Commentary
Mediocre Email? Don't Bother
- by Kara Trivunovic , Op-Ed Contributor, June 9, 2011
Today has been one of "those" days. You have them -- you know you do. The day starts with Internet issues, evolves into computer issues, and then, coupled with traffic to the airport and a desperate need to eat, it leaves you a little, well... cranky. But what finally put me over the edge was the barrage of mediocre, "me too," emails in my inbox. For all of you email marketers out there who are doing a good job -- say thanks to this bunch, as they make your good email look great.
Since when did it become acceptable to do just a piece of your job? Have we become so bogged down in cranking email out the door that we have checked our good sense at the door? I mean, c'mon Spirit Airlines -- "Want to See Our Weiner?" Really? Is this the kind of attention you are trying to attract for your brand? I know that we are all pushing the envelope, looking for ways to stand out among the crowded inbox, but is this really what we've come to: sexual innuendo for the sake of sexual innuendo? Hey, "sex sells," right? We'll see.
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Spirit isn't the only one that lit me up this week -- but it is high on my list. Since when has solid targeting, proper offer determination, testing, measuring and trying again become not enough? Is it too hard to accomplish? Do we just not have enough time? Not enough resources? What is it? And how do we remedy this problem?
Many of you have been in this space for a long time, and it is your responsibility (mine, too) to mentor those coming up the ranks. I can't help believing that the person who wrote the weiner copy needs a little mentoring. So here's my word of advice to new email and online marketers (feel free to share yours too; I probably still need a little mentoring myself!).
My unsolicited advice: Your email needs to be engaging and complementary to your brand and your customer. While humor can go a long way in getting a recipient engaged with your email, it is also very subjective and can be misinterpreted easily. Sometimes tone is difficult to discern in email (marketing and business communications alike), so take care not to alienate your audience or put them in a negative mindset about your brand. If you feel that your audience is part of the demographic who welcomes such innuendo and humor, might I suggest testing it? Prove your theory out before you pull the trigger. You just never know.
Kara Kara Kara,
C'mon....seriously. Spirit Airlines have been doing this sort of edgy, borderline crude and sexual innuendo type emails for quite some time now. Certainly they would not keep doing them if they didn't work and their audience was not expecting this sort of humor.
Here are just a few of what they have done in the past:
The Big Package Sale: http://p.p0.com/YesConnect/HtmlMessagePreview?a=Cim4s-sW3Rqu0NNtqvJ1pUit where the creative talked about "slipping her a big package"
The Great Shavings Sale: http://p.p0.com/YesConnect/HtmlMessagePreview?a=HinVX-sW3Rqu0NNtqsEfphsT where they feature a hairy man's back being shaved.
The Hasta La Vista Sale: http://p.p0.com/YesConnect/HtmlMessagePreview?a=TCl3M-sW3Rqu0NNtqt8z0wWt Whereby they make fun of cheating with the maid.
Oil on the beaches: http://p.p0.com/YesConnect/HtmlMessagePreview?a=0iR1LesW3Rqu0NNtqjUnqnfz Suggestive of the oil spill...
MUFF Diving to destinations: http://p.p0.com/YesConnect/HtmlMessagePreview?a=UCUNv-sW3Rqu0NNtqlOBBiH3 You know what this means right?
In this space we as influencers preach relevancy to no end. This email is all about timeliness and relevancy. Heck..this scandal is consuming the news these days and I was not at all surprised after getting it.
Was the email humor crude? Sure.
Does is work for their brand? Sure..they have done this sort of thing in past (see above)
I think your advice albeit given with the best of intentions is way off on many levels. If this was the first email like this they have ever done, then yea....you have a point, but go back and see the evolution of their program and their brand before passing judgement on it being a "mediocre email"
Andrew Kordek
Co-Founder, Trendline Interactive
A Cross-Channel Messaging Agency
Twitter: @andrewkordek & @trendlinei
Email: andrew@trendlineinteractive.com
PS. My apologies for the breaks in my earlier comments. Sometimes sites don't agree with me
They must work for them as they had a follow-up launch this afternoon. I actually was concerned that it was a phishing email and panicked.
Andrew - i think we are just going to have to agree to disagree. Just becuase they keep doing it doesn't mean anything - we can assume that it works, but I can tell you that my 74 year old father in law, that typically flew Spirit to Chicago 4 to 5 times a year is uterrly offended, but he's an opinion and an audience of one - much like you and I both are. You are entitled to your opinion and I to mine - which is what is so terrific about this industry.
I leave you with this quip - so we can assume that it works for them because they continue to do it - but do we (or they) know for certain that another approach wouldn't work better? Maybe - maybe not.
Kara,
Funny you should mention your father. I in fact showed this email to my 73 year old father. He found it hilarious and thought they were spot on in terms of timeliness. Now....if you knew my father like I know my father...I was truly shocked. I thought for sure he was going to have the same reaction as yours based on his personality and his general conservative nature.
I would like to answer you quip with some fact. First...I have been following The Spirit Airlines email program for almost 2 years now. I have a complete library of all their emails they have ever sent. Not all of them are crude or suggestive. In fact, some are just your run of the emails that most companies send. You alluded to the fact that maybe another approach would work and while I cannot say for sure, I can say with confidence that they indeed mix it up quite a bit. I would suspect that they are doing what they are doing because they are testing against some other approaches.
Your right..we are only the opinions of one in this situation, but I do however take issue with someone using an article with an opinion to say that the person who wrote the copy for the weiner email needs mentoring. I am not sure either you are me are qualified or even knowledgeable enough to know if they are indeed in need of mentoring given that this is pretty a regular thing for them to do.
When someone writes an article seen by many people about one email and doesn't look at all of the facts about the program and calls the email mediocre by their standards is another thing that just doesn't sit right with me.
Andrew
Andrew - again, it wasn't without research and it was written blindly. I appeciate your position and your opinion, but I think we can all use a little mentoring. No offense was inflected and none should be taken - we all have something to learn and can learn from each other. The whole purpose of forums like this is continued growth and education - not everyone is going to agree with me (and it would be no fun if they did) - so thanks for the color commentary.