On the way back from Omaha, we stopped in Ashland for some wine tasting. And, of course, I had to buy a bottle of wine at the tasting room and sign up with my e-mail address to be notified of future events.
I am on MANY e-mail lists. It's my own fault; I sign up for them or I buy things on-line and then I'm followed forever. For awhile, I thought about getting a spam filter but to be honest, I like getting e-mail. Okay, sometimes when I'm busy at work or when I've just come back from a
no-technology vacation, I resent having to wade through my in-box and delete dozens and dozens of messages. But when I have time, I enjoy getting my monthly newsletter from Sanibel, Florida or a notice that the K-Cups for my one-cup coffeemaker are on sale.
So I found the chapter on email to be very interesting. I'm definitely one of those people who's attention can be grabbed or lost in the subject line. And I'm certain I don't spend more than five seconds evaluating whether I should go further. That "What's In It For Me" thing is definitely critical. The information about the best time of day or day of the week to send an email is also interesting. Certainly, a business must keep in mind the best way to reach customers, and that means doing a little "retail psychology" to figure out when is the best time to send an e-mail.
I used to think e-mail was on it's way out. It seemed like there was so MANY messages that the important ones were getting lost in the deluge. But it really just means that it's more important than ever to keep content brief and to the point.
It'll be interesting to see what kind of messages I get from the tasting room in Ashland. It's possible that it'll come at the same time as the "Maui Vacations" e-mail. I may dream about Maui, but I can definitely afford Ashland.
I'm the same way, I like getting lots of email. This was a good chapter for me because we don't really think about email a lot in what we do. Now that we have the e-newsletter though, I think more about the subject line and the preview pane, stuff like that. Also, a lot of people don't understand or refuse to understand the Can-Spam Act. This is really important for marketers/PR people. Also, remembering that "conversion" and getting people to do what intended them to act on.
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