7 Jun 2010

Your test unsubscribe was successful


Unsubscribe Confirmation Page

This is the test unsubscribe confirmation page.

When the actual campaign is sent, anyone who unsubscribes will see either the custom unsubscribe page created by this designer, or a generic you have been unsubscribed page.

Not really the message you want to see when you click unsubscribe in a real campaign!

12 Mar 2010

Email marketing mistakes by Tesco.com


 

I have just received this email marketing from Tesco. The email design is good and visually appealing however the implementation is poor.

Here are some of the things I think they should look to change.

How do you know me?
I always suggest including in your email information about how you obtained the recipients details. Recipients can forget who you are and even signing up in the first place. The email suggests I have signed up to use the Tesco online website. I do not remember doing that nor do I remember ever buying anything from it.

Inactive Subscribers
I would always advocate removing inactive subscribers from your mailing list. I may, in the very distant past, have used the Tesco website but it must have been many years ago.

Do you want me back?
It is easy to identify me as an inactive therefore this email would have been much better worded as a "we have not seen you at Tesco online for a while, why not come back and see our new features and what we have to offer". This could have been used as a re-activation campaign.

What email address? 
It says in the footer "You must sign in using this email address to see the improved website". Many individuals have multiple email addresses and in many cases these are forwarded to different accounts. This can mean the recipient does not actual know what email address it was sent to. 

No Unsubscribe Link
The golden rule of email marketing is always include an unsubscribe link. This email does not have one. This makes it far too easy for me to instead hit the "Report Spam" button.

 

26 Feb 2010

Why you should always test your unsubscribe process


Clicking the unsubscribe link in a recent email I received presented me with the above page. (click image to enlarge). Clearly the company in questions has not fully tested the unsubscribe process. 

When running an email campaign you want to ensure the best experience at all times for your recipients. The unsubscribe process should be clean and simple. If they want to leave your list make it quick and painless and avoid any spam reports.

Remember to always test the entire mailing list process including subscribing to your own list and unsubscribing.
11 Jan 2010

How Not to Handle Unsubscribe Requests


I just received an email from a company (GH Stationers Limited) I never heard of trying to sell me ink cartridges. No where does the email mention how they got my details. It does have the phrase

PS I hope this email isnt thought of as spam, we would just like to the opportunity to quote you 

which, rather strangely, is in the body of the email rather than after the signature. Anyhow grammar aside the most interesting is the unsubscribe text at the bottom of the email. This is copied verbatim.

We apologise if you have received this email in error. To UNSUBSCRIBE from further emails regarding special offers etc, please reply to this message and ask to be removed from the mailing list. Many Thanks.  to complete this, we need a few bits of information. 1) where in the country you are 2) email address that it is being sent to 3) when you revived your last email from ourselves. 

Am I really going to go to the trouble of providing all this information? No thanks hit [Report spam]

Andy Gambles's Posterous

A small business owner with big ambitions.

I help businesses and SME owners use the internet to increase profits and sales.

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