Don’t Scare Your Email Subscribers Away!

Gather in close, now. The tales I’m about to tell are not for the faint of heart. Tales of email marketing campaigns that would send a chill down the savviest subscriber’s spine. Gruesome broken images and fiendish frequencies await those brave enough to read on.

Take caution: Your campaign could fall victim to any one of these horrifying misfortunes. The trick to staying alive in the inbox is to make your email campaign a treat for subscribers to read. Are you brave enough to learn from the terrifying tales ahead?

Mutilated Designs

Here begins our first tale:

The clock in the Sears tower struck midnight when E. Marketer clicked the “Queue” button to send his regular sale announcement. A full moon hung in the sky, casting long shadows over his desk in the corner of the dusty spire. As the email stole away through the shadows, the raven on E. Marketer’s shoulder cawed three times. He didn’t realize that the raven had sounded his email’s death knell.

For when subscribers opened their inboxes the next morning, they saw the mutilated remains of the perfect design that E. Marketer had intended to send:


(via The Retail Email Blog)

A terrifying tragedy in the inbox. What could he have done to save it?

Broken images distract from your message (like the Sears example) or sabotage it entirely (like this example from Diamond.com). When some images in your messages are displayed while others aren’t – like the examples above – something needs to be fixed with the images that aren’t displaying.

Double-check your images’ sources to make sure you typed them correctly. Images appear “broken” when the URL that points to them is wrong or misspelled. Previewing messages before you send them helps you catch any last-minute mistakes that could scare off your subscribers. Always mail a test copy to yourself before sending to your subscribers.

Fiendish Frequency

J. Consumer shuddered as he watched the screen. Another five since he last checked less than an hour ago. Messages bred in his inbox like a contaminate. This qualified as an epidemic, and the strain was resistant.

Hitting “Delete” quelled their rapid reproduction at first. Then the more he deleted them, the faster they came, crowding out important messages and absorbing them like a Blob. He had to find an antidote and fast.

He had to save the inbox. Time was running out. Time for the last resort. He checked “Select All.” He clicked the “Spam” button. And the infiltration fizzled away without a sound. For now…

Do you choke your subscribers’ inboxes with your frequency? Perhaps like Spirit Cruises here?

Their frequency is overkill and 40% of their messages reuse subject lines! A company sending that often should at least have something vital to say.

You can tell you’re sending too much when your subscribers stop engaging with your emails. Ask them how they feel about your frequency and give them the option to opt out if their interest got choked out early.

Eerie Irrelevance

The Twilight Zone is real. Gaps in space and time put us in danger of crossing over into a different reality without even knowing it. Those who cross over may not notice until years later, and by then it’s too late to go back. I know because it happened to me when I logged into Gmail:

I shrugged off the first message as a mistake. But the emails kept coming. I knew my LinkedIn profile listed “Writing and Editing” as my industry, not “Computer Software.” Was I trapped in an alternate reality?

No. I was just a victim of mis-targeted emails. From a social network that should already know my interests. Make sure you’re targeting your subscribers appropriately:

Because there’s nothing spookier than feeling misunderstood by a brand you trust.

A Terrifying Lack of Permission

Our last cautionary tale begins one benign summer day, when I logged in to my email account. I saw two emails – one I had signed up for, the other I had not. I did not recognize this new sender. Who was he and what did he want?

An intruder had forced his way into my inbox and hijacked my permission with a single message.

“Welcome to the mailing list,” it hissed before sinking in its teeth to drain away my trust.

…More like, “Welcome to the mailing list you didn’t sign up for!” I did subscribe to emails from R5 Productions, but they never sent me emails directly from their concert venues. And their sign up process never mentioned adding me to any additional lists.

The moral to this terrifying tale: Get permission from your subscribers before you add them to another list. Or make it clear in your sign-up process. Better yet, give them the option to sign up for extra mailings if they want them.

And if you’re sending emails on behalf of a partner or sponsor, make it clear in your subject line or From name (like Netted and TheKnot.com do):


Respect your subscribers’ trust and the won’t run away screaming.

Are Your Emails Scary?

Is your campaign free from emails that go “bump” in the inbox? How do you make sure your subscribers are satisfied with your emails and not scared away?

When was the last time you checked your campaign to make sure it’s friendly, not scary? Print This Post

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6 Comments

  1. Paul B. Taubman, II

    Rebekah -

    Great themed post filled with great ideas!

    It is funny that as I read some of them I thought, ‘Of Course! That is soooo obvious!” But as I read the next one I thought, “Great idea! I have to try that one out!”

    It just goes to show you (or in this case, show me!) that things I take for granted are probably the things that others need to hear (and vice versa).

    While you provide great tips in this post, I also appreciate the lesson that I should not assume when I mail to my list that they know what I know!

    Thanks and I hope you have a scary day today!

    Be Well.
    Paul.

    10/31/2011 9:03 am
  2. David

    Awesome read, very creative and in spirit of Halloween!

    Question: What is the process that should be taken if you sell the website/business which would include the email list of customers?

    I ask this based on the last section you mentioned about Lack of Permission, as if it comes from a different name all of the sudden.

    10/31/2011 7:58 pm
  3. Ashley Langjahr

    Bloggs that go bump in the night:

    I was excited and ready for a spooky tale, prepared with my marketing maven sword to slash the markingting spooks and frights. I clicked on the aptly weblinked words, prepared for my later reading. But then a shiver came across my skin, as the links opened in the browser I was reading from. What do I do? Do I read the new article or the old? Do I loose my interest copying the URL into a new tab……no I use my mavens sword to comment on this bump in the blogg.

    11/4/2011 1:36 pm
  4. Rebekah Henson

    Ashley – I think you might be able to change the settings in your browser to open links in a new tab to avoid future frights of that nature. ;)

    11/4/2011 1:42 pm
  5. Caryn Starr-Gates

    This was really fun to read and very good content – thanks for writing it with humor and substance!

    11/7/2011 8:03 am
  6. Vanessa Edmonds

    I enjoy reading your blog… good tips for marketers.

    11/10/2011 12:17 pm

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