Whether we like it or not, email is still the primary mode of communication online. That’s not going to change any time soon.
We’ve got instant messenger, Twitter, Skype, message boards, project management tools, messaging applications, etc. The list of ways to communicate online is endless.
But email still rules the day. And it still works.
Of course, the problems with email are clear. People are overwhelmed with the volume of email they receive. They scan and skim instead of reading things in-depth.
The result - when asking a question via email - is a strong possibility you don’t get the answer you need. You might not get an answer at all…
And that’s frustrating. You can’t keep asking the same question over and over, and presumably you’re asking the question because you really want an answer.
Tip: The last question you ask in an email is the one that will get answered.
People will skim your email, get to the bottom and see a call to action. If you’ve peppered your email with other questions, it’s very likely people will miss them, or won’t bother responding. They will key in on the last question.
Be careful about adding a PS question. This is typically the most casual question, it’s an attempt at extracting just a bit more information and continuing the conversation. But it’s rarely the most important question (although sometimes it can be!)
Put questions on their own line. Even if this doesn’t make complete sense from a reading/writing flow perspective, do it anyway. Make questions stand out.
Make the last question the most important one. The one you need answered.
It comes down to smart copywriting.
Sending email is about telling a compelling story and encouraging action. Don’t fool yourself: Email is a great sales and marketing tool. It’s a great research tool. It’s a great relationship building tool. But to extract value from email means writing in a well-formatted, easily digestible manner.
And if you’re asking questions in email - focus your energy on the last one you ask. Make it count, because that’s the one people will answer.
They seem to have stopped at this point so maybe the Ultimate Guide to Productivity group writing project meme has played out its course. That’s totally fine. I’ve listed the remaining submissions below.
You can still submit a post if you’d like - just tell us your best productivity tips!
In the meantime I’ll start the huge task of reviewing all the posts again and preparing the much-promised e-book. I can’t give a deadline at this stage, and as soon as I get a handle on the work I’ll call for help from others. But here goes nothing!
If I’m not mistaken, this brings our total number of submissions to 137!
I’ll be posting the full list shortly so there’s a single page to access all of the great productivity tips. And again, you can keep sending them in if you’ve got them…
Last week the Ultimate Guide to Productivity surpassed 100 submissions. These are productivity tips and ideas submitted by people from across the blogosphere in an effort to help others get more productive. Each person has their own unique twist on things, and in combination the Ultimate Guide to Productivity is an amazing resource.
The submissions keep coming. Here are 20 more productivity submissions, bringing the total to 129!
Feel free to contribute your own productivity tips, even if you weren’t tagged by someone to do so. You can start a new thread of this group writing project meme and share it with others.
Productivity is a topic that never goes stale. We all have different ideas, opinions and things that work for us. And some people swear by a life of chaos and randomness.
There’s no perfect answer to being productive. That’s what makes productivity such an interesting subject. And that’s what makes collecting so many productivity tips and sharing them a great experience. Out of the volume of posts written about productivity tips there must be at least one thing that each of us can experiment with; and that would make the Ultimate Guide to Productivity a success.
With this latest batch of submissions we’ve surpassed the 100 mark (we’re at 109!) and I want to thank each and every one of you for submitting your productivity tips.
My goal was to reach 100 submissions before I started compiling the e-book. But this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep submitting! I won’t be able to do a lot on the e-book for a couple weeks still, so please feel free to post your own productivity tips, tag others and let me know about.
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