It always amazes me when marketers assume your world revolves around them.
Here’s a sampling of emails I’ve received in the last few days which have not only led to my unsubscribing, shaking my head the whole time, but to sharing them with you here:
- Self-Absorbed Subject Line: “The Exclusive Video of Me You Need to Watch!” — at least the author didn’t add “now” to the end — this was the first I’ve heard from this biz owner in about 3 months.
- “Are you serious?” Email Excerpt: “I’m upleveling my business”, “choosing to work with less clients” and “offer you the opportunity to join this $2497 program for the fall” — note that this was the first email of any type I’ve received from this marketer in about a year (no exaggeration).
- Marketing Strategy Gone Wrong: “I’m only accepting 47 people into this program” followed 2 days later by “response has been phenomenal” followed by “will be closing it at midnight so get in now”. If the response was “phenomenal” and your list contains over 10,000 people (his number), one would think you’d have at least a 0.0047 (or less than one 1/2 of 1 percent) conversion and the program would have been full before you announce that it’s closing at midnight.
I took 3 actions:
- Unsubscribe
- Unsubscribe
- Unsubscribe
Seriously though…is this how they build relationships (which 2 of the 3 claim to do)? Is this how they “give generously”?
While these may seem like ridiculous examples, they’re not — they’re taken from my email inbox within the past few days and make me think of the newspaper headlines that are “oh so wrong” and you know weren’t intended the way they read.
The lesson for all of us?
Read and reread your communications. Do they make sense? Are you asking before giving? What’s your track record with the group you’re sending to? Do you respect their time and attention?
I’d love to hear your thoughts below or if you’ve experienced any such “DUH” moments…