# How to Write Emails That Actually Get Read Three weeks ago, I watched a perfectly competent project manager send seventeen emails in one day trying to get approval for a $200 purchase. Seventeen. The poor bloke was copying half the company, adding urgent flags, and even tried those ridiculous red exclamation marks that make you look like you're having a breakdown. Nobody read them. Well, that's not entirely true. People opened them, skimmed the first line, then archived them faster than you can say "reply all disaster." And here's the kicker - the approval he needed? Could've been sorted with one properly written email. Maybe two if he was feeling chatty. After twenty-two years training professionals across Australia, I've seen email communication go from "revolutionary workplace tool" to "the thing that's slowly killing our productivity." The average office worker spends 2.6 hours per day managing emails, yet most of them couldn't write an effective email if their KPIs depended on it. Which, let's be honest, they probably do. ## The Problem Nobody Wants to Admit We're all terrible at this. And I mean ALL of us. I've worked with CEOs who write novels when they should write headlines. Marketing managers who bury their main point in paragraph four. Accountants who somehow make a simple invoice query sound like a legal document from 1847. The worst part? We all think we're the exception. We all think our emails are perfectly clear and everyone else just doesn't "get it." [Here's more information](https://performancewise.bigcartel.com/product/email-communication-training-adelaide) about why this keeps happening across Australian workplaces. But here's what really gets me fired up: we're teaching people advanced presentation skills, complex negotiation tactics, and sophisticated leadership frameworks, yet nobody's showing them how to write an email that doesn't make the recipient want to throw their laptop out the window. It's like teaching someone to perform surgery but skipping the part about washing their hands. ## The Real Cost of Bad Email Communication Let me share some numbers that'll make your head spin. The average professional receives 126 emails per day. They delete or archive 48% without reading past the subject line. Another 31% get skimmed so quickly that the main message is completely missed. That means only about 20% of your emails are actually being read and understood the way you intended. Think about that for a second. You're spending hours crafting these messages, and four out of five times, you might as well be writing them in hieroglyphics. I once worked with a construction company in Brisbane where project delays were costing them $50,000 per week. After digging into their processes, we discovered the delays weren't caused by supply issues or weather - they were caused by email confusion. Subcontractors weren't getting clear instructions, managers weren't communicating priority changes effectively, and crucial decisions were getting lost in chains of forty-seven reply-all messages. [Further details here](https://www.alkhazana.net/2025/07/16/why-firms-ought-to-invest-in-professional-development-courses-for-employees/) show this isn't just an Australian problem. ## The Subject Line Is Your Make-or-Break Moment Most people treat subject lines like an afterthought. "Meeting today." "Quick question." "FYI." Absolute rubbish. Your subject line is prime real estate, and you're wasting it on generic nonsense that tells the recipient absolutely nothing about what you need or when you need it. I've started telling my clients to imagine their subject line is a newspaper headline. Would anyone buy a newspaper with the headline "Some stuff happened"? Here's what works: be specific, include deadlines, and front-load the most important information. Instead of "Meeting today," try "Marketing budget approval needed by 3pm Friday." Instead of "Quick question," try "Client presentation - need logo files by EOD." The transformation is immediate. People know what you want, when you want it, and whether they need to prioritise your email over the other 125 they received that day. ## Stop Writing War and Peace Nobody - and I cannot stress this enough - NOBODY wants to read your three-paragraph background story before you get to the point. Yet somehow, we've all convinced ourselves that context is king and we need to explain every detail of how we arrived at our request. Here's a radical idea: start with what you need, then provide context if necessary. Not the other way around. Bad email opening: "As you know, we've been working on the quarterly report project since last month, and there have been several revisions based on feedback from various stakeholders including the marketing team, finance department, and senior management. The latest version incorporates changes requested during Tuesday's meeting, though there are still some outstanding items that need clarification..." Good email opening: "I need approval for the final quarterly report by Thursday morning. [More information here](https://ethiofarmers.com/what-to-anticipate-from-a-communication-skills-training-course/)." See the difference? One gets to the point, the other makes me want to take a nap. ## The Power of Strategic Formatting This might sound petty, but formatting matters more than you think. Dense blocks of text are email kryptonite. Your recipient's eyes will glaze over faster than a Krispy Kreme production line. Use bullet points. Leave white space. Keep paragraphs short. Like this one. I learned this lesson the hard way when I was managing a team of twelve trainers across three states. My weekly updates were these massive, beautifully crafted documents with detailed insights, performance metrics, and strategic recommendations. I spent hours on them. Nobody read them. So I switched to bullet points and short paragraphs. Suddenly, people were actually implementing my suggestions and responding with questions. The content hadn't changed - just the packaging. ## The Australian Email Personality Problem We Australians have this peculiar