It reads like this:ArdathPlease click here to subscribe / unsubscribe the following:Company press releaseCompany monthly newsletterCompany webinar invitationCustomer surveyNew product announcementCustomer success storyTips of the WeekBest practicesCompany technical support notesCompany product tipsWe respect your privacy.Thank you,Company name
Yes. I'm serious. Are they kidding?There are 10-count em-items on this list. Eight of them are all about them-a company I've never heard of before. And, in case you missed it, I have to click on the link at the top to both unsubscribe or (in case I'm struck by lightning) subscribe.
Already too much effort required. Where's that spam button?Yes, I'm being really hard on them. They never for one moment thought about the recipient of this email. They gave me no reason to even want to give them my attention. There's nothing in this email for me. It's all about them. And now their reputation is mud, where before this I was blissfully unaware of them.And the "we respect your privacy" bit at the end made me laugh out loud.
They spammed me and they respect my privacy?Not to mention that the email didn't even warrant a personalized signature line and the grammatical mistakes in the first sentence.Now, all of that said, I know where this concept probably came from. This is likely a response to some recent marketing research that says people want to have a choice in what kind of messaging they receive, and the frequency they receive it.
The point of that research is to give people who wantto hear from you choices tofurther engage them. This is not a strategy for getting people to opt in. Take another look at the choices they've given me at the top. What do they think they'll learn about me should I select any of them? Asking your email recipients to expend effort to tell you things that tell you nothing to help serve them better is just a waste of time.Instead, had they sent me an email telling me about this new series of articles they were going to be sending out about a topic I'm interested in and asked me if I would like to sign up to receive one article a week for the next month, I might have thought it interesting enough to take a look.And, if I signed up, think what they might be learning about me. Not to mention if they follow my responses to the articles they send and gauge whether or not they peak my interest or lost me somewhere during the campaign.
Marketing research is great for directing your focus and consideration. But it's not a follow-the-dots map for blind implementation. If what you're doing doesn't help you gain insights that help you make better connections, why are you doing it?
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