In the last week, I’ve gotten more than a dozen spam emails from businesses where I made purchases in the last year. I’m sure their thinking is, “The holidays are coming. We’ve got customers’ email addresses. Let’s send out some mass emails and increase our sales.”
It might work in the short term. But it’s not a good long-term strategy to make people like, buy from and refer you.
Most of these companies never asked if I wanted to receive emails. Now I’m not buying again. In fact, I’m clicking “unsubscribe” (even though I never subscribed) to make sure I don’t hear from them. And then I’m gone. How many other customers are they losing? Whether you run a business, a high school, a club or organization, spamming via email may be quick, easy and free. But that doesn’t mean it’s a good long-term strategy.
A better strategy? Write something people want to read. Something they’ll opt-in to receive, want to share with their friends and would complain if it stopped arriving regularly. Then you’ve earned their attention.