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.