Tech Tip: Pre-Drafting Emails
As a manager, you probably send out emails pretty regularly. Some of these emails are likely to colleagues who will then send a message to a third party on your behalf. This inevitably entails going back-and-forth between you and your employee. This can cut down productivity and lead to mistakes. One way to avoid this is to pre-draft the message that will be sent along.
What exactly is a pre-draft?
The idea behind pre-drafting an email message is that it helps to reduce the amount of back and forth between two parties when one of the parties is contacting a third party. If you have ever had an employee draft a message that came from you, then you are likely well aware of the number of emails that can go back and forth before the email actually goes out.
Essentially, a pre-draft is a message included in the original message that is to be sent along to a third party. When you include a draft message, the person who will be sending the message can then just cut and paste the content, personalize it, maybe tweak a sentence here or there, and then send it along.
How do I create one?
If you are currently working on an email message that will be sent by another employee on your behalf, try to come up with the outline and basic message yourself. It’s best to clearly mark this message in the original email by using a flag like: “Message to send” and changing the actual message to another font or color.
Because most of these messages will be personalized, include placeholder text where your staff member can personalize the message. For example, To . This not only makes it easier to spot areas that need to be personalized, it also means messages can be sent out quickly and easily.
When is this useful?
To be honest, pre-drafting won’t work for every type of email you send. But, there are some situations when this comes in handy, including:
- When you are asked to provide a testimonial on a service. You can write a basic testimonial with areas for customization.
- When you need to send follow up emails connected to a recently sent email campaign or message. You can draft a basic follow up message that can then be customized as your employees see fit.
- When you want to post something on numerous social media sites. You can simply write the post once, then provide spots to customize based on the network.
- Introductions and references. If you have been asked to provide a reference or an introduction, then draft a standard message which can then be changed as needed.
If you mark these emails as a pre-draft or place them in a pre-draft folder, they can then be quickly found and modified in the future.
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