E-Mail? I'll Get Back To You Later!

72% of America uses e-mail. That's the good news. 64% don't even look at their e-mail for 1-3 days. That's the bad news. E-mail attitudes vary among users: more than twice as many "newbies" believed that e-mail should be checked daily, and replies sent "as soon as possible". More experienced users however, don't feel the same pressure to respond. One direct correlation to this attitude is the increase in spam, with 90% of online users willing to deal with the occasional inconveniences of pop-up blockers, spam filters and the like, in order to avoid spam. Can't say I blame them. I use a "dump box" for all my questionable email. And that same "dump box" gets 80 or more spam a day. Much of this is filled with "you must read this now!!!" type messages. And the truth is...I don't. So I've occasionally missed out on something interesting, but - meh - I can live with it. If you're having trouble getting your e-mails opened in a timely manner by your recipients, maybe you need to examine your e-mail practices. If you're sending two and three e-mails weekly with overt calls-to-action, you may be pushing too hard. Eventually, readers see your signature and think, "Oh God, another sales pitch...". Personal story: I get a newsletter from a well-known big name in copywriting. As a general rule, his e-mail blows. Maybe one in three contains info I find helpful; the rest are merely sales pitches. At first, as a new subscriber, I would open his every e-mail immediately. Now, I have been known to let them languish for a month at a time. This guy slid from "valuable, trusted resource" to "I'll get to him later". I'm not the only one doing this. Make sure your e-mail communications contain truly valuable information, and not merely another hackneyed pitch for your products or services. Address your market's pain. If you don't know what that is, ask them. And use e-mail to do it...