8 Things You Must Do Before Emailing Your Subscriber List

#1: Who are you, again, and why should I care?

Will I or won’t I? That’s up to you. Sketch by Author.

This morning I received an email from Richard, of Company X, telling me that today is the last chance to get 20% off his product. The email contained simple text with a hyperlink CTA. No logo, no company info, nothing to remind me why I’d been interested enough in them to hand over my contact details 5 months previously. Since then, I’ve forgotten what the company does, and why I should care enough to find out. I looked them up solely because I’m writing this story.

Turns out Company X is a SaaS I might have been ready to learn more about, but with the Upgrade Now button right near Unsubscribe and no compelling reason to follow that bland CTA, I picked the latter and got on with my day with the satisfaction that comes from progressing in my digital decluttering goal.

I’m a solopreneur who runs an online store selling resources for educators. I like to try out software, lots of it, and after a reasonable evaluation, I stop using many of them very quickly. This means I have given a lot of people my email address, so scenarios like this one are repeated often.

I’m no email marketing campaign expert, but I am supremely qualified to tell you how I feel…