A chat with my neighbor made me question my whole email list strategy

I was talking to my neighbor, a retired teacher, about the constant emails she gets from stores. She said, 'I just delete anything that doesn't sound like a person wrote it.' That simple comment hit me hard because I've been using the same automated welcome sequence for my clients for two years. I realized my own emails probably sound just like those she ignores. Has anyone else had to completely rewrite their automated messages to sound more human?

4 comments

4 Comments

claire8723mo ago

Oh man, did that ever happen to me last year? I had to scrap my whole newsletter setup because my friend said it read like a robot manual. I spent a weekend just making it sound like I was talking to one person. It's a brutal wake up call, but it makes such a difference.

samflores2mo ago

Isn't it crazy how we don't notice our own robot voice until someone points it out? I mean, what paulw53 said about it feeling like a note from a friend is exactly the goal, but it's so easy to slip into manual mode when you're trying to be "professional." Maybe it's just me, but I have to actively picture a specific person I know reading it, like my sister or a close buddy, to keep it from getting stiff. That mental switch makes all the difference.

paulw533mo ago

Yeah, that "talking to one person" thing is key. I heard a podcast say the best newsletters feel like a note from a friend.

corar373mo ago

Totally get that. Reminds me of my old boss who wrote every client email like a formal memo. We had to stage an intervention with a stack of printed out replies that sounded super stiff. He started reading them out loud and just cracked up at how weird it sounded. Now he drafts everything in a text to his wife first to get the tone right.