“Too much of a good thing can be wonderful” – or can it?

Actress Mae West is credited with this sly observation. While it’s worth a good laugh, I have to ask myself: Is it true?

I recently spoke to an acquaintance, Rodney, about email marketing. I mentioned how I’ve chosen to get on a number of mailing lists, and that, despite my initial interest, I found myself annoyed by receiving emails from these service providers at least daily.

I went on to say I assume this approach works, since everyone in the known universe (well, almost) uses this technique. At the same time, it strikes me as overbearing and pushy.

There was a brief silence, then Rodney mentioned that he consistently connects with his mail list two to three times a day.

There was a somewhat longer silence on my end.

I admit that he made several good points:

• He knows people on his list want to be there, because otherwise they would have already unsubscribed.


• He gets a lot of engagement from subscribers


• He makes sure he offers high value in his communications.


• When he has a new e-book or other product to promote, people are eager to hear about it, because they already expect him to provide useful information.


• He had to shift his own mindset from “This is pushy” to “This is hugely valuable to my subscribers” in order to generate both tangible and intangible rewards from this approach.

I’m grateful to Rodney, because he gave me both something to think about and the idea for this blog post. As a result, I’m posing these questions to you:

• What’s your experience when you request some irresistible free offer and willingly trade your contact information for it?


• Do you ever unsubscribe from a list as soon as you receive the IFO?


• If you get frequent emails from the list builder, do they just clog your inbox, or do you usually read them and even – Gasp! – take action on the information?


• What do you consider to be the mailing-list sweet spot, where you’re getting enough contacts to provide value and create engagement with the sender, but not so many that you’re feeling harassed?


• Have you found that “too much” of a good thing really can be wonderful?

In case you’re wondering, these are not rhetorical questions! I’d be so grateful if you’d take just a few minutes to give me some feedback. As the year winds down, I’m planning for next year, and feedback from some of my best peeps would help me get off to a fabulous start.

To thank you for your help and to give you a boost as you start your fabulous 2020, I’ll gift the first 10 respondents with a copy of one of my e-books – your choice. Just comment below, then go check out my author page and let me know which book gets a place on your new year’s reading list. I’ll get that to you within two days, so it’s ready and waiting for you once the holiday madness recedes.

• I’m going to try something else here by starting a new “list” block.

Merry Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Yule, and Merry Christmas! I’ll see you next year.

(BTW, thanks to kate gabrielle for posting the Mae West image in the Creative Commons section of Flickr.)

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