Are You Spamming Without Realizing It?

As much as developing an email list is about creating a more personal relationship with your subscribers it's important to remember that not everyone on your list is a close personal friend. In fact you may never have contacted many of your subscribers on an individual basis for any reason ever. For the most part those people are just names on your list.

Whilst your actual real friends, the ones that do know you personally, may be fine with receiving an email daily from you, the rest of your email list may not be so appreciative of being informed of every new development in your business, blog or life as it happens.

Email may be an immediate form of communication but it's not Twitter. Most people don't expect to receive an email any more frequently than once a week when they subscribe to an email list. If you intend to email people more than this you really should let them know before they sign on.

Unless you're a breaking news site or you have some other time sensitive information to offer on a daily basis there's no good reason to be emailing your list every single day - or even every second or third day.

Sending messages to your mailing list virtually every day wears people down - even if they appreciate what it is you have to say. People are busy, they often have to pick and choose which emails they actually read.

If you email your list too often you become too familiar to your subscribers. They know what to expect from you. Eventually they'll skip your messages without having to look at them because they already have a pretty good idea what you're likely to be messaging them about.

Then when you actually have something really important to announce, many of your subscribers will miss that message because they'll think you're just sending them more of what they expect.

Once people start skipping your emails often enough they'll unsubscribe or worse, add your email address to their spam filter.

If you add updates to your web site, blog, business etc. on a daily basis then consider writing a weekly newsletter summarizing your updates rather than sending a daily email. Give people a selection of your best updates to review rather than thrusting every single little update in their face. It makes you look needy.

One site that gets this right is Empty Easel, an art advice site that I'm subscribed to. I look forward to opening and reading their email newsletter every Monday. Empty Easel adds a new article to their site every week day, not all of which I'm interested in. When I get their very brief newsletter I can quickly spot the articles I want to read.

Because I'm mainly interested in Art Business advice it would quickly become annoying if Empty Easel sent an email every time a new article was posted. I'm not interested in reading their articles on improving my watercolor technique or how to paint better landscapes.

No matter what it is you have to offer, most people on your mailing list aren't going to be interested in every single little thing. Email people too frequently and you'll end up in their spam folder.

Too much of anything isn't a good thing. Even too much of you.