Mark Blasini

Articles

Tolerated vs. welcome

Here, I'm talking mostly about email marketing. Most people subscribe to get the freebie, and then tolerate the emails because they think that maybe they'll get more freebies in the future.

It's rare to find that one subscription where you actually are looking to read what that person has to say. You actually want to know what they have to say next. For me, there are only a handful of people who fit that category.

These subscriptions are not simply tolerated - they are welcome.

If you look through your list of subscriptions that are welcome, you'll probably notice a few shared traits. For me, there are three:

1. The emails are usually insightful. I'm getting this person's well-thought-out take on a specific topic.
2. The emails are usually vulnerable, sometimes spilling out stories about how the person feels or thinks.
3. The emails are usually diverse. The senders aren't simply saying the same thing, but providing variety.

My suggestion to you:

If you're in the email marketing game (which most of us are trying to be in, in some form or another), and you want your emails to be welcome, and not simply tolerated, then look at the emails you get, find the subscriptions that are welcome to you, figure out the shared traits, and incorporate those into your own emails.

You're bound to find people who will feel the same.