10 Reasons You Don’t Deserve to Have My Email

CopyPress

January 21, 2014 (Updated: February 8, 2023)

My email address is a sacred thing. I don’t go around passing it out to just anyone. You have to earn it. With all the email campaigns that are out there, I’m very picky about whose lists I decide to join.

If done correctly, email campaigns can help your business significantly. Unfortunately, though, it can also annoy your readers and potentially hurt your business if done incorrectly. Your customers are the heart of your business and if you take advantage of them your business will suffer. You can quickly turn a customer off if your email campaign isn’t up to their standards.

Here’s why you don’t deserving my email as a marketer – from what I’ve seen in my own inbox.

Your contact form is abominable.

One of the worst things you can do for your email marketing campaign happens before you even have email addresses to blasts to. If you have a generic email form on your website I guarantee your users aren’t going to get excited. As consumers, we become disinterested and bored as we see generic email forms all day long.

Get creative with your email form so you can capture your visitors’ attention. Otherwise, they’ll look at the form and not even process that it’s there. Also, I just want to give you my email, not my birthday, phone number, or first-born child thank you very much.

You send me emails multiple times a day.

I get it. You want me to buy your product. I heard you the first time. For most businesses, there is really no need to send more than one email a week. Any email after that becomes annoying for the consumer, and not only that, but your emails start to become white noise and lose their value. In this case, less is more.

I can’t read your email on my phone.

I read most of my emails from my phone. Who has time to sit down at a computer anymore and read emails nowadays? You might as well just fax me! (*enter sarcasm*) We are people on the go and we like convenience. That being said, make sure your email campaign is compatible with mobile phones. If I open an email that is hard to read and disorganized, I’m probably going to delete it. I don’t have time to decode your messages. I’m a very busy person.

I can’t see the images.

I’m a visual person. I love pictures. If I open an email to find that your images don’t work (or you don’t have any) then you better believe I will be frustrated. This is also important if you are trying to sell a specific product. People like to see what they are buying before they buy it. Images are also good for sprucing up your content. Pictures make everything better. Tell me how excited you get when you open up a book and find unexpected pictures? You get super excited. Don’t lie.

You don’t have an unsubscribe option.

Like many people, I like knowing I have an out. If I find that your emails are not doing it for me I want to stop receiving them. Not having an “unsubscribe” in your email is also against Federal Law, so if you don’t have one somewhere in your email, you have bigger problems to deal with other than angry readers.

You haven’t sent me anything in months.

I signed up for your mailing list for a reason: I want to read your newsletter. You need to make sure you are making the most out of every email address you get. If you only send one email after someone signs up then you’re wasting a precious resource. One of the biggest benefits of an email campaign is that you are constantly getting your brand in front of people. One email is not going to cut it.

Your content puts me to sleep.

When I receive an email from someone, I usually skim it to see if it’s worth reading. If I find that it’s boring or useless I will delete it. You need to make your content interesting to draw the reader in.

Your email should contain information that is valuable and interesting. Create witty lists about how your product is useful or tie some current event to your service.

You are trying to sell me something with every email.

From the time we wake up to the time we go to bed, hundreds of companies are trying to sell us something. As a consumer, I can say that it is super frustrating. When companies continuously try to sell me something I lose trust in them, “They don’t care for me. They only want me for my money.”

It’s such a breath of fresh air when companies offer me something without expecting me to immediately buy something in return. That’s why it is important to give your readers something other than an advertisement. Take a break from the sales pitch. Give us something that will benefit us or make us laugh. Tell us about the culture of your company or how you are helping the community. We will buy when the time is right for us.

I don’t know who sent it.

What’s the point of having an email campaign if the recipients don’t know who it’s coming from? If you don’t have a clear “from” line, it’s more than likely that your readers will delete the email before opening it. Using a person’s name instead of an info@ will not only improve the likelihood of your email being opened, but will also show your readers that you are trustworthy.

You lied to me.

Do it. I dare you. I will unsubscribe to your email campaign so fast your head will spin. Consumers don’t like to be lied to, it’s one of the worst things you can do for your business. People value honesty. They don’t want to give you their money if they feel like they are being fooled or manipulated.

Some marketers believe that the crazier the claim the more people will be interested. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Make promises that you can keep. You will make your customers happy, they will tell their friends, your business will grow. Everyone’s happy.

If you want the trust of your customers, make sure to avoid doing these ten things. Email marketing is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. Establishing the right brand image takes time, but it is definitely worth it in the long run.