A set of studies examined by the web site Marketing Vox has revealed that the prime reason that people stop reading and ultimately unsubscribe from email lists has little to do with concerns about privacy but a lot to do with a thorough dislike of irrelevant emails.

While it might be amusing to receive the occasional piece (as I did today) that says:

Forgive my indignation if this message comes to you as a surprise and may offend your personality for contacting you without your prior consent and writing through this channel. I got your contact from a professional database found on the internet while searching for a reliable and honest person that will assist me to safeguard fund into an account. I was divinely inspired to pick your name among all other names found in the database.

in the end such rubbish becomes a bit dull, and one tries to get rid of it.

So once again we can see that the key is how one writes – make it interesting so that people want to read it – even occasionally – and they will stay on your email list. But if you become tedious or repetitive they won’t.

It is not the case that each and every email has to appeal to the reader – but the following rules really do seem to apply…

  1. Some of the emails really do have to appeal to the readers.
  2. All of the emails need to be written in a way that makes the reader feel interested in staying on the list – even if this email is not really relevant.
  3. There needs to be a personal element in the emails – and that does not mean using mechanical personalisation systems. It means recognising the interest of the people on your list.

As always if you want to talk about this, do give me a call on 01536 399 013 or drop me an email at Tony@hamilton-house.com