Ok, no nap for me, just rattled out of bed by an M3 earthquake… let’s see what’s in the Inbox since I’m up.
Here’s an email marketing newsletter from a web application company (let’s call them “XYZ”) I’ve been following. XYZ’s web application looks like it might be really cool (== replace Quickbooks), but I haven’t quite seen the benefits yet.
Now, I’m always on the lookout to find a Better Way to make and save money, to save time, etc., and like to test drive new software to see how I benefit. So let’s read on…
…long email…
…scan scan scan scan…
[Update for people unfamiliar with direct response marketing: No benefits to me means sucky marketing. Either they haven't targeted their list very well, they are listing features instead of benefits, or their sales copy just generally sucks.
If you don't have any knowledge of direct response, either buying from direct response or selling to direct response, you are not in my audience for this article.]
Until I get to the end and find this little pearl:
Please Note:
Your XYZ account is removed if you have not upgraded to a paying package and you have not logged into it after two consecutive months.If you didn’t want to receive this email message click here to manage your contact preferences or click here to unsubscribe.
I saved them the trouble and unsubscribed. Now they are free to delete my test account at their leisure without troubling either of us further! Wow!
Within a couple of months, I doubt I’ll remember the name of this company.
I went from being a really good prospect, to being legally invisible to them (thank you CAN-SPAM). I had a demonstrated interest in the product: I signed up for an account, and I opted in to their monthly newsletter! Inspiring someone to opt out isn’t just leaving money on the table, that’s destroying potential revenue, deliberately!
Sell to me. I’m a good buyer. Ask all my friends. It’s easy:
- Tell me how I benefit.
- Don’t threaten me.
Easy peasy.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I think that’s referred to as: “Calling their Bluff”. Yay for you!!
i think what xyz was trying to tell you is that if you dont have a paid subscription… AND you havent logged in in two months they will delete your account. its an AND not an AND/OR. think of all the dead accounts that will never be logged into if they just let everyone keep thier trial account forever… and two months should be plenty of time for you to decide whether or not you wanted to use thier product anyway. that was a really bad reason to not try thier product… when company’s put in fine print or clauses theres usually a reason for them bieng there… and no, its not to piss off potential customers.
@smoky – There’s *hundreds* of companies operating in their space. Most of whom have much better marketing. If their marketing sucks so bad, why would I think their product is any better?
Deleting my account does me a favor: slightly reduces my security exposure should they get hacked.
@ david
you miss my point… youre article suggests that the only reason you shunned this company and did not give them a chance was because they were going to cancel a free account after you left it inactive for two months and forgot about it and probably cant even remember your password or the correct email you used for the site… the quality of the company is irrelevant. and if you are that worried about hackers then you should be exstatic that they DO delete accounts after 2 months without a login. my point is that its ludicris to dismiss a legitimate opportunity to save yourself money just because that company performs general houskeeping on thier website… my point has nothing to do with how good thier marketing or thier product is
@smoky – My point of the article is that their marketing sucks.
Which it does.
You are completely correct: the quality of the company is irrelevant. To me.
And I am ecstatic that they have deleted my account. Since I can’t remember signing up, this is a net gain for me.
.-= David M. Doolin, PhD´s last blog ..Made to Stick: Earworms for your brain =-.
@ david
thats interesting, for an article making a point as to how bad someones marketing is, you never mentioned the quality of thier marketing, you never mentioned what prompted you to think that thier marketing sucks, the only thing you mentioned was that it was email marketing and that they WERE in compliance with the can spam act. following your thought process, every single email marketing piece that has an unsibsribe button (aka spam that is in compliance with the can spam act) would be labeled sucky marketing. if that was truly your point then you should have written an article based around how bad the marketing was not how easy it was for you to unsibscribe…
@smoky –
“Really Dumb Marketing Technique to Ensure Losing a Prospect”
Yeah, you’re right man, I’m lame. Peace out.
.-= David M. Doolin, PhD´s last blog ..Made to Stick: Earworms for your brain =-.
clearly that was my point this whole time