I found this checklist this morning and felt compelled to share. It will now hang in my office as a reminder the next time I want to hit send without reading Seth’s list first.
I would do good to remember #14: Could I do this email better with a phone call?
And I can’t leave out #4 : Did every person on the list really and truly opt in? Not like sort of, but really ask for it?
Now I freely admit that I have been that person that would send out blanket emails to people when I shouldn’t have. Thankfully there were a few folks who taught me that there was a better way.
That being said we all have been guilty of it at one time or another.
Hell, I recently sent out twitter invites 6 times to everyone on the list (not my fault! I swear! Twitter said they were having issues. . . but try to explain that to an angry mob!)
It is awkward but necessary when you write someone you do business with and ask them to take you off their FWD, FWD, FWD or email newsletter list that you never signed up for.
– in one afternoon alone I received 3 emails from the same person and all were the “pass this along or else”, cute kitty, and “life without chocolate” emails that, of course, were not blind copied – EVER and sent to their entire address book!
I have moved unsubscribing, cleaning up and organizing my email inbox to the top of my list of things to do today. I also bought some stamps. . . I still think that writing a note is the best way to say hello or thank you.
