Found this article on the “No man is an iland” blog and it’s just great!

Here’s a quick summary(with my own comments):

1. Send button stress - My favourite of them all… Even though we send out emails all the time, we still get nervous everytime we need to hit the “send” button (secret confession: I always schedule 10 or 15 min. ahead of time just in case…)
2. Conflict in bars and at parties – Someone else: “So what do you do?” me: “I work in email marketing” them: “Oh so you send spam?” me: “NO!!”
3. You will “spam” at some point – It’s true, no matter how flawless your opt-in process is, someone who willingly and explicitly signed up will probably think you’re spamming…
4. Annoying questions are inevitable – “Why can’t you send my email to this list I purchased for 50$ ?”
5. Some targets are out of reach - sad, but true.
6. Your delivery rates are lower than you think – You never know if your email landing in the inbox or the spam folder…
7. Vendors give you a skewed view (and not just the way you think) – Since most of the people writing articles and opinions about email marketing live and breath it everyday, we like to focus on new and cutting edge – which is not realistic or necessary for every company.
8. The other emails are (more?) important -Things like welcome messages and transactional emails are usually more important to the recipient than your lovely newsletter, yet often overlooked.
9. I’m not a number, I’m a human being – Don’t forget, REAL people are reading your emails, and they want to be treated like real people – by getting relevant, meaningful content to them.

Read the full article…