Who is out there recommending that businesses such as The Teaching Company, Borders, and Barnes & Noble email buyers and club members every day? Is someone really suggesting that this is an acceptable way to treat their customers?
I know, I know. I read the articles in the trade publications and newsletters. I get the brochures for conferences from people all screaming about how they can help you “avoid the spam trap” and “overcome ‘delete without opening’ or ‘open and delete’ tendencies that so many of us have.” That “it may take more than one reach back.” And offering lessons on how to “remarket with an email marketing program that requires very little spend.” They even teach you about “graymail – nonspam email that consumers might have opted in but now rarely open.”
So I know there are profligate idiots of the email marketing religion who think that analytics can skew common sense. That if you keep ringing a bell eventually someone comes to dinner. But, really, who told Barnes & Noble it should have emailed me practically every day in December?
At this point, I perceive these constant emails as blatant disrespect. I expect it from people who are trying to appeal to me with Nigerian investment opportunities, or from Eastern European mobsters trying to convince me, day in and day out, to give them my XYZ banking credentials. But from reputable firms that actually have a tool in place to track every purchase I make with them already?
A scorched-earth strategy may be the best way to view it. If a marketer were using the phone in the same manner, it would go something like this:
“Mr. Evans, this is Erin again from The Teaching Company. Remember we talked yesterday.”
“Yes, Erin.”
“Well, I know you said you weren’t interested yesterday, but I was calling to see if you are interested today. We are again, Mr. Evans, offering free shipping.”
“Didn’t I say that it might be a while before I buy another lecture series?”
“Why yes, you did, Mr. Evans, but our marketing strategy is to call you EVERY DAY in hopes of catching on the day you change your mind. So, I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay?”
In the end, the email marketing guys probably get to show that the eventual sale came as a result of their “strategy,” when in fact I live down the street from the store and was ready to make another purchase. And the only reason I’m a member of their now-irrelevant book club is that the card automatically discounts every purchase I make. I’m no “stickier” than I would have been otherwise. Except now I’m pissed.
So, okay, I had clicked on the “yes, I would like to receive emails about special promotions, blah, blah, blah” button. Do the people at Barnes & Noble really think I opted in to get an email from them every day? Do they think I’ve got a “relationship” with them? How horribly misguided they must be to imagine that incessantly banging on my door with yet another email is the way to get another sale from me. It’s a good way to get me to hit “unsubscribe,” and then what do you have? Has anyone supplied those numbers to the CEO or the marketing director?
If it were a door-to-door salesperson I would eventually yell out through the door, “Look, I told you, I’m not going to buy your books right now. If you don’t stop harassing me and leave my porch I’m going to call the cops. Leave!”
If it were direct mail I’d get another piece of mail (which would actually cost the company real money to send), and the content would be something to the effect of “I’m writing to you today to reemphasize what I wrote to you yesterday about, which is that we are so afraid you’re going to shop at a competitor that, like a four-year-old craving more attention than its sibling is getting, we feel the unending need to make more noise.”
If it were a TV ad, it would be the same 30-second spot, over and over in the same hour. Oh, you’ve already done this? My bad.
So I ask, Do we dispense with common sense in letting the email gurus and analytics guys convince us that we live for today and not to worry about tomorrow? Do we allow nothing more than subject matter experts in a single channel blow up the efforts of a larger, long-term strategy to maintain customer loyalty?
Have them show you the numbers, and start asking what has been left out. Have them rationalize why soft research such as customer perception and qualitative measures don’t matter. Have them display their brilliance about “clickthrough rates,” “behavioral remarketing,” “uplift modeling,” and “persuadables” and then ask why they choose to create a new language for old concepts?
And then trust yourself and imagine better.
Scott Evans is owner of full-service direct mail provider Bantra Corp.
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