Generally when people are thinking about how many emails is too much, they think about whether sending emails in successive days is going to drive supporters away. Well, I received five emails TODAY from the campaign of Duncan Hunter. The worst part is that none of them really say anything. Here is the entire text of one email.

We won the straw poll at the Anderson County convention in South
Carolina last night! 63 hunter, 33 romney, 9 mccain, 7 guiliani, 5 thompson,
4 brownback, 4 newt, 3 tthomson, 2 huckabee, 2 cox. This is a
significant win!

Really? That is significant? Also, note that Fred Thompson’s (or is it Tommy Thompson?) name is spelled wrong and all are in lower case letters (plus there is an extra space in there).

In some of the other emails they actually include attachments. Unless it’s really important, never do this. It most likely will look like spam to your supporters, take longer to send out, and no one really wants a .pdf from a campaign anyway.

Sloppy and careless messaging like this will drive people away from you. Whether you are a candidate or non-profit, professionalism is key. So to round up:

  • Do not send five emails in one day to your supporters
  • Make sure to spell check and check for other mistakes
  • Do not send general supporters attachments through email

    • Sometimes it’s good to see examples of what not to do in order to develop stronger messaging.