“Blast” is a word that makes us cringe whenever it is heard. You might be hearing or reading it every single day in the bulk email service and deliverability field. However, there are two words that should never be uttered around, and those words are “email blast.” Whenever the word “blast” is used in reference to emails, it creates images of unwanted bulk emails that are being sent invasively, jamming thousands of inboxes at a time.

If you want to create a significant relationship with your customers, it’s very obvious that clogging their inboxes is not the way to go. So instead of using the term “email blast,” let’s think of its replacement. Avoiding to use “blast” for your emails gets you in the right frame of mind. Your emails should be like a pleasant conversation among friends. First, you get their permission to enter into a dialogue, then you offer interesting and informative content, and finally, you listen to their responses and feedback. When you use this approach for your email marketing, you will get much better results.

Here are just a few of the old, should-be-dead email marketing tactics that “email blast” brings to mind:

No segmentation, targeting or personalization: “Blasting” suggests that you’re sending the same best smtp provider out to all your subscribers. That there’s no personalization, even in the subject line. No dynamic content, and no way for subscribers to let you know which topics they’re interested in. This is not a recommended email marketing practice. The most successful email marketers segment their lists.

Blast sounds like you’re assaulting your subscribers:Rather than giving people content they would be interested in, “blasts” sounds like we’re all but firing our messages out to people. Attacking them with our bulkresponse. No good marketer wants to do that. If people don’t want your emails, let them go.

Blast sounds like cheap content:Anything you’d “blast” is something that didn’t have a lot of work put into it. You don’t re-use or save something that’s been blasted. Calling emails “blasts” insinuates that emails are low-value content. Granted, some emails are low-value content. But those aren’t the emails any of us wants to be sending, especially if we want a decent ROI from email marketing.

Blast sounds like email marketing spam: Using the word blast says a lot about how you view email marketing. And because so many of us are so very touchy about being characterized as spammers even using a word that leans toward sounding like spam bothers us. Remember that there are always two definitions of spam. There’s the email marketers’ definition and then there’s the consumer definition. The consumer definition of spam is simple and complete: its email they don’t want.

Nobody wants to be blasted: “Blast” also says a lot about how you view your subscribers. Are they people, or targets? Describing anything you send to an audience as a blast devalues them and you.