But lately I’ve been seeing people doing it all wrong, and I think they’re doing themselves more harm than good.

When customers opt in to get your messages, they expect the messages to hold some interest for them. If your site is about kitchen appliances, they don’t expect to see you writing about house paint. But that’s the kind of thing some people do – especially Realtors.

Recently I tried to contact a Realtor via the contact form on his website, because I couldn’t find an email address for him on the site. (That’s a mistake for another discussion!)

So, I wrote him a note asking a question. Instead of an answer I got 10 emails all targeted to different kinds of buyers or sellers. Now I get 4 messages a day. Some are addressed to first time buyers, some to move-up buyers, some to sellers, and last night was the funniest: The subject line said “How’s Married Life?”

The message went on to say that now that I’m married I should buy a house – from him. I think he missed that opportunity by a decade or so.

But this isn’t the worst of it. He never did answer the question that started this flood of mail.

Auto responders are easy to set up and most systems make it easy to sort your lists. There’s really no reason to send every message to every person on all of your lists. All it does is make you look silly.

If you aren’t using auto responders I hope you get around to doing so before long. I really do believe they have value. But if you’re selling health supplements, please don’t send your customers messages about cleaning supplies or skydiving opportunities!