Getting staff to notice your emails is critical to an internal communications professional. You can’t engage employees unless you’re able to win their attention on a regular basis.

Email is still the number one communications channel in many organisations. But just because you send it, doesn’t mean they’ll open it.

With so many distractions competing for staff attention, it’s worth putting some serious thought into how to optimise your messages to maximise their chances of getting read.

Here’s 3 tips to boost your email mindshare.

#1 – Talk to one person at a time.

“Dear all”. Opening with this line is a fast way to disengage a reader. It sounds like you’re talking to everybody which, these days, is the same as talking to nobody.

When you send a group email, write like you’re only talking to one person.

I know this might seem like a strange approach. After all, you’re emailing hundreds or thousands of people at once! But

in fact whenever you send an email, you’re only ever talking to one person at a time.

Using the word “you” instead of “everybody” is a great tip to make sure you make a connection when you email somebody.

#2 – Forward email from execs

It’s wrong to presume that staff will read email from executives, just because they’re important.

Often, the opposite is true. Staff will see a ‘big cheese’ name in their inbox, and presume

the contents don’t apply to them. You can watch people open the CEO newsletter and hit delete the instant they’ve scanned it for bad news.

When you’ve got content from an executive, a great tip is to forward it yourself. First, have the executive email you, using their normal Outlook signature. Then, you forward it to the organisation – with a quick comment at the top.

Firstly, this approach feels real. There’s a faint sense of danger. The exec’s thoughts aren’t in a sterilised template – they’re in a real live email!  What if they said something that wasn’t meant to be shared?

Secondly, you capitalise on the huge attention grabbing power of a Fw: Subject line. Don’t you always open emails that are forwarded to you?

#3 – Send at lunchtime.

If you have a choice, email just when lunchtime is over.

I used to edit a magazine. One of our advertising team told me that 2pm to 3.30pm is known as ‘prime selling time’, because that’s when a client is most likely to be caught at his desk – usually in a post-lunch daze, and feeling inclined to chat.

If you send your internal communications emails when people are likely to be slumped at their desk, digesting a sandwich, looking for a distraction, you’re much more likely to win their attention.

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Ian Harris runs Twilo, an internal communications video production agency and blog.