8 Reasons Why Your Emails Are Being Ignored

Apart from Wendy Williams, I don’t know anyone else who doesn’t send emails. If you are an influencer or trying to be one or even just a human being, you probably send and receive a lot of emails. I receive a ton of emails, and there are many of them that go unanswered.

8 Reasons Why Your Emails Are Being Ignored

1.  Improper Addressing/Lack of Research: Look, this cannot be overemphasized. If you’re going to send someone an email, the very least you can do is find out the person’s name. Now, sometimes with big organizations, it’s hard to find who you’re supposed to reach out to, but when you have done EVERYTHING you can and you still cannot find the contact’s name, reach out to the brand’s social media account and ask. They’re usually responsive. If all else fails, start the email with words like, “Good morning.”

Under no circumstance should you start the email with “Dear sir/ma” (NIGERIANS PLEASE TAKE SPECIAL NOTE!).  Also, do not address the person by their position, like “Dear Blogger,” or “Dear Manager.” Don’t be lazy. Do your homework. 

2.  Unprofessionalism: When you’re sending a work/business-related email, that is not the place to do an altar call. Please do not urge the email receiver to accept Christ as their personal Lord and savior (trust me, it has happened to me!), and please don’t give out information that is unnecessary and uncomfortable. Depending on the purpose of the email, I understand the need to sometimes show some personality, but there is a thin line between being witty and being unprofessional and creepy. See the examples below:

“I’m a new mom with an unhealthy love for milk” = witty.

“I’m a new mom who is lactose-intolerant” = JUST NO!!!

Also, under unprofessionalism, let’s discuss the use of abbreviations like GM (good morning) and HAND (have a nice day), or using 2 for to. If you are in a hurry, then please, hold off on your email until you have the time to send it. 

3.  Lengthy E-mails: We are all busy. Everyone has a long to-do list. When you send an email, keep it short and simple, and please get to the point. Sometimes you want to impress the person you’re contacting by telling them how much you just love them and everything they stand for – which is nice – but keep it short. And I have to admit that this is one area I’m still working on. I’m a writer, and if I don’t control myself, I will write five paragraphs before I get to the reason for the e-mail. That’s terrible. Sometimes I look back on some of my old emails and I shrivel and faint a little.  

4.  Grammatical/Spelling Errors: Please proofread. And then proofread again before sending. You can download Grammarly, a free browser extension and it will underline words and sentences that don’t make sense. You can also copy and paste your words into Microsoft Word to check for grammar and spelling. Still, don’t rely on any app or extension to do all the work. The thing about having grammatical or spelling errors is that it makes you look less intelligent and reliable, and that’s never a good look. Speaking of grammatical errors, please note that YOUR is not YOU ARE.

5.  Lack of a point/focus: The only thing worse than writing a lengthy email is writing a lengthy email that actually never gets to the point.  I’ve received emails from people and by the end of the email, I’m confused about what exactly the person wants me to do. Be clear in your email, and make sure that the receiver knows exactly why you are writing them, and what you want them to do about it. 

6.  You’re Lying And It’s Obvious: So you want the receiver to know that you really like them, but you don’t have any real stories or connections, so you tell general lies and hope to fool them. Well, you’re not fooling anyone. Here’s an example:

“Dear Vera, I love your blog www.verastic.com and I have been following you for a while. I especially like that post you wrote about motherhood; it really moved me…..”

Here’s the thing: No one who actually reads Verastic refers to it as www.verastic.com; they always just say Verastic. Following me for “a while” is very vague. That could mean anything from 2 seconds to 2 years. My post about motherhood is also very general. Which post exactly? I’ve written so many.

7. You’re Emailing The Wrong Person: I get it; it’s hard to find people sometimes. But sending the email to the wrong person does not necessarily bring you closer to your goal. If you’re lucky, this wrong person will forward it to the right person. Otherwise, your email will sink to the bottom – or worse, get deleted and/or marked as spam.

8.  Your Subject Line Is Sketchy At Best: Your subject line should be able to give the receiver a huge idea on what you may be writing about. Do not use subject lines like “Hi” or “Checking In” because that doesn’t say anything. And please, definitely do not leave that space blank. Also, don’t use the name of your blog/business as the sole subject line. For example, I wouldn’t send an email that’s titled, “Verastic” because as much as I know and like Verastic, it is not Coca-Cola. YET.

Why is it important to write an effective email? Because it is more likely to be responded to. Sometimes, you do everything great and still do not get a reply because life happens. Maybe the receiver forgot. Or maybe they’re not interested and just were not courteous enough to let you know (or maybe forgot to let you know). Maybe your email landed in the spam folder. Maybe it got mistaken;y deleted. But all these possibilities aside, it could just be that you are making one or more of these mistakes.

And in case you’re curious, my number one reason for not responding to emails is being addressed impersonally/wrongly. Once I open an email that refers to me as “Dear Blogger,” or “Dear Editor,” or “Dear Verastic.com Team,” or anything close to that, I stop reading and delete the email. The reason is that it is extremely easy to know my name. The blog name is VERAstic. All the posts are published by Vera Ezimora. All social media accounts have my name. And I have an About Me page that literally starts by asking, “So who is Vera Ezimora?”, so you have no excuse.

P.S. While addressing people by their names, please don’t forget to spell those names correctly. Spelling it correctly means that you are spelling it how they write it, not just how you know the name to be spelled. For example, Catherine and Katherine may sound the same, but they are obviously spelled differently.

P.P.S. I am Verastic. Not Veratastic. Not Verstatic either. Also, my name is just Vera, not Veronica.

What are some e-mail mistakes you have made or experienced?