If you’ve mastered the art of effectively using recipient fields and are looking for more ideas for creating messages that are read and responded to quickly, strengthen the body of your email message by adopting an acronym to provide a consistent framework for every message you create. There are three ways you can do this.
ABC
An excellent approach touted by Mike Song, author of the Hamster Revolution; craft every message with the call to action first and foremost, add some white space then bullet point or number the background points. A bit more white space and finish with a close that includes any next steps and by all means a professional signature.
SBAR
Standing for ‘Situation, Background, Assessment and Recommendation‘, is a technique often used for prompt and appropriate communication in the health care organizations
SMART
This acronym (Specific Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound), reminds you to create communications with attention to an effective subject line, a message that is formatted for a quick read, addressed to the right folks, recipient focused and timely!
Can you imagine how much better you’d be able to manage email if every message you received arrived in a format that provided such clarity? We can help your team or organization create an adopt your own email manifesto with our Email Etiquette workshops.
Have another formatting acronym; share it with us by commenting below or tweeting us @thinkproductive.
This post was written by Tracy Parks, Director of Think Productive USA.
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