Each day I receive a bunch of emails from business trying to sell me something.

Most I delete after briefly scanning the first few sentences of the email.

Harsh comments? You bet but this is harsh times for business and lack of common sense and research is not an option anymore.

I am no different from any other person out there. I am human, I have feelings and I like to deal with businesses that treat me as a human being not as a “targeted segment” or “profit center”.

With the complaining over I would like to provide 5 helpful hints to all the businesses out there that wonder why their current marketing sucks.

1. At least know my name! If you don’t even address me by my name then that’s a good sign that you are too lazy to even check who the owners/directors/influencers are in the business. I class this type of email as spam.
2. Know my business. Even the smarter spammers today know what my business is about via scanning my social media profiles. If you send me a pitch on a product/service that is not even in my space then you look stupid to me.
3. Do I care? Don’t send emails that talk-up your business and imply that I would be foolish not to pick up the phone right now and ring you. I don’t have time to be impressed with your achievements – I want you to tell me how you can help my own business. If you do that is then that’s all the talk-up I need.
4. Spelling/Grammar? This is a tough one as I am crap at both and normally have my own content screened by a staff member before it goes out. If you send me an email riddled with spelling mistakes then I instantly assume you are too lazy to use the spell checker. I will however let you off the grammar mistakes as I would not see them anyway.
5. Don’t dare subscribe me to your newsletter without asking. This action will get you and your business blacklisted with me. This is the dumbest thing I have seen. You are so lazy that even contacting me personally is too much effort. Instead you subscribe me to your newsletter without my permission. Go on – try it and see what response you will get from me.

If you take onboard the 5 hints above you have a far better chance of getting a positive response from people.

Golden Rule – use commonsense before you attempt to contact prospects. Think before you act.

I would recommend that you also read up on improving your email marketing – click here.

Also read Chris Brogan’s post on the very same subject here.