Use Your Newsletter Wisely: Don't Spam Your Own List

A lot of Internet experts will tell you to build up a large email list as a crucial part of your online marketing strategy. But are you using your list wisely?

How many times have you signed up for a website or bought a product only to have the company bombard you with emails trying to entice you to buy something from them? How do you feel when you receive these emails, especially those which come once a week if not more frequently? Do you look forward to these emails? More than likely, unless you are really interested in a sale, these emails are an annoyance.

I will unsubscribe from any email list where the sole purpose is to push the upsell. There's a line that gets crossed somewhere. An email pushing a sale once a month might not bother me. It might even call me to action. But when I seem to get an email from these folks - with no substance - on a weekly or even daily basis, I am called to unsubscribe.

I can only guess that these folks are pushing their newsletters so much due to a misunderstanding of how email marketing works. You can't just bombard your warm list with spams regularly and think that's going to add up for you in the long run.

Are you inadvertently pushing away your customers by being too email pushy?

Here are my suggestions for using your list better:

1. Don't bombard your customers with sales emails that have no content or value.

2. Try quality over quantity. A well-written ezine that comes out once a month is something your customers will look forward to. A sales pitch that gets sent twice a week is something your customers will filter into their spam box.

3. Quit the phony marketing tone when it comes to dealing with individual clients. A personal, sincere voice can be quite refreshing in a sea of overhyped self-help pitches.

I really do believe that less is more when it comes to email marketing. The only reason you want to be emailing your list frequently is if you have a special daily or weekly "something" your readers might look forward to. For example: A daily joke, a weekly meditation, or a current piece of topical news.

Daily sales pitches, however, should be avoided like the plague.