Why I hate Aquisition Email

Ok; hate may be a strong word …and perhaps one of you could pull me back from the edge here….and I might have spelled acquisition wrong in the subject line……..But, please help me understand the mentality.

I was forwarded an email that went to a bunch of my clients (and a bunch of yours as well) that was from an email service provider.

How did this email get to this audience?   

The footer at the bottom had the following disclaimer:

“You received this email because we have an existing business relationship. You are a subscriber to ------- Magazine. Periodically, we will inform our subscribers of special offers and new products from third party mailers pertaining to your profession or possible interests.

To take your email address off of the list for future messages from third party advertisers, as well as notify this advertiser that you no longer wish to receive messages from them, please follow this link: http://pm15.net/o/?ZXD=84.3949296.1587882
Direct Magazine is not responsible for the products or services presented in this message.”

Now on what planet would anyone believe this is something we as an industry would be proud of? 

Starting at the first sentence:   “WE” do NOT have a business relationship!   I do subscribe to ----- Magazine (actually I think we advertised with them until today )

Oh; in spite of sharing valuable information from our “PARTNERS” …..WE TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE PRODUCTS OR SERVICES PRESENTED!!   Some partnership.

Now I’m not commenting on whether this is effective or not.  I will say that the people who have forwarded it to me have been at best good natured and at worst embarrassed for our industry by these kind of “permission” emails.

Comments

[SM Guy]

Two factors contribute to this type of sucky marketing. (1) Laziness. Many people like the easy way out and let's face it email marketing is easy. QUALITY, EFFECTIVE email marketing is not. (2) Not putting yourself in the customer's shoes. And this is easy to do, because we all get email...bloody tons of it. If an email doesn't provide potential value and help me do my job better or solve a problem, it's a waste. How many stupid offers do we get via email? Your prospects are as sick of email as you are! Don't tick them off by making a thin connection to them receiving an email. The email in Chris' example above treats the prospect like a a moron.

In my experience most of the people sending these kind of emails don't measure and don't think long term. So they never realize it's a killer. Tey think, ok, how can I make a quick score off my prospect database. It will come back to haunt them, but it will be a slow, quiet death.

[Alec]

While I generally hate getting these kinds of emails, if the disclaimer is put in better terms (that no-responsibility clause isn't very serious looking) and the unsubscribe leads to a decent page with choice of which subscriptions from the published to cancel, then I'm alright with.

SMGuy, I am far from sure that the business numbers support your point of view. All those who don't unsubscribe become potential customers (even if it's only 25%). If you had some figures to support your hypothesis it would be more interesting.