I subscribe to quite a few e-newsletters, some for my hobbies and many more for research into email marketing. In the former, I forgive mistakes because most are run by amateurs, and doesn’t it show, who have something to say about my hobby. For research, I expect companies to show professionalism. It’s remarkable how many fall short.

I accept this is unscientific research, so don’t take it as fact, it’s merely something to consider when assessing your returns. You should also accept I read lots of them.

The prize for most irritating factor in e-newsletters is that they try to sell products in breach of email marketing regulations. I expect the company to sell themselves. That’s what the e-newsletter is designed to do but, dear me, some of the sales copy is a bit obvious.

It is clear from the content there is no targeting. Whereas a marketing email might be slap-bang focused on me, it’s obvious many e-newsletters are not sent to a segmented list. I don’t appreciate having to flick through pages of inconsequential comment before getting to those bits that interest me.

Mind you, I expect there to be a selection of articles as the cone is broader for an e-newsletter and sometimes I come across an interesting article I wouldn’t normally bother with as it is outside my general interest. The intelligent selection of such articles makes the e-newsletter compulsive reading.

An e-newsletter should, given its name, contain at least a bit of news, that’s why people subscribed. I enjoy F1 motor racing and the two e-newsletters I subscribe to frequently contain something which is new to me. The definition of news. Wednesday morning, particularly in the season, gets me clicking on the subject line as soon as they arrive.

I can generally put up with things that would put me off of subscribing to an email marketing list, such as uninspired design and the same one for them all, but not stock images I’ve seen before. That leads me on to the worst error of all: the copy has been cut and pasted from the website blog. I’ve already read it.