Do This: Double Check Before You Hit "Send"

Did you ever get a really bad email? Not the Nigerian-Prince-with-$5,000,000-he-needs-to-get-out-of-the-country-but needs-your-help-to-do-it kind of email. No, I’m talking about the kind of email that is annoying, off-putting, or cringe-worthy?

I was scrolling through my inbox today and I received a flurry of emails from someone I’ve never heard of, who is apparently the CEO of some company I’ve never heard of. I get those occasionally, but I opened up the first one to see what this was about. This is what I saw (with identifying information removed to protect the guilty):

Company Logo

Dear ~Contact.FirstName~,

Original Mail dolor sit amet, click this link adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

Ouch. I felt bad for the guy. So I flipped to his second email.

Dear Ron,

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

Well, at least he got my name right. And the third one:

Dear Ron,

Email A1

Click Here dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

At this point, I selected all of them (there were lots more) and marked them as junk.

Here’s my point: I love email marketing. I think it’s a great way of staying in touch with lots of people, building relationships, sharing information, etc. And I don’t mind autoresponders, the programs that people use for email marketing. I use AWeber, but there are lots of good ones. But before you hit “send,” please—for the love of your customers and your business—double check to make sure you really want to send those emails.

The Big Question: How do you check to make sure that what you’re sending out is what you want your audience to receive? Please feel free to comment below.

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