Don’t give me a gift and then ask me to buy something...all in the same email.

At this time of year I receive plenty of emails asking me to buy products and services.

I have also received some “thank you” emails from companies which are offering discounts, downloads and free trials out of appreciation for my attention over the last year.

I don’t mind getting the sales emails. I either trash them or open them. No problem there.

And it’s good to get a genuine thank-you email with some freebie or discount attached. I haven’t claimed all of the various offers, but I have felt kindly about the companies who thought to say thank you.

But then...there is another group of companies which say thank you with one breath, and try to sell me something with the next.

I think that’s a bad idea.

Don’t use the first five lines of your email to offer me a thank-you gift, and then spend the next thirty lines trying to sell me something.

The impression I get is not that you want to say thank you at all, but simply want to use the “free gift” to hook me into buying one of your products or services.

That warm feeling about your company is lost. Instead, I just feel you are being sneaky.

This is an email error, a relationship error and an etiquette error that is very easy to avoid.

Simply separate out the two parts of the email.

Send me one sales email. And send me a separate thank-you email.

Problem solved.