Do not reply to this email (is bad for business)

I want you to start thinking about your email messaging differently moving forward.

Do not send a message if you don’t want to accept replies from your [customers/clients/readers].

Why? Well, unless you have a really darn good reason that you don’t want to hear from people, messaging and engaging your email recipients should be a two way street. And yes, I’m even talking about special offers, weekly discount newsletters, and so on. Don’t send an email if you don’t want a reply.

We live in an increasingly connected world that is held together loosely by the connections we make with businesses and customers. Enabling those connections to flow freely and enabling conversations will help your business understand problems before they get too big among a myriad of other benefits.

You should want to hear from the people that keep you in business. Give them an opportunity to reply to your message, even if it’s a simple receipt. Don’t turn them away.

I’m not saying you have to reply to everyone, either. This is important to note. Set up an auto-reply that let’s people know you received their message, it will be reviewed, not all messages will be returned, etc… Figure out what works best for your business.

Here’s a great article for further reading on the subject: http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/1695743/do-not-reply-this-email