Just realized my follow up emails were way too long after a meetup in Austin

I was at this coworking space mixer in Austin last month and this guy gave me his card and said email me. So I sent this huge email with like three paragraphs about my services and a link to my portfolio. He wrote back and said 'dude I thought you just wanted coffee.' So now I keep follow ups to five sentences max and ask one simple question. Anyone else been told their emails are too wordy?

3 comments

3 Comments

grantc803d agoMost Upvoted

Flip it around and think about how THEY feel reading it. Long emails come off like a sales pitch even when you don't mean it that way. The other person is just trying to be polite and see if you'd be cool to grab a beer with. So when you dump a novel on em it feels like a bait and switch. Keep it short and let them ask for more info if they want it. That way you're respecting their time and their choice to engage further.

the_robin2d ago

Flip it around and think about how THEY feel" hits it, but I'd tweak that a little - sometimes short emails can come off as dismissive too if you don't know the person. Just keep it simple and skip the sales pitch tone either way.

angela7283d ago

Man I used to be the worst about this. I thought more detail was always better, like I was being thorough. But reading it from the other side, yeah, you're totally right. I'm rethinking my whole approach now.