It’s finally a bright sunny Friday, but alas, I have to end the week with a rant.
This one is further to my earlier post in which I went off on Sunrise Records for being lazy and not doing a better job at segmenting their email lists.
Overnight I received a message from The Trainline, the organization that I booked a trip from London to Paris with last fall.
The message begins with, “Beautiful beaches, rolling countryside and vibrant cities… why leave the UK this summer?” That’s then followed up by a bunch of inter-UK travel offers.
Sigh… Guess what? I live 3,500 miles away from the UK, but you already knew that didn’t you? You knew that because I already gave you all my contact information when I booked my trip last year. Sadly, you were just too lazy to do anything beyond bottom-trawl your database for email addresses.
A few years ago I had a similar experience with the NHL’s Dallas Stars.
Whenever possible, on business trips I try to schedule around being able to catch a game in the city I’m in and Dallas was no different. I booked online, but then started receiving the most absurd offers from them. Season’s tickets offers. Playoff ticket package offers. What were they thinking??
I repeatedly tried to reply and explain that I didn’t live anywhere near Dallas so they should stop sending me irrelevant messages, but to no avail. I finally had to make a phone call and (nearly) yell at somebody to make them stop.
This kind of marketing gives the profession a black eye, and is also wasteful and damaging to your brand.
At the bottom of The Trainline message is a typical unsubscribe line of ‘if you no longer wish to receive these messages, please unsubscribe.’ I honestly stared at that line for 3 minutes considering what to do! Where is the ‘if you only want to receive relevant messages, click here’ link??
To every marketer out there who is too lazy to put the effort into doing everything they possibly can to only send out relevant communications, I give you a Rant!
Just because you have an email address – even one that was opted-in – doesn’t mean that you should use it… Send with care.
(Happy Friday – hope it’s sunny where you are too!)
Posted by kiteboy 