The Fine Line Between Compulsion and Tolerance

by Tom Ruwitch

Here’s a fact that both pleases and troubles me: In a recent survey, more than 8% of respondents said they check their email “after sex.”

As the founder and president of an email marketing company, I am pleased to know that some people are so devoted to the medium. But my troubled soul says compulsive email consumption should have its limits. I’m sure you agree if your partner checks email in bed.

I’m a glass-half-full kind of guy though. So for the purposes of this marketing column, I’ll focus on the good news. I’ll let others wring their hands about the state of human intimacy.

According to results of the survey from my.com, 90% of the 1,000 respondents check email “compulsively.” Nearly three-quarters of the respondents said they check email first thing in the morning. More than half said they check email immediately before bedtime. Forty-six percent said they spend an hour or more each day checking and reading email.

This proves a point we often make: Email remains a great medium for reaching prospects and customers. That’s good news for any small business that markets with email or plans to do so.

Naysayers claim email marketing is dead, but year after year another study proves the naysayers wrong. The masses continue to flock to the inbox. Are your messages there?

Please don’t argue against email marketing by saying: “I don’t check email in bed. I can’t stand checking email compulsively. In fact, I don’t like getting commercial email at all.”

If that’s true, I say, “Good for you (and for your grateful spouse)!” But I will also remind you that marketers are doomed when they assume their own tastes echo the public’s. If you don’t check email compulsively, you are in the slim minority. You have two choices as a marketer:  Be a purveyor of your taste by sparing the masses from the emails you dislike, or deliver marketing messages where the masses reside.

For those marketers who choose email, I applaud you, but I caution you also. The masses may be compulsive, but their tolerance has limits. They may be checking email in bed, but that doesn’t mean they’re actively engaged with it or enjoying it.

Even the compulsive readers will tire of you if you deliver only irrelevant product pitches. Give the masses a reason to open and cherish your emails. Deliver informative, entertaining, engaging content. View your emails as one-to-one communications with prospects and customers whom you are courting. You converse with them, give them a reason to learn more about you, offer value to them, encourage them to want more. When it’s time for them to check their email – morning, noon or night – they’ll be glad to connect with you. And when it’s time for them to buy, they’ll choose you.

Tom Ruwitch is founder and president of MarketVolt, an interactive marketing agency. For MarketVolt’s free webinars that deliver five powerful marketing tips in 25 minutes – including tips about how to create content that the masses will cherish – go to 5in25.com