4 easy ways to make email less terrible for employees

We all love to hate email.

Employees don’t like reading them, leaders loathe sending them—and yet email persists as the premier channel for business communication.

Thankfully, it doesn’t have to be a chore or a time-wasting bore. Try these four tips to make your internal email a valuable messaging asset instead of an annoying hassle.

Fix the content, not the channel.

It’s not Outlook’s fault that employees ignore your emails.

Take a hard look at the content your organization is sending. Are the subject lines compelling? Does the writing grab readers? Are your emails segmented, or do you blast out the same message to everyone?

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Compare your content with the best marketing messages you receive from retailers or news sites. What attention-grabbing ideas can you “borrow” from competitors or other exemplary organizations? Be intentional about enticing employees to open that email, just like marketers do.

Don’t give up on email—just make it better.

Make it short.