Two Quick "What Not To Do"s in Email Marketing

I really, really hope my alma mater doesn’t employ these same practices. Shame on them too, if they do.

In 2008, I signed up to make a monthly automatic contribution to the NC Children’s Hospital (the “12 x 12 donation”). The NC Children’s Hospital is an absolutely amazing, and absolutely necessary place, that I would support with or without its affiliation to the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. With that donation, they received my email address.

In 2009, I’ve signed up for the Morehead Planetarium email list. (Also cool, but not nearly as important as the Children’s Hospital.)

You can imagine my surprise (and little bit of disgust) when I received an email last week that opened with “Hello alumni and friends of Carolina,”

I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.

All jokes aside (and trust me, it could be way worse – not only did I graduate TWICE from another university, but I graduated TWICE from a RIVAL university), so why on Earth am I getting emails like this?

As I went to unsubscribe, I was taken to a subscription management page (ok – thumbs up are due here) where I found out I have been so kindly added to ALL of the following lists:

FYI Carolina Online
A free newsletter for alumni, parents of current students and friends of the University from the Office of University Relations. FYI provides information about people, events and issues at Carolina about six times a year

GAA affinity information
Includes credit card, insurance and similar programs

University and GAA events
Reunions, Travel, Lifelong Learning, Carolina Club news and events, etc.

University and GAA news
University athletic information and tickets

University schools and departments
Includes Business, College of Arts & Sciences, Dentistry, Education, Government, Information and Library Science, Journalism and Mass Communication, Law, Nursing, Pharmacy, Social Work and UNC Libraries

WTF.

You’ll notice that neither the NC Children’s Hospital nor the Planetarium are on that list. But those are the only two institutions on the campus of UNC with my email address.

Clearly, I was about to be bombarded with emails that were not only irrelevant, but just downright unwanted. You want a quicker way to get people to just “Opt-out from all emails (Remove me from all current and future emails, regardless of any individual settings.)” and permanently ban you from contacting them ever again? I really can’t think of one.

Sigh.

Lessons Learned (the hard way by Carolina):

1
– Know your audience. If your list doesn’t come exclusively from a graduation or general university fund donor roster, don’t assume I’m an alum (or even a friend). You’re better off not using an introduction at all, unless you know for a fact that it will be all encompassing.

2 – Keep your contact lists relevant. Don’t share your email address lists across multiple (often ultimately unrelated) business units.

You’re Not Using Google Calendar?

What??? Are you crazy? It’s fabulous, free, and you can share (and keep private) all the content you please.

Check out this morning’s News & Observer business section run down on the calendar provider and enjoy!

Gaga for Google calendars

PS – No paper trail to worry about losing or not keeping updated, either! If you desperately need something on paper, you can simply print the monthly, weekly, or daily views.

A Good "Top 10"

I’d like to re-title the article I’m about to recommend.

Instead of the “Top 10 Reasons I’m Not Following You on Twitter“, I’d like to call it the “Top 10 Reasons I Don’t Give a Darn About Your Tweets”. (Because for people I know and like, I usually try to give them a while to get it right.)

Some folks are just plain failing miserably though.

My favorites from Brent’s Top 10 include: #10 – Your updates are protected (face it, you’re not THAT cool), #7 – You have “social media expert” or “marketing in your bio” (for the exact same reason as Brent), and #1 – … I’m not spoiling it! You’ll have to read the article to find out.

So hop to it – it’s a quick read and well worth it.

The Next Post Won’t Be About Twitter…

…promise!

But this one will be, simply because one of my recent “tweets” (posts on twitter) garnered a lot of attention and feedback.

My Initial Posts:
ncsulilwolf: 60% of Twitter users don’t hang around. http://bit.ly/BlmhL
ncsulilwolf: The original report about Twitter Quitters is here: http://bit.ly/hs7Rb

Tagged Responses:
DeirdreReid: Here’s my take on that – http://bit.ly/14WjWQ RT @ncsulilwolf: 60% of Twitter users don’t hang around. http://bit.ly/BlmhL

CommunityMGR: RT @ncsulilwolf: The original report about Twitter Quitters is here: http://bit.ly/hs7Rb

zacktm: RT @ncsulilwolf 60% of Twitter users don’t hang around. http://bit.ly/BlmhL

flipfloplisa: I bet the didn’t follow cool people like I do- RT @ncsulilwolf: The original report about Twitter Quitters is here: http://bit.ly/hs7Rb

Deirdre’s blog is a great read. IMHO (in my humble opinion), a 40% adoption rate is not cause to abandon twitter. In fact, in the internet world… I’d say that’s pretty darn successful.

Why?

Twitter is not for everyone. Neither is facebook. Or email. It doesn’t mean they can’t be valuable tools though that can contribute added value as part of an integrated marketing communications plan.

(Plus, I’d like to think that one day, the spammers and non-value adding twitter-users will make up a good portion of that 60% that end up jumping ship.)

Twitter for Businesses

This is a really great summary of just why Twitter CAN work for your business from the National Marine Manufacturers Association… that can really be applied to ANY industry.

Twitter = Customer Service? Really?

You’ve heard the buzz about Twitter and, like many, are thinking it’s just another internet trend. Maybe. But, in the meantime, if you’re not using Twitter you’re missing an opportunity to manage your brand and communicate directly with the estimated 25 million people using Twitter worldwide. Most users are over the age of 25, meaning Twitter is not your teenager’s internet trend.

Instead of telling you how it can be your newest (and free) customer relations staff, let’s show you: Go here and type in your company or brand name. In real-time you receive a list of “tweets” or comments about your brand, from people within the 25 million-strong crowd. You can respond directly to complaints, quell rumors on the spot and address misconceptions about your product line. You can also reward loyal customers by sharing special offers.

