What happened this week was an unsuspecting new business to
the area was trying to drum up some new business, right?
Sounds simple.
But what they did, ended up being not only a CUSTOMER
SERVICE AND PUBLICITY NIGHTMARE. But depending on how they
"clean it up", it could be a huge CREDIBILITY KILLER as
well.
Now, I'm not going to mention their name because I ended up
talking with them and they are generally very nice; they
just made an ASTRONOMICAL EMAIL MISTAKE.
So, being a new business, they thought they'd start by
email blasting out all the businesses in the local Chamber
of Commerce about their B2B service they offer. That
probably seemed like the quickest, easiest thing to do (in
their mind).
They probably went on to the chamber website and cut and
pasted all the email addresses they could find because I'm
a member there and I know they don't sell that list. So,
tons of time spent doing this, right?
Well, yesterday, I received an email from these folks with
the word "newsletter" in the subject line (I knew I had to
talk to them about that for one), opened it up and read a
little bit. It was basically a text message about their
services with a couple links to their website mixed in but
no other 'real' content.
The email had a message at the bottom saying people could
unsubscribe by replying with the word unsubscribe in the
subject line. It wasn't personalized with any one's name or
email address though to contact.
It started out though by a "Welcome to our first
newsletter" message which I thought was weird since I
didn't remember meeting anyone from that company recently.
But knowing I could be mistaken since I do talk to a lot of
people each week, I thought I would reply and ask them
where we met.
So, I replied (only to the one person who sent it to me of
course in the TO line, not to the 'reply all' button).
I asked them if we met at a recent event. Then I also
mentioned that I help small businesses with their email
marketing campaigns and theirs was breaking a few sp'am
laws - FYI. I told them about my service for that briefly
and sent it off.
They responded back (good to know they weren't a spam piece
themselves thankfully). We had a dialog back and forth a
couple times (this was pretty late Tuesday night).
I thought nothing of it but hmmm, maybe I'll get a new
client and help them maximize their email marketing
campaign?
Then the following morning (today - Wednesday) bright and
early I started getting calls....
Now for some of you who know me, it's rare to ever catch me
anywhere before 10:00 am, much less on the phone even
before my coffee BUT at 7:30 am the phone started ringing,
and ringing, and ringing. After the 3rd call before 8:30 am
(of course I wasn't answering but ...) I figured something
was up. I stumbled to my computer and found a bunch of
emails and a few messages from angry soles who had been
receiving every correspondence between the two of us the
night before.
I quickly learned that somehow the "reply" button wasn't
just replying to the one person who sent the newsletter to
me in the first place but it was going to EVERYONE they
sent it to. WOW! People kept saying unsubscribe me, delete
me from your list, etc. Now, for someone like me to get
those when I do this weekly ezine myself I thought I better
do something because these people think these messages are
coming from me - and I'm the one trying to FIX THE PROBLEM!
Apparently what had happened was he accidentally somehow
programmed the reply address to reply to all (no idea how,
he's a techie though).
So, I first listened to the messages, one was from another
marketing colleague who understood what was happening and
she was alerting me which was nice but the other woman was
pretty irate. I called her back to let her know that it
wasn't me, it was another company and I'd call them to
figure it out but by then I had already pulled up the
company's website and gave her their phone number.
When I called the guy I had emailed with, he was actually
expecting my call, it was funny. I kind of felt sorry for
the guy really as he probably had a REALLY, REALLY BAD DAY.
I told him this was going to be detrimental to his
business' success, especially since he just messed with the
whole entire chamber of commerce! I urged him to call the
chamber right away and explain the situation, gave him the
number and the person to contact because they don't take
spamming lightly at this chamber. It would help his chances
of not getting black-balled if this got around to them;
plus I also suggested he joined as soon as possible too. (I
even volunteered to introduce him around to smooth things
out if need be - always giving, that's what I do.)
He actually felt so bad I believe he finally emailed
everyone back one by one to admit and explain his mistake.
Which was good for me because the calls weren't stopping. I
had to change my voice mail and not answer the phone for
the first half of the day - I left a detailed message
explaining the issue with the "newsletter" email blast and
gave out the company's number to call even.
Luckily, the calls and emails stopped. He dismantled the
email address and the list and I might get a customer out
of the whole ordeal.
So, a few lessons to learn here are:
- Do not cut and paste random email addresses into any
email blast you are sending
- Do not use Outlook to send large email blasts or
newsletters (many reasons why)
- Do not send any email blasts to people you don't know
(only about .01% of companies will do well with this)
- Do not send out sales pitches disguised as newsletters
(you can send out sales blasts to your list but send them
separately from your regular newsletter and make sure you
explain what you're doing)
- Do not put email addresses of those you are sending email
blasts to in the TO or CC line of your email, put them all
in the BCCCC line (if you MUST use Outlook, which I don't
recommend).
- Do explain what you are doing when you send out your
first newsletter - how you know them, why you put them on
your list, what you plan on telling them in upcoming
issues, how they will benefit, what you will offer, etc.
- Do put complete contact information in every email
- Do put easy opt-out links in every email - not a message
telling them to reply with unsubscribe in the subject line
- many people are afraid to do that in case your email is
spam in the first place and they might get a virus.
- Do use a professional, preferably online, email marketing
program to send all your email newsletters, blasts and
sales pitch blasts - I highly recommend subscribing to the
one I use, Constant Contact; it's affordable, easy to use,
follows all the spam laws and you can easily track all
emails sent, opened, clicked through, etc.
- Finally, if you don't want to or can't figure how to get
this all going CORRECTLY on your own, I can help you set it
up and brainstorm what you're going to say, how to say it
and how to really attract the attention of your contact
list on a regular basis in order to get more repeat and
referral business - GUARANTEED! Find out about my Easy
Ezine Set Up Service using Constant Contact now.
Ok, so that's all I have to say about that, I hope that you
tread very lightly with your next email marketing campaign.
But I don't want to scare you off from doing one. My emails
bring me lots of business every week! They also allow me to
stay on top of the minds of everyone on my list every week
because everyone on that list has to either read me or
delete me! Rarely do they "unsubscribe" since I give so
much valuable info.
I just want you to do your email campaigns in a way that is
professional, effective and helpful to the user. I really
can help you get one going in no time so what are you
waiting for?
----------------------------------------------------
© Copyright 2008 K.Sawa Marketing
Katrina Sawa is an Award-Winning Relationship Marketing
Coach who's helped hundreds of small business owners take
dramatic steps in their businesses to get them to the next
level in business, revenues and life. She offers one-on-one
coaching, group coaching and do-it-yourself marketing
planning products. Go online now to get started with her
Free Report and Free Audio at
http://www.jumpstartyourmarketing.com !
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