After a deep dive into my newsletter stats, I discovered something pretty painful: Amazon has apparently been blocking my emails to their employees' addresses since July 31st. That means roughly half of my audience may not have received anything I've written for 5 weeks. Ouch.

But it also made me think about something bigger. I have a newsletter platform telling me whether emails were delivered, opened, and clicked (well, theoretically!). In our everyday work, how do we know anyone actually reads our emails? We send something, see it disappear into the internet, and hope for the best. So this week, I decided to explore something we all do constantly but were rarely taught to do well: how to craft the perfect email.

[Side note: If you know someone who enjoys this newsletter but subscribed with their Amazon email, please forward this to them and tell them to subscribe with their personal email. Help me defeat the algorithm!!]

Tip of the Week: Treat every important email as a three-part system: get them to open it, help them understand it, and make it obvious what happens next. (Subject → Pyramid → CTA.)

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The Theory Behind

The perfect email starts before the email: with the subject line. Our message isn't arriving in an empty inbox. It's competing with dozens (or hundreds) of other messages, notifications, and requests. We need to make the subject useful rather than clever. A good subject gives the reader enough information to decide what the email is about and whether it deserves attention. Better yet, we can signal the required action: “Decision needed by Friday: Q4 Budget” is much more useful than “Q4 Budget.” The subject line is essentially the headline of our email. My favorite: "This will take you 1min to read - ..."

The Pyramid Principle says: start with the answer. Barbara Minto developed the Pyramid Principle while at McKinsey, and its basic idea is incredibly useful for email: lead with the main point, then provide the supporting information. This is almost the opposite of how we learned to write essays in school. We don't need an introduction, three paragraphs of buildup, and a grand conclusion. If we're recommending delaying a launch, say that first. Then explain the three reasons why. Our reader shouldn't have to reach paragraph six to discover why we emailed them.

A clear CTA turns communication into action. Before sending an email, we should ask: What do I want the recipient to do after reading this? Approve something? Answer a question? Review a document? Simply be informed? Put that action prominently in the email and, when appropriate, attach a deadline. “Thoughts?” creates work for the reader. “Please approve Option A by Thursday at 3 p.m.” removes ambiguity. And yes, “FYI - no action required” is also a perfectly good CTA because it tells the reader exactly what you expect.

What I’ve Learned

You probably write more for work than you realize, and nobody taught you how. Depending on the role, written communication can make up a huge portion of our working day. Yet I remember school teaching me how to write essays. University taught me how to write papers. Nobody sat me down and said, “Hey, here's how you write a great email to a busy executive who is reading it on their phone between meetings.” Somehow, we're just expected to figure it out. So here's my overall take: Use short paragraphs, bullets, bolding, and whitespace to make messages scannable. If the supporting material is lengthy, the email doesn't need to become the document. Put the summary and action in the email; put the details in an attachment or link. Think of the email as the executive summary, not the entire report.

Make It Happen

1. Define the outcome before writing. Before opening a blank email, finish this sentence: “After reading this, I want them to ______.” If you can't answer that, you're probably not ready to send it.

2. Write the CTA first. Draft the decision, request, deadline, or FYI before anything else. This forces you to clarify the purpose of your communication.

3. Build the pyramid underneath it. Lead with your conclusion or recommendation. Then add the two or three pieces of information necessary to support it. Keep deeper analysis in an attachment or linked document.

4. Make it mobile-friendly. Send yourself the email and look at it on your phone. Short paragraphs. Bullets. White space. Bold the important parts. If you wouldn't want to read it while standing in an elevator, simplify it.

5. Write the subject line last. Once you know exactly what the email says, summarize its purpose in the subject. When useful, include the action and deadline: [ACTION REQUIRED] Approve Q4 Budget by Friday.

We may never truly know whether somebody read every word we send. But we can build a system that dramatically increases the chances they'll read the words that matter.

And if this email somehow made it into an Amazon inbox, or someone who still works there, please share with your friends!

Readfully yours,

Jorge Luis Pando

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