Discover Boating and NMMA use Twitter to take the pulse of the news media (hundreds of reporters and producers use it to get story ideas and share what they’re working on) and understand consumers’ daily mood to determine the best way to communicate with them each day.

Just remember this: once you join Twitter, generating posts of VALUE to your followers and engaging in conversations with them is what will ultimately bring you the most return on your time invested.

PS – You also shouldn’t “protect” your posts… unless you don’t want any followers. Good rule of thumb is that if you need to “protect” your posts or “go private” on your blogs… it probably shouldn’t be written on the internet TO BEGIN WITH.

You Want Me to Do What?

Sometimes I wonder what people are thinking when they hit “send”. Now, I won’t ever being to claim that every email I’ve ever sent has made total sense or been flawless… but I was really thrown today when checking my email.

A local business (who shall remain nameless) sent me an email about participating in Earth Day with them. I could receive a special discount by bringing in items to donate and presenting my email coupon… that must be printed and surrendered to redeem offer. (Not in those exact words, but I’m trying not to incriminate the shameless here, since it’s not really about being green… it’s about bringing in business.)

Exactly how is asking hundreds, potentially thousands of customer to print something very eco-friendly?

Here are some alternatives: “say this password (insert clever marketing message here) at checkout“, “text this message (insert also clever message here) to your self and your friends and present it at checkout“, etc.

Or you know, just a simple “no need to print – just reference this email”. Whatever floats your eco-friendly boat.

I am very, very happy to say that two of my clients use this tip very successfully. They make me so proud!

Oh Twitter

Thoughts for Tuesday:

Curious and cantankerous, Steve dived into social media and started making delightful observations about his experience on Twitter. He recently sent me this comment about a power user he had started to follow: ‘His constant, not-so-subtle harangue to get word of mouth going about his new start-up have made me very skeptical of Twitter … so easy to be maudlin, so easy to pollute.’

I had a simple answer for Steve: Quit following the annoying bastard. Let’s not forget that technology gives us both the power to connect and the power to pull the plug.” – Death by a Thousand Tweets, Phil Johnson

SUCH a good perspective on Twitter. I mentioned in the article’s comments that I rarely echo sentiments on social media word for word with others, but Phil hit the nail on the head for me.

Take five minutes to read his post. Not only is it a quick read, but also a must read.

That Internet Contraption

As it turns out, it really does put information at our fingertips. So why aren’t people capitalizing on that fact?

In the last few weeks, I’ve seen a few commercials that have included songs that I’d like to add to my iTunes collection. Now, I haven’t been sold on the products/services being advertised, but at least someone is getting something out of the marketing investment.

Well, not in all cases. Here are two mini-case studies:

AT&T and Amos’ “Sweet Pea”

Troy-Bilt and “Shining Down” by Austin Hartley-Leonard

When I searched for the AT&T commercial, I eventually found out the artist is Amos Lee and that single is available on iTunes — for instant download by yours truly (resulting in an instant sale for Amos AND an introduction to a fan… something that’s incredibly valuable in the music industry).

When I searched for the Troy-Bilt song though, this is all that I could find:

“Supposedly “Shinin’ Down” sung by Austin Hartley-Leonard. Song’s not available yet–was written specifically for this spot, or so says Yahoo Answers.” (via YouTube comment) and “Correct, but song is unavailable as of yet” (yahoo answers).AT&T and Amos = Success.

Troy-Bilt and Austin Hartley-Leonard = not quite there.

All is not lost though, Austin does have a whole album on iTunes and I like what I hear… I just wish I could download the single from the commercial, too.

The Service Experience: Sprint/Nextel

I am a Nextel faithful. I have had the direct connect service since high school and there is nothing that compares with it. Unfortunately, Sprint bought Nextel a few years back, and as predicted by Nextel customers, it was the end of all customer service as we know it.

Because of the insane amount of money that I spend with Sprint on a monthly basis (unlimited Blackberry service, unlimited mobile broadband card service), I get better customer service than most, but the service experience itself (quality of coverage, consistency of billing, amount and frequency of marketing message)… well that’s just crap.

The biggest problem I have right now is this: I am a paperless girl. PLEASE send me my bill by email as a PDF and let’s work together to endless printing and tree killing. I have not received a bill by email the last two months (and I’ve checked my spam filter and all the other little tricks). I DID however receive an email telling me my bill is two months past due. And three text messages.

So why the big complaint?

1) My text messages are CONSISTENTLY a day late, or more. They are never instant. It’s pretty much synonymous with Sprint.

2) I have a big problem with a service provider who cannot seamlessly provide its customers the services they are paying for in a consistent and timely manner and even more so when they can get THEIR messages to me though, when they feel I owe them too much money. (You can get the past due email to me, but not the monthly emails? You can get the “bill due” text message to me, but never any other texts?)

If I had received my bill as arranged to begin with, the payment due date and amount due would’ve gone immediately on my calendar with a 5-day reminder attached to it.

A disconnect in the service experience like this indicates two things to me as a consumer:

1) They value me paying my bill more than they do actually providing the services I’m paying for.

2) I’m paying a premium for this provider but not receiving superior follow-through. Could I easily cut my bill by $50 a month with a competitor and receive the same quality of service? Betcha I could!


Hmm… decisions, decisions, decisions.

I will say one positive thing about Sprint – when you call the 888-number, you are almost always given the option in the voice prompts for “to speak to a representative, press 0”. Definitely necessary to get a live body on the other end for issues like this.

No wonder Sprint keeps losing market share and brand value each quarter…