In a post at the Email Marketing Reports blog, Mark Brownlow examines mistaken assumptions that can seriously damage the long-term success of an email program.

Our basic beliefs about how our emails work aren't as self-evident as we'd like to believe, Brownlow notes; in some ways, we operate in the dark. "And all the while revenues are melting away silently, like sand in an egg timer."

Brownlow offers examples of beliefs that might be holding you back. Among them:

You read more into the customer relationship than actually exists. "Unfortunately," Brownlow says, "the word 'relationship' conjures up images of long-term loyalty and selflessness. It seduces us into assuming a level of devotion that simply doesn't exist among email subscribers." If you need proof, he argues, compare the open/response rates of the last 10 emails sent to customers with those sent to your family and friends.

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