Email marketing can bring in a ton of money to the bright Internet marketer. It can also be their worst nightmare if they pull some of the bone headed stunts that I’ve seen pulled lately. I don’t know what it is with people, but many marketers seem to feel that the only way to get people to open up their emails is to lie to them or stretch the truth, or use subject lines that are just, well, obvious ploys to get attention. I sometimes wonder when it’s all going to end.

For example, one recent trend that has gotten me quite annoyed is all the “bad news” emails. I don’t know who started them and quite honestly, I don’t care. But as soon as the first one hit the streets, the copycats all followed. Every email was the same boring subject or variation on it. And then you open up the email and you wonder what the bad news actually is. You get something stupid like, “My cat ate the dog” or something like that. And then the marketer goes into the good news of how you can get his latest product for 25% off. It’s enough to make me sick.

Then there are the emails that read “personal” and there is nothing personal about them. First of all, anybody who is a personal friend of mine isn’t going to put personal in the subject. I know who the person is and I know that it’s personal. So this subject line is nothing but a ploy to make you think that the contents of the email are really personal for you. And then you find out that it’s just the same sales pitch or JV pitch that every other prospect is getting. Again, it’s enough to make me sick.

And then there are the emails that REALLY go off the deep end and pretend to be about some tragedy and then when you open the email, the marketer says, “Sorry, but I had to figure out a way to get you to open this email.” Now that’s the kind of stuff that’s just flat out wrong.

And the end result is that people end up unsubscribing from these lists in droves. I’ve seen marketers kill their business and reputation because of dumb stunts like this. So please do yourself a favor…no tricks.

Your prospects will appreciate you more for just being honest.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

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