Jun15
uninspired, sony pictures, lost opportunity
StaleMail
If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably opted into dozens of email lists over the years and have agreed to receive newsletters from your favorite industries, companies and sites of interest. I try to keep my newsletter, marketing and third party promotion emails organized, each with its respective folder. Depending on my schedule, I’ll either mark these messages “all as read” or if I have the time, go through each email one by one and see what’s what. Overall, the majority of the messages that land in my inbox are just “good”... I’d say the average score of my non-personal emails would be a 5.5 out of 10. Some really nail all of the best practices, some completely miss the mark, but most are simply good enough.
From doing this for the past 3 years or so, the one thing I’ve grown to despise more than anything is lazy, uninspired and un-engaging email marketing. These “stale” emails are a waste of inbox space, don’t serve a purpose in the long run and offer nothing new to their subscribers. It’s sending email merely for the sake of sending email. Take this newsletter from Sony Pictures, for example.
*yawn*
Gold face on the left v. Blue head on the right. Oh… I’m excited now!
And yes, I’m aware of Year One since we were inundated with ads during the NBA finals… but could you at least try to inject some personality into this? There’s simply nothing to this email. It’s tired and calls for a much-needed makeover. Much like it’s social media counterparts, email needs to be a conversation (to a certain extent), which this completely lacks. Even the call to action about their Twitter account manages to stifle any excitement or speak from a personal point-of-view.
Final summation? Opportunity lost.
Sorry to be so complain-y as of late, I think with this post I’m subconsciously taking out my frustrations for the Magic’s loss last night. None the less, my issues with email evoke a desire to call out the BS. Hopefully some people may get an idea of what works in executing email the RIGHT way opposed to treating it as some mindless afterthought.
Posted by Bryan Quilty on Jun. 15, 2009
I guess this is the equivalent of a bird shot blast to the torso
Seriously, do the mega brands use stories in their email campaigns anymore? Maybe they’ve got stats that show movie goers responding…
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Posted by Mark McClure on 06/20/2009 08:48 PM