Lowe’s Sends A Welcome Letter… One Year Too Late
Soooo I know it’s been quiet here as of late, but that’s something I’m aiming to rectify in 2011. My apologies. Moving on…
I received this very effective welcome letter from Lowe’s late last week. But it is only effective on the surface (design & copy), as I signed up for emails from them (and have received none since) a year ago.
I feel like I’ve been habitating within the walls of the list undetected for over a year; thoroughly nestled and undisturbed. Until now. They just discovered the dark corner of the basement where I’ve been squatting. I’ve been found out. Now I can only anticipate paying rent (receiving marketing / sales emails) or getting kicked out (unsubscribing) depending on their mercy & overhead (relevance & best practices).
How does something like this happen? Why was there such a huge delay? Now, this is just a shot in the dark, but I’m assuming they switched to a new Email Service Provider and instead of importing old, unused contacts quietly, they basically blurted out an email, trying to capitalize on whatever contacts they have at their disposal. Knee-jerk and short-sighted. YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG.
Or maybe they are simply not effectively keeping tabs on their Welcome Letter settings and they have no idea these emails are being delivered at all.
If they were smart about it, they would check their previously sent campaigns and their corresponding list statistics. If they did, they would see that I signed up a year ago, and have since never been contacted. Attrition and list hygiene is a very important aspect of email marketing… Truthfully, it’s probably the most important aspect of email marketing. I wish companies would be more cognizant of this. Your own lists’ strength and maintenance is directly comparable to your success in email marketing.
Ideally, this should’ve resembled a campaign like BigCartel’s. They own up to not being more pro-active in messaging and ask you to opt-out if you’re no longer interested since so much time has elapsed since your initial opt in. It’s the exact opposite of what Lowe’s has done here, but they will be much better off, as they will have a strong list to utilize from here on out. I can guarantee you that their list is much smaller, but it’s also filled with users who are actively interested in their brand… and that is a very good thing.
Sorry if this was kind of a ramble, but I’m still getting back into the swing of things. Anywho, I’d like to know your thoughts. Comment away!
Posted by Bryan Quilty on Jan. 21, 2011
Comments
Who knows, your guess is as good as mine. I suppose they just want to sweep that mistake under the rug, which is understandable. But I’m still very curious to know what caused the hiccup.
Posted by Bryan Quilty on 01/25/2011 10:26 AM
Maybe they went from a supplier who managed their list poorly to say the least, to an in house solution such as a CRM based solution and just reimported all the subscribers and blasted everyone (tisk, tisk)
We had a client who did the same thing a few months ago, they moved to an in house solution to save money and ended up loosing over 25% of their list in two weeks. Since they rely on their list for fundraising this was a horrible result and may have cost them more money then the potential savings. I think staying on top of your lists should be the number one concern. By the way our client has come back and we are now working to rebuild their list.
Posted by J.F. on 01/26/2011 08:41 AM
Well, after some digging, I’ve determined that they’re using CheetahMail. Whether they synced to an outside CRM is a whole other issue, but their ESP is definitely CheetahMail. The jury’s still out on what happened, but I’m sure they lost a fair amount of subscribers from this botched welcome campaign.
Posted by Bryan Quilty on 01/26/2011 10:16 AM
Bryan, I got the same email from Lowe’s and thought the same exact thing. I actually remember signing up multiple times more than a year ago because I never received a welcome message and thought it was rather odd that a company like Lowe’s didn’t have any type of welcome campaign.
Posted by Daniel Reardon on 01/27/2011 06:11 PM
@daniel I think this kind of thing happens more often than not with large, Fortune 500 companies—which is unfortunate. Sometimes the email element to their online experience and branding is deemed not a priority and is often seen as an afterthought. now it may not be as engaging as some video on a landing page. that’s obvious. but once someone opts in, it’s so much easier to drive up your sales via email than any other form of online marketing. there’s a reason why email—year after year—has the highest percentage of ROI compared to any other form of online media. if you know what you’re doing, and you know who you’re selling to, it just works. i wish more companies didn’t take email for granted. it’s the best / easiest way to reach their bottom line.
Posted by Bryan Quilty on 01/28/2011 09:35 AM
I had a somewhat similar situation with J. Jill. I have been getting their e-mails, but then twice in one week I got a welcome message after I had already been a subscriber for a few years. Makes me wonder what’s going on with their data….
Posted by Liz Lynch on 01/21/2011 03:44 PM