Be professional in your email, not “stiff”
Young people often get a bad rap for being irresponsible, unreliable, or unprofessional in the business world. How do you combat that? Act professional. The problem is, there is a difference between being professional and being “stiff”. A lot of young entrepreneurs don’t understand that using big words and writing essays instead of emails isn’t professional - it’s annoying.
I’ve gotten more than a few emails that are four, five, even six long paragraphs in length. I don’t actually remember what they said because I didn’t read them, I don’t have time (or the desire) to read through long emails. Noah agrees.
1- Keep your emails short: I have seen people write emails to people that include essays about themselves, their projects and why they should. Expect people to be busy and not read more than 2-3 sentences. Emails are easy to delete so make it worth reading.
Being professional doesn’t mean you have to be long winded or sound scripted. Just talk. Be natural. When I write an email I always whisper it to myself as I type, I want to make sure it’s something I would actually say out loud. I start most of my emails with “Hey [name] …” and most of the emails I get in return start with “Hey Ben” or “Hi Ben.” Obviously there are times when formal emails are necessary, but in my opinion those situations are few and far between.
An example:
An email I’m likely to respond to:
Hey Ben, I was wondering about some of the monetization techniques you use on College Startup. Would you mind explaining to me how you build traffic and make money?
An email I’ll delete quickly:
Dear Ben,
My name is _____________ and I’m one of the partners in a new startup focusing on the monetization and personalization of blog content management systems. Our number one priority is understanding how people who are involved in personal publishing are utilizing the tools currently available….DELETE.
Likely, each of these emails would get a similar response. But the one that states the question quickly is the one I’m happy to respond to. I know what they want, I know what to say. I don’t have to wade through a bunch of jargon to figure out what the question is.
Maybe you’re wondering if this is an easy way to foster relationships - it doesn’t allow much room for explanation. The solution? At the end of your email say “I’d love to chat more with you about this topic, do you have time to talk on the phone later this week?”
You don’t have to sound like a genius to get people to pay attention to you. Just sound like yourself. If you happen to be a genius, try talking like a normal person for a little bit 
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never thought about in that way, how to put that much thought to an email.