Too Many Emails Will Lose You Customers

Photo by Ricardo Liberato

You know I'm a big advocate of email marketing. I talk about it here every day. I make money with it and so do many of the clients I perform email marketing consulting with. So how do I feel about he email marketing messages that end up in my personal inbox?

The answer to that question will lead us to today's lesson: Don't send TOO MANY email messages.

Yes, there is definitely such a thing as too many email messages. Of course, this should be obvious, because you, much like myself, are deleting emails out of your inbox every day without ever reading them. Yet somehow, many of the email marketing campaigns run by some of the largest and most successful companies in the world fail to realize this.

Here's an example. I ordered a product online from a well known clothing retailer that you can find in major cities across the country. When I placed my order I was signed into their email list, which I had absolutely no problem with. I really like their products and check into their site when there are specials, because when not on sale their clothes are a little expensive for me. But when they send me an email, there's always a link to the "SALE" section of the site, which offers online only discounts. This sale link is another great thing to add to your email messages by the way. Promote your main offer, but include a couple other links of interest.

But the point is this: I am voluntarily opted into their email list. I really like this store. I really like their products. I WANT to receive messages from them. So what's the problem.

The problem is this: Over the course of the month of December, I began to receive DAILY emails from them. Every single day there would be a new email. Now, who really needs to receive a marketing email from store, even one that you like every single day? Maybe some people do, but I do not.

So I opted out. I withdrew myself from the email list of a company who's products I enjoy and who I had even wanted to receive emails from. But they abused my permission. They didn't have something valuable to offer in each message, they were just pestering me. This isn't what I wanted, and research shows it's not what most people want. The average customer is fine with one email a week. Five a week though is TOO MUCH.

Learn the lesson: If you abuse your opt in email lists, you're going to just anger the very people who you're trying to sell to. You're going to get people like me, who love your products and want to receive your emails, to say "Forget it!" and opt out. You're emails are going to get marked as spam, which will hurt the deliverability of all your marketing emails. You're going to lose customers and you're going to lose money.

SO DON'T ABUSE YOUR EMAIL LISTS!!!!

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