when they should be doing it immediately.
Suppose you have permits or documents you need to obtain to start sections of your project. You email one of your managers to get the documents, yet he/she thought the task can wait and isn’t a high priority when the entire project is put on hold because the documents aren’t obtained yet.
Scenarios like these can delay projects for weeks, even months.
6. Use encouraging words
At the end of the day, you need to remember that you’re dealing with people when you’re sending email messages.
These people might have had a tough day. They might have experienced rejections upon rejections, or they might even be sick physically yet still opted to work to prevent needless project delays.
The last thing you want is to sound severe or cold towards these people.
Not only does that demotivate them., but it could very well cause them to resent or rebel against you.
On the other hand, if you speak life to them by including encouraging words in your emails, you will motivate them and cultivate your relationship to something more meaningful.
This breeds unity.
And the value of unity can’t be downplayed if you want to run a project effectively.
7. Use online tools to bolster your email’s quality
With the help of online apps, you can improve your email’s readability and spot grammatical mistakes (among other things) before sending it to your teams.
Grammarly, for example, is excellent for spotting grammatical errors, typos or improve how your ideas are worded.
The Hemingway Editor is perfect for simplifying complicated sentences, so it’s easier for your readers to understand your message. The app even grades the readability of your write-up, so you have a benchmark of sorts on how easy it is to read.
The best part is, several of these online tools are free.
Send effective project management emails.
Sending effective project management emails doesn’t have to be rocket science.
Just by using the tips shared in the guide, you can drastically improve how your emails are written.
This helps you become a better communicator, which is absolutely necessary to the success of your projects.