Marketers are interested in your email because it’s a direct ticket to your attention, unlike Twitter and Facebook messages, which aren’t guaranteed to be viewed by all your followers. When you send someone an email, they receive that email.
This channel has been exploited and exploited. From the Viagara to the webinar invites to the weekly newsletters, we receive a lot. This inundation has fortified my skepticism of nearly all emails, which I expect true for most users, to the point where even lists that I did sign up for barely have a lasting chance.
There’s a 99% chance that I’m not interested in the Exclusive Webinar, the Monthly Update, etc.–so what’s separating your message from the crowd? How is your email worth the thirty seconds of attention that I’d rather spend playing Dino Run?
Here’s a picture of me playing Dino Run.
The retailer Urban Outfitters now asks if you’d like to receive your receipt via email, which seems like a fine idea to the green-inclined, until they realize that “receipt” has recently evolved to mean “weekly email newsletter with super special deals and pictures of teenagers with bizarre haircuts.”
I appreciate when clients or family write concisely, ideally keeping their emails to a few lines. Annoying newsletters which break this rule are doomed. (Exceptions to this exist.)
It’s amazing that email list purchasing still exists; unless done in massive quantities, the results are astoundingly meager; a quick way to spend too much money on a group of people who doesn’t want your message, who will gladly mark it as spam and return to playing Dino Run.
Emails that I like to receive:
-Links to funny internet stuff from coworkers
-Messages of glowing praise from clients
-“Your order has shipped” messages
Emails that I don’t like to receive:
-Webinar invites
-Most monthly newsletters
-“Your purchase is on backorder” messages
-Anything with lots of ellipses…