This should have been a no brainer, and I can’t believe I am having to write it at all. But after dealing with a client this last week, I guess that it isn’t so obvious. Here is the rule: If you don’t want to be perceived as spam, then don’t spam! That is rule number one. OK, you think everything you have to say is valuable and that everyone should hang on your every word. Goody for you. You customers don’t agree, and it is their decision.

If you send out 5000 emails per day to the same 5000 prospects, you are spamming. I don’t care how interesting that message is. By the third day, of fourth day if I am slow, I am wanting off of your list. There is no way you are fine tuning a personal message to that many people in bulk. Oh, and if you are a smaller company the numbers are smaller, but you are still spamming.

Beyond that, a brief review:

  • Don’t contact me every day unless we are in the middle of a frantic negotiation. Even then, you had better have something very important to say.
  • Don’t send me the same message as you send to a thousand other people and expect me to consider it a personal interaction. You are just fooling yourself.
  • Don’t put all of the email addresses for the hundreds of people you are sending the email to in the “To:” line. You just broadcast everyone’s emails, gave away your contact list, and invited more spam into your prospects inbox.
  • Do use a subject in your email that is clear and accurate. Don’t put it in ALL CAPS, and don’t use words that are spam triggers like “free”, “great deal”, “viagra”, or “sex”.
  • Do be aware that if you act like a spammer, the anti-spam services will conclude that you are spam and will start blocking your emails.

OK, those are some of the very basics that you should keep in mind all the time. Beyond that there are lots of other things to do and not do, but that is what this entire blog is for and what I will be talking about in the future.

If you want to make sure to stay up on getting your message across, getting your email read, and keeping your company off the spam blacklists, then make sure to subscribe to this blog through the RSS feed or through the email.