What to say instead of “I hope this email finds you well”?

Question:

What to say instead of “I hope this email finds you well”?

Answer:

It really depends on the context of the email, but there are lots of options. Whatever you choose, it should be personalized to the recipient and authentic to you.

Explanation:

Most people really struggle with how to start a professional email. The default tends to be some version of “I hope you’re well.” But to many, especially Millennials and Zoomers, it feels stale and inauthentic…because it is. So what are some good options for segueing from “hello” to “here’s what I want from you”?

Let’s get one thing straight right off: if the reason you object to “I hope this email finds you well” is that it feels rote, then the last thing you want to do is use AI to craft your email for you. That is the perfect way to make your email sound like everyone else’s. AI may craft something that feels less dated or stodgy, but it’s not going to sound any more authentic…because it isn’t. Your entire email, including your opening line, should speak specifically to the person you’re writing to, instead of something that you could say to literally anyone.

Your options are many and limited only by the circumstances of the email. Here are some scenarios:

If you’ve seen the person recently, you can you start with something like:

“It was great seeing you last week!” or “It was great meeting you at ABC Conference last month.”

Even if you only “e-met” them, this greeting could still work.

“It was nice meeting you on the ABC Project call on Wednesday.” or “It was nice finally putting a face to the name on our call yesterday.”

If you have a mutual connection, who suggested reaching out, then you could say:

“John Doe suggested I reach out to you to [insert reason].” or “I was chatting with Jane Doe yesterday and she mentioned that you might be a good person to talk to [or ask] about [insert topic].”

If the person has had a recent(ish) accomplishment, you could lead with:

“Congratulations on the publication of your article in ABC Journal.” or “I heard you recently opened a new location of XYZ Business. Congratulations!”

Even if the accomplishment was a while ago, this could still work. For example:

“I don’t think we’ve spoken since your promotion to [role] and before we talk about anything else, I wanted to say Congrats!”

If you recently learned something from the recipient, such as attending a conference where they spoke or served on a panel, or watching a webinar they hosted, or reading an article they wrote, you could say something like:

“I recently heard you speak at ABC Conference…” or “I watched your webinar on [topic]…” or “I really enjoyed your article on [topic]…”

Notice how I’ve added ellipses after each one? That’s because, if you go this route, you can’t leave it there. You need to include something else that proves you did, in fact, listen to the speech or read the article. For example:

“I recently heard you speak at ABC Conference and I thought your take on how to embed compliance into company culture was a great idea.” or “I watched your webinar on social media marketing and really learned a lot, especially when it came to the lesson on creating customer personas.” or “I really enjoyed your article on how organizational structure affects employee retention, especially the analogy comparing different org structures to the traffic flow in various cities.”

Okay, you’re probably thinking, but these are all really specific situations. What if I haven’t seen them recently (or ever), we don’t have any mutual connections, and they haven’t accomplished anything? And that’s fair. There are definitely times where you just won’t have anything that personal to say. Here are some options for those occasions:

If they recently responded to an email from you, and they did it in a reasonable time frame, you start off with:

“I appreciate the update.” or “I really appreciate the quick response!” or just “Thanks for that info.”

If this is a person you interact with weekly, you could say:

“I hope you had a nice weekend.” Even better would be a reference to any plans you know they had, like: “I hope you enjoyed your trip to the zoo with your family this weekend.”

Or, if you know that they had a rough week (professionally-speaking) last week, or early this week, you could say:

“I hope this week is off to a better start than last.” or “I hope your week is going more smoothly.”

If you want to cut to the chase, and just get to the meat of the email, your options are:

“I’m writing to follow up on [topic].” or “I’m reaching out to ask about [topic].” or “I wanted to provide you with a quick update on [topic].”

The moral of the post is to craft an email that feels genuine, not boilerplate. This is truer now than ever as AI continues to insert itself between people. Write that email yourself, from start to finish. Authenticity will be the thing that motivates people most as we move into the AI era.