To email or not to email— you’re probably overthinking it

A small business friend came back to work from maternity leave recently and asked me “How do I say ‘I’m back, please buy my thing’ on email without feeling ick?”

I suggested reframing “I'm back, please buy my thing” to “I'm back…”

… how can I help?

… tell me what's new!

… what are you struggling with?

… here's what I learned while I was away.

… here's what I missed about my clients/work.

… all I've been listening to is the Wiggles, please talk grown-up to me.

What I didn't say was, this is a much bigger deal to you than it is to your audience.

I might be alone here, but the only time I've ever been annoyed by someone trying to sell me stuff after taking a break is when it's a sustained pattern. As in, the only time I ever hear from them is when they're launching something.

Even then, I don't find it annoying enough to actually do anything about it (e.g. unfollow or unsubscribe). The furthest I'll go is to simply delete their emails and not buy their thing.

I had another conversation with a different small business owner later who was curious about email marketing but wasn't doing it because he himself never opened the emails he had subscribed to. Mostly because they were junky, 100% sales emails. There was no value to him in opening them unless he was already interested in buying something. It hadn't occurred to him that people might interact with an email from him—a smart and funny dude with interesting things to say—differently.

Look, I get it. I delete 90% of the emails I've subscribed to. And I'm not immune to the occasional bout of self-doubt around whether I'm saying anything of value or just ‘adding to the noise’. And yet (and yet!) hundreds of people open and read the emails I send. A handful of those people even respond to ask questions or share what's happening with them or tell me how much they enjoyed what I had to say.

And it's not even necessarily because my emails are much better than the 90% I delete. More likely, my email just happened to be one of the 10% that those people opened that day.

Because people open emails. People read emails. Even when they say they don't.

Ok, now here's the bit that's going to be even harder to believe. Unless you've tricked people into signing up to your email list, there's a good chance people will open and read your emails, too.

Even if you've been on an extended break. Even if you have something to sell. And even if you never ever ever read and open emails yourself.

So, maybe stop overthinking it and just send the dang email already?