| ||||||||||||
PRINT
COMMENT
SUBSCRIBE
RSSWhile I've never done an actual audit of my mail, I'm guessing that when a gender is inferred (e.g., Mr. or Mrs. Loren McDonald), one-third to one-half of my mail assumes that Loren is a female. (BTW, generally, "Loren" is the masculine spelling and "Lauren" the feminine spelling.)
Similarly, my wife surprises people all the time when she meets them in person the first time after previously speaking with them only on the phone.
She often sees quite the look of astonishment when people discover that she is a tall, black-haired Chinese woman, not a blonde or brunette Caucasian. Because her last name is McDonald, many people simply make several assumptions. Being Asian is typically not one of them.
Finally, as you read this, many of you are saying to yourself, "Loren, you fine Irish lad, whatever is your point?" Well, that's another assumption.
Actually, I'm three-quarters Swedish and one-quarter Lithuanian. Not a touch of Irish in my genes. And yet, I get Irish references to my heritage all the time.
As humans and as marketers, we have to remember that it's dangerous to make assumptions about people. Imposing your own stereotypes and assumptions on people in your database or communications programs is a very bad habit.
The downside of wrong assumptions about your customers and prospects goes beyond potentially annoying them and even hurting your brand. It can also hurt your bottom line by continually sending subscribers offers and communications based on "bad" data -- or, almost worse yet, no data.
Meet Loren McDonald at Email Insider Summit Utah!
Loren McDonald will be there speaking during "Looking Past Email Measurement" on December 09 at 9:45 AM. Top executives will be there. Will you?
Register today and save.
Register today and save.
As marketers, we obviously have to make some assumptions about people in our database. If you sell mountain-biking equipment, it is probably a fair assumption that someone who opts in to your program is interested in mountain biking.
If you sell winter sports equipment, and someone's first purchase is a snowboard and boots, you might logically conclude he or she is a snowboarder and not a downhill skier. You might be correct, but, of course, the purchase could have been for a spouse, child or friend.
So, how can you avoid or minimize potentially embarrassing and costly mistakes by assuming the wrong things about your customers and subscribers?
Here are a few tips:
Capture basic data: I recently received an email promoting engagement rings from the most respected brand in jewelry. Sorry, folks, but I've been married for 26 years and have no use for an engagement ring. This kind of gaffe caused by a lazy approach to marketing could be rectified simply by collecting 3-4 demographics during opt-in.
Capture the right data out of the gate: If you sell men's and women's apparel, capture gender. If your core offerings are downhill skis and snowboards, capture subscriber preferences. These baseline demographics and preferences can be overlaid with behavior and purchase data later on to create a more accurate profile.
Don't make careless assumptions: A client of ours sells maternity and post-maternity clothing online. As part of the registration process, it captures the baby's expected birth date.
You might think this would trigger a "Congratulations on Your New Baby" email as part of the cross-sell transition to post-maternity clothing. But, because not every pregnancy ends in a birth, this client refrains from sending a potentially poorly timed or hurtful email message.
Instead, it bases its post-maternity transition emails on actual purchases.
Use preference centers: While most marketers will tell you that behavior trumps preferences, capturing a customer's basic interests and preferences enable you to increase potential conversions simply by being more relevant and timely with your message.
Capture additional information during purchase/conversion activities: Add a field to your purchase form that indicates whether the purchase is a gift or for buyers themselves. If it's a gift, invite the buyer to fill out his or her own preference list.
Please share below the worst assumptions you've made as a marketer or seen in email sent to you, or approaches you take to create a more accurate subscriber profile.
40 people recommend this article.
RSS FEEDS
Della Femina Travisano & Partners Dear Della;
And you think you get junk mail...
Steve, in response to your question - no I was speaking more to idea of asking a customer during the purchase process if the item(s) they were purchasing was a gift for someone else, or for themself.
PS: It is pronounced with a hard K
I am a white female and moved from Arkansas to Alabama. I immediately started getting direct mail targeted to African Americans. I now live in Mississippi and still get the same type of direct mail and people actually tell me they thought I was Black when they meet me in person and see I am not.
Your article is timely given the trend towards unique and less traditional names. It also made me chuckle as I reflected on the time I was incorrectly assigned to the "boys" cabin as summer camp...I was redirected but the shock and horror of the camp staff was priceless.
Brynn Palmer
I once spoke with a woman whose last name was Thompson. I heard, what I thought, was a hispanic accent. Not in intonation or even in rhythm, more of a struggle with pacing and speech pattern. But anyway - when I finally met her, she turned out to be this beautiful, dark-skinned Jamaican woman (with a modelesque body to boot). That's when I learned about Jamaican accents. That's also when I learned to not assume but to ask instead. How do I ask? I build rapport with them, some banter, ask them other questions and when they seem charmed enough, I ask them about their accent or their name or whatever.
I get the same thing with my name even though "Frances" is the feminine spelling and "Francis" the masculine spelling.
Doubt that the Saudis care about their brand, but every other group that's called me "Sir" or "Mister" has either severely compromised the relationship, or lost me completely.
Great tips, Loren - particularly your example re careless assumptions.
Casey Quinlan - Mighty Mouth - Mighty Casey Media
Add to that the insulting nature of many of the offers - directed at "people of modest means" - which suggests the marketer is making the assumption that because I'm hispanic I don't make much money.
On top of that most marketers also assume I'm male.
Hey marketers - You're completely missing the mark with me. I'm a highly educated, white female. And even if I was Hispanic there's no guarantee that I would read Spanish.
Great article Loren.
By the way, your name McDonald is most likely Scottish in origin. I know, as my name is McKechnie, which is a sept of the clan McDonald, the largest clan in the history of Scotland. But there I go, with my stereo-types!
Great article!
Loren McKechnie Move Inc. Associate Marketing Manager of SEO/SEM