I just received an email today from a marketer (I am signed up on over a hundred lists to keep an eye on market trends). This email had the subject line of "Notice (email address removed) mailbox full..." It then went on to say

"Hey just thought you should know that
that's the message I got when trying to
send this to you last night..

(email address removed)

Sending it again because I don't want you to miss this one
just because you either get WAY TOO many emails lol
or their was a technical error which I for one hate and either
way know you would appreciate the second effort by me haha"

This is of course untrue since we run our own email servers and have unlimited space for our email addresses. This may seem like a cute way to get someone's attention and make them open up an email and it may work for a few people. But most people on the internet today have unlimited storage space in their mailboxes and will never have a mailbox full notice.

The real problem here of course is that the email starts out with a blatant lie. How could anyone trust what an email says, or click on any link in that email when it is so obviously a lie? This is one advertising technique that can only fail. There are so many legitimate things that can be said in an email that will attract attention, why start off with a lie? It can only hurt your reputation.

So, be fun, be cute, be clever, just be honest and you will have the most success.

George