habit of being overly apologetic in our emails. "Sorry to bother you," "I hope this finds you well," "Apologies for the inconvenience." We're drowning our requests in unnecessary politeness that actually makes our communication less effective. [Personal recommendations here](https://ducareerclub.net/what-to-expect-from-a-communication-skills-training-course/) suggest this stems from our cultural tendency to avoid appearing demanding. Don't get me wrong - politeness matters. But there's a difference between being respectful and being a doormat. "I hope this email finds you well" adds zero value. "Thanks for your time" at the end of a clear, well-structured email is perfectly sufficient. ## The Reply-All Epidemic If I had a dollar for every time someone used reply-all when they should've used reply, I'd own half of Melbourne by now. Reply-all is not a default setting, people. It's a precision tool that should be used sparingly and with great consideration. Before you hit reply-all, ask yourself: do all seventeen people on this email chain really need to know that you'll be five minutes late to the meeting? Does the entire sales team need to see your witty response to Gary's joke about quarterly targets? The answer is almost always no. I once witnessed a reply-all war that lasted three days and involved forty-two people across six departments. It started with someone asking about the coffee machine being broken and ended with HR sending a company-wide memo about email etiquette. The coffee machine, incidentally, was never fixed. ## What Actually Works After two decades of fixing broken email communication, here's what I've learned works consistently: **Lead with action required.** Tell people what you need in the first sentence. **Use the inverted pyramid.** Most important information first, supporting details after. **One email, one topic.** If you have three different requests, send three different emails. **Be specific about deadlines.** "ASAP" means nothing. "By 2pm Thursday" means everything. **End with a clear call to action.** Don't leave people guessing what you want them to do next. [More details at this website](https://www.yehdilmangemore.com/what-to-count-on-from-a-communication-skills-training-course/) about implementing these strategies systematically. ## The Mobile Reality Check Here's something most people forget: 70% of emails are now opened on mobile devices. That beautifully formatted table you spent twenty minutes creating? It looks like abstract art on a smartphone screen. Keep your emails mobile-friendly. Short paragraphs, simple formatting, and front-loaded information aren't just good email practices - they're mobile survival strategies. I learned this when I started getting confused responses to emails that seemed perfectly clear on my laptop. Turns out, half my key information was getting cut off on mobile screens, and recipients were making decisions based on incomplete information. ## The Psychology of Email Response People respond to emails that make their lives easier, not harder. Every email you send should either solve a problem, provide valuable information, or make a clear request that's easy to fulfil. Think about your own inbox behaviour. Which emails do you respond to immediately? Probably the ones where the sender has done most of the thinking for you, provided clear options, and made it obvious what you need to do next. Which emails do you ignore? The ones that require you to dig through paragraphs of context to figure out what the person actually wants. ## Common Mistakes That Drive Me Mental **The subject line novel.** "Re: FW: Re: Question about the thing we discussed in Tuesday's meeting regarding the project timeline changes - urgent response needed." Just... no. **The assumption epidemic.** Writing emails that assume everyone has the same context you do. Not everyone was in that meeting. Not everyone remembers that conversation from three weeks ago. **The emotion dumping.** Using email to express frustration, disappointment, or complex emotional topics. Pick up the phone. Have a conversation. Email is terrible for nuanced communication. **The CC abuse.** Adding people to CC because you want to look important or cover your backside. This creates email noise and reduces the likelihood that anyone will take action. ## Making It Stick Here's the thing about email communication training - knowing what to do and actually doing it are completely different skills. I've seen brilliant professionals attend workshops, nod enthusiastically, then go back to their desks and immediately send a rambling, unfocused email that violates every principle we just covered. The secret is practice and self-awareness. Before sending any email, ask yourself: "If I received this email, would I know exactly what to do and when to do it?" If the answer is no, rewrite it. Better yet, have someone else read your important emails before you send them. Fresh eyes catch unclear communication every time. ## The Bottom Line Email isn't going anywhere. Despite predictions about its death, workplace email volume continues increasing every year. We're stuck with it, so we might as well get good at it. The professionals who master email communication gain a massive competitive advantage. They get faster responses, clearer feedback, and better collaboration. Their requests get approved quicker, their ideas get implemented more often, and their overall workplace relationships improve dramatically. It's not rocket science, but it does require intentional effort and consistent practice. Start with your subject lines. Focus on clarity over cleverness. Lead with what you need, not how you got there. Your recipients will thank you. Your productivity will improve. And you might even start enjoying email again. Well, let's not get carried away. --- **Related Reading:** [Further reading](https://excellencehub.bigcartel.com/blog) [More insight](https://www.globalwiseworld.com/top-communication-skills-training-courses-to-enhance-your-career/) [Other recommendations](https://trainingedge.bigcartel.com/advice/)