Oh hey, a new email service

I get a lot of emails like this one:

Hello guys,

I’m Ekaterina, Partnerships Manager at LearnWorlds, a top-rated online course platform. I have noticed that you have published content related to Podia on your site

At LearnWorlds we recently launched a Partners Program that you may want to join. With a 25% recurring commission for life, you can generate up to $897 per year for each new referral.

Here’s more info: <censored></censored>

We are open to various kinds of partnerships (e.g review, video , podcast etc) and are willing to provide you with all kinds of materials you might need to proceed.

Let me know if it will be something of your interest and I will be happy to help you further.

Best,

Ekaterina

Partnerships Manager

As you might guess, I never reply to such emails. But that doesn’t deter the senders. Invariably, two days later, I’ll receive:

Hi guys,

Hope you are doing great.

I trust that you have had an opportunity to read my previous email, so I figured it’d be worth checking in with you again.

Have you though about joining our Partner Program? I’d be happy to give you more info on how we can work together.

All the best,

Ekaterina

Followed shortly by:

hey guys,

we were really looking forward to establish a partnership with you, but you haven’t respond to my emails.

This means it would be my last email to you.

If you would change your mind and decide to work with LearnWorlds Partner Program, just let me know.

Best.

This is one of the laziest and worst forms of marketing out there. If you were starting a business, or trying to grow a business, I’d advise you to do pretty much the opposite.

Now, it’s easy to hit delete on such emails when they come in. And I don’t get that many that it’s a serious problem. But as my online business has grown, I’m receiving more and more emails that are not interesting, not useful, and not fun.

On Signal, WhatsApp, or Apple Messages, I don’t tolerate receiving such spam. If I receive something like that, I’ll block the sender’s number and never hear from them again. There hasn’t been a great way to do this on email, though—until recently, when I learned about the new email service HEY, from the makers of Basecamp.

HEY is an email service that comes with its own apps. It’s really a different take on email than you’ll find in Gmail, Outlook, or even in something like ProtonMail. Some things I love about HEY:

• You can “screen out” senders—so you never have to see terrible emails like the marketing email above again!
• It’s easy to mark emails for responding to later, and super easy to batch reply to those emails.
• HEY is really big on privacy—they don’t do anything with your data other than give you the email service.

I’ve been using HEY for a few weeks and have become a paid customer. Processing my email is more fun and more efficient now!

Should you sign up for HEY? Maybe. Probably not if most of your email is on a corporate account.

But if you:

• spend tons of time sifting through email, or
• get lots of unwanted email, or
• feel like your inbox is a mess, or
• are concerned about your email privacy,

then I would strongly encourage you to test-drive HEY. I don’t often tout new products or services other than my own, but this one is really good.

P.S. I have no financial interest in HEY. Just sharing a service that I think is awesome.

P.P.S. Even if you don’t use HEY, you can still dramatically clean up your inbox. It’s one of the things we do in Big-Picture Productivity, actually!