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Most of the letters and emails I receive are ‘safe’.

I was discussing this with a client the other day. 

Her communications specialist had drafted an email that was long winded, bureaucratic and entirely unengaging.

Lots of words, lots of waffle.

But being ‘safe’ is a risk.

Because you risk being ignored.

That’s fine if you want your message to be overlooked.

But if you want to engage? 

Be bold.

Learn how to write behaviourally effective...

Horrified.

That’s how I felt after watching an Apple TV ad spruiking its AI (Apple Intelligence) for emails.

It’s a business lunch with a writer meeting to discuss a pitch she’d emailed actor Bella Ramsey.

Bella, who obviously hasn’t read the email, quickly reaches for her phone and reads the AI generated summary of it, helping her feign knowledge of the project.

She lies, effectively.

The writer gets excited and says “Great, I’ll tell them...

Digital marketer Neil Patel shared stats on which length of email got the highest clicks. 

In his words, the “perfect length for email conversions”.

• The best length? 100-249 (>3.5% clicks)
• The worst? 500+ (<1%)

We can surmise that not saying much and forcing people to click through means more of them will.

Explaining yourself more fully reduces their interest in clicking.

Or does it?

Without knowing WHAT these emails communicated and WHAT the call-to-action...

The decisions you make at the end of your day are likely to differ from those you make earlier on.

Even if you are a highly trained doctor.

That’s what researchers discovered when they tracked 204 doctors over 17 months and 21,867 visits.

As the day wore on, the doctors prescribed more unnecessary antibiotics. 5% more, in fact.

Decision fatigue has a bearing on the types of decisions we make.

While researchers have different theories on why and to what extent, as a general rule...

A software firm increased email open rates by 20% and sales leads by 31% and a financial services training company increased engagement by 10%. 

How?

If you were one of 400 senior marketers at Intuit Mailchimp’s From Here:To There conference, you already know the answer.

In one case it had to do with adding CEO to the sender’s address and in another, a first name to the subject line.

If you are curious about what else I covered, marketing news site B&T have just...

You cannot NOT influence. 

I talk a lot about influencing skills and how to get customers and colleagues to take action, but here’s the funny thing.

You cannot NOT influence. You're already doing it.

In every interaction – every email, text, phone call, meeting or presentation, you are stimulating a reaction.

You are influencing your audience in some way.

So the question isn’t whether you are influencing, it’s whether you are influencing the desired...

Baby birds open their beaks for two reasons. 

They trust their parent and it’s worth it. They get fed.

Customers and colleagues open your emails for the same reasons.

See: The Little Book of Letters and Emails

My word for the year is different.

Or to put it a better way, different is my word for the year.

It’s been remarkably clarifying.

From taking a different path when walking the dog to changing parts of my website and taking on different projects, reminding myself to be ‘different’ has been powerful.

It’s helped me unshackle from my status quo.

I’m even writing differently. Have you noticed?

Looser. More conversational.

And in the spirit of that, I’m...

There are seven words I guarantee you, your customers, and your boss will love. 

There is nothing you need to do.

Here's an example.

A few weeks ago I received an email from my website host Kajabi.

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"Hello Bri,

You may have heard about the new email requirements for bulk senders starting February 4, 2024. Yahoo and Gmail have separately announced updated requirements to deliver email to their platforms. Their goal is to better secure customers' inboxes and provide an...