Eliminating the word “Blast” from your email marketing vocabulary

Do me a favor… for the sake of all respectable email marketers don’t use the word ‘blast’ when referencing email marketing.  It sounds so dirty.

The word just makes me cringe inside when someone talks about ‘e-blasing’ or ‘we’re going to blast out our email this week’.  Sure email marketing makes it convenient to get your message across to your subscribed list but where did this word come from?

Saying ‘e-blast’ to me is like saying ‘let’s have spam for dinner instead of steak’.  Unpleasant thoughts come to mind and leave me with a bad taste (excuse the pun).

Some of the various definitions of ‘blast’ include:

– A forcible stream of air, gas, or steam from an opening, especially one in a blast furnace to aid combustion.

– A violent explosion, as of dynamite or a bomb.

– A destructive or damaging influence.

– A violent verbal assault or outburst.

That said, let’s give email marketing a little respect and not talk about it like a bomb! A forcible stream of air! A violent verbal assault!  Not good.

Of course I’m jesting about this in a sense but all jokes aside, there is something about the connotation that completely undermines what email marketing is supposed to be.

Whether you are sending one-off emails or your monthly newsletter to your subscribers you are communicating to them through email, not blasting them haphazardly.

Email marketing needs a little more respect and choosing the right vocabulary can mean all the difference.  So, next time you would like to send a campaign let’s refer to it as a ‘deployment’ or even ‘we’re going to email our subscriber list this week’.

So as long as we play by the rules, keep our emails informative and not use the word ‘blast’ we can change the image of email marketing for those that think it’s still in the dark ages.

Eliminate ‘blast’ from your vocabulary!