Is Emailing Really “Free”?

Send a bunch of emails, the more you send the more likely you will get a response right? It is just a numbers game right? Not always…

First things first, in case you are not familiar with Email autoresponders let me brief you here. Email auto responders are a software as a service method of sending, segmenting, adding people to lists, list farming and managing your customers, leads or prospects emails. There are many of such services from Mail Chimp and constant contact to integrated with CRMs like Infusionsoft and Salesforce.

The purpose of most email auto responders is to be able to manage and send emails to different groups of people but this is what this article is all about. Treating everyone the same is a mistake not everyone in your list is the same, even if sending 1000 emails costs you the same as sending 10. Let me explain.

Lets say you have a list of 1000 people and you want to send perhaps a newsletter or offers, announcements, reminders, more offers, more announcements etc… May be you see where I am going with this, but the truth is not everyone wants to hear from you all the time. Chances are the bottom 20% of people want to hear from you may be once a quarter or less! While the top 20% might want to hear every week, the top 4% every day and the top .9% might even like to hear from you several times a day!

“So what?” you say? ah, here is the trick. By sending everything to your ENTIRE list you may get a few sales or desired actions which may cost the same as sending it to 10 but you must also factor the “annoyance” cost. Sure they might unsubscribe or even put in a complaint, but worse than that they might “mentally check out, mentally unsubscribe” and mentally put you and your company in the “ignore” inbox. You have actually trained them to ignore your email.

This is no small thing. Is like Branding in reverse. Lets talk about Branding… Guess who won the Nobel Prize for discovering branding? A guy called Ivan Pavlov… I think you have heard that name before yea? Pavlov Dogs? classical conditioning? exactly.. Pavlov was able to create a permanent unconscious associative memory of the ringing bell with the taste of meat! Branding!

Don’t “condition” your prospects or a big chunk of your list to ignore you. Rather, condition them to read your email by providing relevant value for them. How do you do this? through segmentation.

We are going to segment your list from most responsive to least responsive, now there are a number of solutions that can do this depending on what autoresponder or CRM you use but the principle is this. The more actions they make, blogs they read or videos they watch, it might be an indication of their responsiveness. Treat them accordingly.

There is a saying: “treating everyone equally is the greatest form of unfairness” Political commentary or viewpoint aside, I think we all understand that not everyone deserves or even wants the same time, money or effort spent on them.

Email feels free. You can send a message to a thousand people with one click and spend exactly zero dollars on postage.

But email is not free.

The real cost of email is attention, trust, and association—and once those are spent poorly, you don’t get them back.

The Hidden Cost of “Free” Email

Most businesses, creators, nonprofits, and coaches fall into the same trap:

“I have a list of people. It doesn’t cost me anything to email them, so I might as well email everyone.”

On the surface, that logic makes sense. In reality, it creates a silent tax: the annoyance cost.

Every irrelevant email trains your audience to:

• Ignore your messages
• Mentally unsubscribe (even if they don’t click the link)
• Associate your name with interruption instead of value

Apple making “unsubscribe” a one-click action didn’t create this problem—it exposed it.

Not Everyone Wants to Hear From You the Same Way

Your audience isn’t uniform. It follows a curve.

Some people barely care.
Some care occasionally.
Some want updates regularly.
And a small group—the most important group—is hyper-responsive.

This mirrors the same idea behind the 80/20 principle: a minority of people will drive the majority of engagement, revenue, donations, or impact.

Trying to treat everyone the same doesn’t feel inclusive—it’s inefficient.

Why Smart Companies Segment (and You Should Too)

This is not a new idea. It’s how serious businesses operate.

Howard Schultz understood this deeply when he built Starbucks. Starbucks doesn’t just sell coffee. They sell mugs, machines, beans, experiences—and even espresso machines costing thousands of dollars.

Why?

Because they know:

• Some customers buy coffee once a week
• Some buy coffee every day
• Some will happily spend $2,700 on an espresso machine

Treating those customers the same would be irrational.

Email works the same way.

Email Is an Association Engine

Every email you send conditions your audience.

Ivan Pavlov demonstrated this with conditioned responses—long before marketing existed as a discipline. Repeated signals create automatic reactions.

If every email from you is a pitch, people associate your name with extraction.
If most emails deliver value, insight, or perspective, people associate your name with contribution.

This is what branding actually is.

The Emotional Bank Account Still Applies

Stephen Covey described this perfectly in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People with the concept of the emotional bank account.

• Value = deposits
• Pitches = withdrawals

If you overdraw the account, the relationship ends.

A practical rule of thumb:

• 80–90% value
• 10–20% ask

Many businesses invert that ratio and then wonder why email “stopped working.”

Segmentation Is Respect, Not Complexity

Segmentation doesn’t have to be complicated.

At minimum:

• Prospects ≠ customers
• One-time buyers ≠ repeat buyers
• Donors ≠ volunteers
• Casual subscribers ≠ super fans

If 200 people have already given you money and 800 have not, which group is more likely to give again?

The answer is obvious—but most email strategies ignore it.

Let People Choose Their Depth

One of the simplest segmentation strategies is permission-based depth.

Instead of broadcasting everything to everyone:

• Invite people to opt into specific topics
• Let them self-select how often they hear from you
• Allow quiet subscribers to stay quiet

This reduces unsubscribes, increases trust, and keeps your signal strong.

Email Isn’t Free—But It Is Powerful

Email costs nothing to send.

It costs a lot to misuse.

Used wisely, it builds:

• Long-term relationships
• Trust at scale
• Predictable engagement

Used poorly, it burns goodwill faster than almost any other channel.

Don’t treat everyone the same.
Focus on your hyper-responsive people.
Segment early.
Respect attention.

That’s how email actually works.

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FAQs

Is email marketing still effective?
Yes—but only when it’s targeted. Broad, untargeted email blasts are increasingly ignored.

How often should I email my list?
It depends on the segment. Some audiences want weekly contact; others prefer quarterly updates.

What is the biggest mistake people make with email?
Assuming that because sending email is free, attention is free too.

Do small lists really need segmentation?
Especially small lists. Segmentation matters more when relationships are closer.

Is segmentation only for ecommerce businesses?
No. It applies to nonprofits, coaches, authors, consultants, and creators.

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If this sparked a rethink of how you use email, let’s talk: [email protected].

This essay connects to broader ideas about leverage, and execution explored here:
https://gabebautista.com/essays/execution/