Use These Words At The End Of Your Emails To Increase Your
Chance Of Getting A Reply
It may seem like an inconsequential part of your message,
but the closing of your email has an impact on whether you’ll get a response.
You undoubtedly spend time drafting the body
of your email, but how much thought do you put into your sign-off? “Sincerely,”
“Thanks,” or “Best”–the words you use to close an email can impact your chances
of receiving a response, according to a study by email productivity software provider Boomerang.
“It’s the one or two forgotten words at the
bottom of the page that seem to have an impact on whether or not we get a
response,” says Boomerang data scientist Brendan Greenley.
Analyzing more than 350,000 email threads,
Greenley and his team found that emails that included a closing saw a higher
rate of response when compared to the average response rate of all emails,
which was 47.5%.
The most popular eight email sign-offs
appeared over a thousand times each:
1. Thanks in advance
2. Thanks
3. Thank you
4. Cheers
5. Kind regards
6. Regards
7. Best regards
8. Best
But not all closings are created equal.
An expression of gratitude resulted in a 36%
increase in average response rate. “Thanks in
advance” scored highest, with a 65.7% response rate. “Thanks” got 63%, and
“thank you” received 57.9%.
The higher response rate with “thanks in
advance” makes sense, says Greenley. “The email’s recipient is being thanked
specifically for a response that has yet to be written, and that could prompt
the person to follow through,” he says. “There’s a bit of posturing involved
with this closing, and you do risk coming across as a little aggressive, but it
turns out it works pretty well.”
Boomerang’s findings agree with a 2010 study
published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology called
“A
Little Thanks Goes a Long Way.” Researchers
gave college student participants one of two emails asking for help with a
cover letter. Half of the participants received an email with a line that
included, “Thank you so much!” while the other half got the same email but
without an expression of gratitude. Recipients were more than twice as likely
to offer assistance when they received the email that included “thank you.”
“Our parents always told us to say ‘please’
and ‘thank you,’” says Greenley. “The same holds for email. It goes back to an
underlying basic tenet of graciousness. It’s saying, ‘I know this is taking up
your time and I’m glad you’re reading it.’ It doesn’t always fit, but when it
makes sense, it’s a good idea to use it.”
Generic sign‐offs, such as “kind regards,” “regards,” and “best regards,” had the
lowest response rates. And a simple “best” received the worst response rate
among popular email closings, at 51.2%. While some perform better, all eight
have higher response rates than average as a whole.
“It’s not that one closing will ruin your
chance of getting a response,” says Greenley. “It’s just that some did better
than others.”
Boomerang didn’t study creative email
endings, such as “Keep on keepin’ on” or “Stay awesome,” because the sample
size was too small, but Greenley says the important thing is to be yourself:
“Context matters,” he says. “If you’re trying to communicate a certain mood or
tone, go ahead. The best thing is to be genuine to yourself as a writer.”
BY STEPHANIE VOZZA
https://www.fastcompany.com/3069126/work-smart/use-these-words-at-the-end-of-your-emails-to-increase-your-chance-of-getting-a-re?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=fast-company-daily-newsletter&position=3&partner=newsletter&campaign_date=03272017
No comments:
Post a Comment