One of the best ways to get more repeat business and referrals is to stay in touch with your clients and other contacts and one of the best ways to do that is via email. But whether you email individually or to a list of newsletter subscribers, your efforts can backfire if you make some simple, but all too common mistakes:

• Using your personal email account (e.g., hotmail, aol, gmail, etc.) instead of you@yourdomain.com.
• Difficult to read messages–ALL CAPS, paragraphs that span the entire email window, long paragraphs and sentences, unusual fonts.
• Poorly written or edited, boring “lawyer-like” prose, too much “technical” law talk, not enough human interest.
• Lengthy disclaimers and CYA language that put distance between you and the reader.
• Emailing too often or not often enough. People need to hear from you and if you send valuable and interesting content, they will want to hear from you. Occasional emails are better than no emails but monthly is better. If you have enough to say, weekly is better still. Daily is not unheard of for some markets.
• Always selling. Your emails should be 90% content.
• Never selling. Your offers (services, free reports, seminars, etc.) deliver benefits people need and want. Don’t deny them.
• Not putting “you” into your messages. You are building a relationship with you, not your firm, so make your messages personal.
• Putting too much “you” into your messages. Talk to your readers about their lives, their business, not about yourself.
• Making it difficult for recipients to unsubscribe or change their email address. Don’t make people email/reply, automate the process with an autoresponder.

Have you made any of these mistakes? Are there any that you’ve seen your colleagues make that aren’t on this list?