Well, the holidays have come and gone and I can relax for a moment and catch my breath. Okay, that done, I need to catch up on some email and on this post.
The holiday barrage of email was an interesting event. I took note of the tactics of companies, large and small, to see how they used email for their sales campaign and I made a couple of observations.
Many companies used email as a gentle reminder that "Hey, we're here if you need a last minute gift item and, by the way, you can order as late as (insert date here) and you'll still get your gift in time for (insert your particular holiday observance here)". Helpful stuff.
There were many offers of free (or reduced) shipping & handling along with deadlines, gift ideas, price reductions, etc. The traditional fare. And then there was "crazy".
One company that stood out (like the drunk chick bawling at a party) was a local catalog retailer. Their email campaign felt like it was being driven by a bankruptcy court auditor flogging the Marketing department. Each message (and there were many) was more insistent, more desperate and filled with useless junk. Yes, I have bought from them before but not many products, so maybe they didn't see enough of a pattern there to make their emails adequately relevant, or targeted.
It got to a point where I was ready to unsub from their email list but then I thought, let's just see how manic they get. And they did. It was almost like a going out of business sale (and maybe it is) or like those last few items for sale at the end of a tag sale. My favorite was the $2,000 discount on a product which, I actually had to work to find, after clicking through the email. It made me think of those restaurants where you can buy a PB&J for $200, and it comes with a bottle of Cristal.
So, I let the crazy flow and I sat back and watched. I had nearly forgotten about this until another email was sent from them, late on New Year's Day, which jogged my memory. It's now time to seek out that unsub link and let them know we can't be friends anymore. When all you do is shout at me and implore me to love you, despite all the emotional baggage you carry, it's time to move on to a more mature relationship.
I did some retail shopping on New Year's Day, as well. I stopped into everybody's favorite Midwest, off-price retailer, which rhymes with Blargit. The store was busy but I did not see that the prices on all of it's merchandise had been slashed. I think there's a lesson here: This store will still be here in 2010 (and beyond) and knows the value of it's merch. There is no need to move ALL of the product before the end of the year.
So, a new decade, a new relationship. Sorry babe, but it's just not working out for me. It's not you, it's Me...Now where is that Unsub link again???
