Writing the near perfect email to someone you’ve never met

Dear John,
My name is [STOP].

Stop! If you’ve been writing emails like this with little to no reply, the reason is simple. The person receiving your email has little reason to acknowledge who you are, unless you’re famous.

But many people start like this.

What you do and who you work for can also be considered immaterial, unless that is it’s a well known brand divorced from the idea of cold calling.

“Hello, my name’s David. I’m calling from BBC Newsnight”. Those were the days. Newsnight had sufficient pull for people to answer the phone and hear you out.

In the email age, where Gen Z consider emails way too formal, your name and who you are at the top of the email is a no, no!

So what do you do? To my journalism students, do the obvious. Show an interest in the person you’re contacting. A real interest. That means being able to comment upon something relevant the recipient has done.

If it’s a critique or paper, demonstrate you’ve read it, by even citing back what was said.

That’s your opening para. Before then the salutation is critical. They might be listed as Sharon Smith, but she might be Prof Sharon Smith. Look her up.

You’re next para does two things very swiftly. Who you are, tied to the relevance of your email.

The third para is the request. Keep it brief. “Could you some time; it won’t take more than ten minutes”.

I make the assumption that an email out of the blue competes for attention against everything else going on in the receiver’s life/ work place. So the email should be aesthetically designed. Nice white space and easily scannable.

That’s it! Your success rate should now shoot up. One thing I’ve also found works is if you have a link back to work which correlates with the person you’re emailing, show the link.

And on that note happy emailing

This is from a former student way back in 2006. Shaimaa is now the BBC’s Correspondent in Australia and New Zealand.