Write to your audience

- [Narrator] The first thing to ask yourself when writing an email is the same thing you should ask yourself before you write anything. Who is my audience? What level of detail and formality will they expect? For example, writing to a customer you've never met before is different from writing to a coworker you interact with five times a day. Although you may just jump into an ongoing conversation with your coworker, you'll need to be more formal with a customer, including a salutation, such as Dear Chris or Dear Ms. Garcia, and a professional sign-off, such as best regards. And although it may be fine to use jargon, abbreviations or in group shortcuts in the body of an email with your close coworkers, you'll want to be more explanatory and formal with your language when you're emailing a customer. Here's an example. "Dear Margaret, we loved having Pugsly at The Dog Washery today. He charmed his groomer, Alyssa, and to encourage you to build on that relationship, we're offering you a 15% off coupon for Pugsly's next appointment with Alyssa. Please click the link below to book your appointment in our calendar system. Best wishes," and then a professional email signature that includes his full name, pronouns, title, the name of the business and his phone number and email address. Note that this has a formal greeting, positive statements, a clear offer, a call to action and a formal sign off and signature. On the other hand, Quinn may communicate with Alyssa in a very different way. Let's imagine this is a small business with just a few employees and these two see each other frequently and email multiple times a day. When you have a good working relationship and know how someone thinks and reacts, it's safer and easier to drop a bit of the formality and save time. Here's how Quinn might write to Alyssa. "Glad you loved Pugsly today. Let me know ASAP if there are days you won't be available in about six to eight weeks. I've offered his owner a 15% off coupon and encouraged her to rebook with you, and if there are days you won't be available, I want to block them off in GoCal before she tries to book you." That one is also positive and has a clear call to action but it's also a bit more personal and to the point and uses the short name of the calendar system. These days, such short, simple messages may also happen through text messages or messaging platforms but often they're still emails. In fact, another question to ask about your audience is how they use email. If your customers are all teenagers or you know that Alyssa only checks her email once a day and you need those dates blocked off right away, you may want to skip email and send text messages. And within a larger organization, it's helpful to pay attention to how your coworkers use email and take note of the people who may need extra care, whether that's making your emails especially readable when writing to a large group or making sure you deliver your messages in the most constructive way, both of which we'll cover in future videos.