Better business communication: Tip 3—7 things to do before you hit “send”

We’ve all experienced the email “oops moment”—that sinking feeling when you hit “send” and seconds later realize you forgot the attachment, you accidentally hit “reply all,” or you said something you’ll probably regret. Here’s a checklist to help you avoid oops moments and make your emails professional, clear, and effective. 
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1. Check that your subject line clearly states what the email is about. This lets people know whether they need to read it right away. It also helps them find the email again later if they need to refer to it.
   
   
2. Check that your message is logically organized. The most important information should come first. And if it's a long message, think about including headings in bold text or using numbered or bulleted lists. If you want to cover more than one subject, split your message into multiple emails. That will make the reply threads much easier to follow. 
    
3. If your email contains references to any websites, forms, intranet pages, scheduling tools, apps or anything else that you want people to use, check that you’ve provided direct links to them. Make it easy for them to find the right thing and do what you've asked.
   
   
4. When you've finished writing, read through the whole email to see whether it makes sense, is free of typos and factual errors, and includes what you want the recipients to do after reading it. Are you asking them to attend a meeting? Reply with suggestions? Work on something? Don’t make them guess.
   
   This is also a good time to make sure you don’t come across as unprofessional, especially if you felt angry, frustrated, or upset while you wrote the email. If you’re unsure, ask a trusted colleague to read it and get their opinion. It’s often helpful to write your email in an offline document first, then copy and paste it into an email body when you’re happy with it. This slows you down and gives you a chance to re-read it carefully before you impulsively send it out.
   
   
5. Check that you have attached everything that you need to attach (to avoid the dreaded “Sorry!” follow-up email).
   
   
6. Check the To: and Cc: lists to make sure you’re sending it to everyone who needs to receive it and no extra people who don’t. If you wait until just before sending the email to fill in these lists, you’re much less likely to hit “send” prematurely and have an oops moment. If you’re replying to an email, double-check whether you’ve hit “reply” or “reply all.” 
   
   
7. Think about the best time to send your email. Most email servers allow you to schedule a time in advance to send an email. You can prepare it when you have time, but you don't need to send it immediately or risk forgetting about it in your drafts folder. If it’s outside regular work hours, or if the people you’re sending it to are in a different time zone, you may want to send it at a time when they are likely to be working. When people receive emails at other times they often feel pressured to respond right away, and they may resent the intrusion on their personal time.
   
   

Email has been the dominant form of business communication for decades, but it is still a challenge to use it effectively. If your team is struggling to write clear, professional internal or client-facing emails, contact me to arrange a workshop to level up your communications.