One of the most significant risks you take when sending a marketing email is to be irritating. Most subscribers will take the rough with the smooth but limits are often low and easily reached. The difficult thing is to know what might wind them up the wrong way.

Ask yourself what irritates you, makes you want to tick the unsubscribe button and generally stamp about. One thing that gets to me is overuse of clichés, such as day to day and rough with the smooth. It tends to show a careless attitude. If a company can’t be bothered to bother, then why should I?

The patronising waiter, the one who explains the menu despite you being fluent in Italian, now there’s someone who would try the patience of a saint; see what I mean about clichés. Then we have the rather obnoxious ones who,when you ask them about one of the items on the menu, allows contempt to cross his face. 

It is the same with marketing emails. If you go into superfluous detail you will irritate some of your subscribers. Giving the bare minimum is not an option as some will need more detail. So go for a click-through for further information.

And as for click-throughs, ensure they work. Nothing more irritating as they say.

If you find that the Subject Line has nothing in common with the offer in the email, you have every right to feel put out. One that gets to me is where there is a sum mentioned and there is no way you can pay the amount due to other items that are essential.

One that probably gets to everyone is where you have to go through to the cart page before you can find out how much the thing costs. Just suggesting ‘lowest ever price’ is not enough.

Don’t send marketing emails too frequently, or ones that don’t fit on mobiles. Then there’s the missing unsubscribe button. And don’t get me started on the emails that appear just like the one I received the previous week. I’ve had one where images were identical. 

What irritates you is what will irritate your subscribers so don’t take risks.