Sending nasty emails is a very bad idea indeed. Don’t do it.

Mad Marketing TV featuring content marketing expert Joe Pulizzi (@juntajoe) posts on 8th of December at noon Eastern Time/ 9am Pacific Time.

When you are angry and upset, don’t send that nasty note.

A few months ago, a partner invited me to join a project with a major software company.

A certain well-known marketing expert led the project - we’ll call her AA.(I do not wish to reveal her name.)

This associate asked me to keep it quiet, and I only mentioned it to a leading sales expert whom I trusted.

Unfortunately for me, this sales expert and AA were close friends and my trusted friend told her.

Shame on me for not keeping my mouth shut.

When AA got wind of my involvement, she wrote a scathing email to my business associate.  After hurling invective after invective, she swore she would never work with me. It’s was a very nasty email indeed.

In the short run, that may have make her feel better. In the long run, it hurt her badly.

Therein lies an important lesson:

You Should NEVER Send a NastyGram Email

This purpose of this post is to show what it’s bad to do that to anyone. And I cannot imagine Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki or Chris Brogan writing a nasty gram. They don’t think that way. Neither do I. I would never write the kind of email that AA sent.

Every time you think you have reason to write a nasty email, stop and think. It can come back to bite you, just as it did for AA. Let me explain:

Scroll forward six months, and we see a changed world. The person she attacked is now host of his own very popular B2B marketing show, Mad Marketing TV. Mad Marketing TV has an amazing list of upcoming guests for the show. Guests get tremendous publicity.

I book ALL guests and do all interviews for the show. As a result, I control who comes on the show. I decide who is on and who is not.

This woman would be a perfect guest, and she would get huge value from appearing on it, but she’s not coming on the show anytime soon. That email sealed her fate. Very bad move, AA.

Sorry, AA, but that nasty email is coming back to haunt you. You are way, way down on the list of potential featured guests. I’m doing my best to avoid you. Don’t screw with a man who has his own TV show!

Next time, do this instead

Next time you feel the urge to vent, stop and take a deep breath.  Write out your feelings, but in Word and not in an email. (So you don’t accidentally send it.)  AA undoubtedly wishes she had..

Our moms were right “If you have nothing good to say, say nothing.” AA would have been on my Mad Marketing TV show if she heeded that advice and said nothing. She didn’t and she’s not (on the show.) We may have her on sometime, but she is WAY down the invitation list.

What do you think? We love comments and those who share.

Jeff Ogden is the President of Find New Customers “Demand Generation Made Simple” and the host of Mad Marketing TV. Find New Customers helps companies rapidly grow revenue by transforming how they attract, engage and win new customers. Contact Find New Customers at (516) 495-9350 or sales at findnewcustomers.com.