According to the research cited in this Harvard Business Review article, if you need to persuade someone, asking face-to-face is 34 times more successful than asking over email.

Given that the sample group (who was asking people to complete a survey) approached strangers, I don’t find it particularly surprising that face-to-face contact was more effective. You can easily delete an email without even reading it, but you can’t delete a person sitting in front of you. And we’ve all been cautioned that clicking links in emails from unidentified senders could infect our computers with the electronic version of the Ebola virus.

Still, when you’re making a request of someone, it’s worth considering whether or not you might have better results asking face-to-face. Even the best writers can struggle to communicate the intended tone over email. And there are visual cues that a face-to-face meeting allows, the kind you can’t send through cyberspace.

And if you just have to ask over email, remember that the order matters.