For most of us, it's very hard to remember how different our customers are from ourselves. This recent article does a good job of driving the message home. I challenge you to create a snapshot of a customer who is VERY different from yourself and hang that in your work area. You have to satisfy that person before you can satisfy yourself.

Mediapost EmailInsider: Don't Confuse Your Personal Experience with Good Strategy, 2010-Jul-21, by Morgan Stewart

My eyes were really opened when I talked to a friend who runs a website for ranch and farm real estate brokers. He recently told me that every time he sends an email to his customers, his fax machine goes nuts with responses.

Talking to my colleagues in email marketing, it would be easy to believe average folk spend the majority of their waking hours online or heads down on a smartphone, receive a couple hundred emails a day…