Writing Effective Email

How to Stop Mumbling and Communicate Clearly

from NEA Staff

NMS staff reviews the session, "'Stop Mumbling': Effective Email Writing," presented at a recent New Organizing Institute (NOI) training by Frank O'Brien, one of the leading direct marketing strategists in the nation.

As association activists, we compete with many other groups and causes, trying to move our members to action through online communication. So how can we help our messages stand out from the rest?

Email expert Frank O'Brien sums up his approach in two words: Stop mumbling! He defines organizational mumbling as what happens when our thinking is unclear or language is poorly chosen.

For example, there's the "warming up" mumble. Do we really need to tell someone that we have something to tell them? Then there's the "passive language" mumble, totally devoid of emotional power. And the "generic language" mumble that is heavy on rhetoric, light on details. We mumble when we lack confidence in our arguments, lack good writing skills, or perhaps even worry about getting our message approved to send.

O'Brien offers a ten-step program to stop the mumbling:

• Prepare a clear case for action
• Remember that you are a storyteller
• Remember that you are not a poet – be authentic
• Know who you are writing to
• Always write from a position of respect
• Search out barriers to action (then break through them)
• Start with a good subject line
• Open with a powerful lead
• Make it clear what you want
• Write. Rest. Revise

Find the entire presentation in our members-only section, "Inside NEA Now." (log-in and password required)