Many times when you buy something online nowadays companies ask if you want to receive e-mail updates about its latest service or offerings. If it is a retail store of sort I usually skip it as I would rather not be blasted every day about a new sale they are having where many times it’s not even that good of a deal. But when I agree to sign up for an e-mail list for something like say your Internet service provider the expectation is that you will only receive e-mails if it is truly something worthwhile.
But recently there was a company I was on its e-mail list for as first I got an e-mail about them celebrating about a retail partnership. So that’s good to hear. But not too long after I received another e-mail from them. This time it was advertising how they were having a sale. Wasn’t relevant to me in anyways, but I’m, sure it will help some. Then a few days after I got another e-mail from them advertising a course that they were selling. At that point, I unsubscribed from the list as it was clear they were turning it into like a weekly supermarket flyer.
I think that’s an important thing to keep in mind in terms of the expectations people have when they sign up for these kinds of e-mail lists. Again, it’s different if people had the mentality that you are a shopping site as an example. But if you are say a consulting firm where the services you need are pretty specific then just randomly sending everyone advertisements about a new fitness program you are offering probably isn’t the best way to maintain that relationship.