That's it. I tried to let it roll off my back, but no more. I'm sick of stupid mistakes in e-mail newsletters. If you want your e-mail newsletter to be effective, you've got to do it right. I've seen three e-mail newsletter mistakes in the last week alone:
Where Do I Click?
Offender number one is my VOIP-provider Vonage. They sent me an e-mail pitching their annual payment plan. Save $60/year. What a deal--where do I sign up? Turns out you can't sign up anywhere in the e-mail. There wasn't a single link in the e-mail, aside from privacy policy and unsubscribe (hmm ... tempting) links. I felt like a web rookie, clicking all over the e-mail trying to figure out who was stupider, me or Vonage.
Give me the Details
Next came an announcement about Outreach magazine's 2008 National Outreach Convention. Hey, that sounds interesting! Wonder if it's been added to our Events Lab yet? No? OK, let's add it. Wait--when and where is it? The e-mail didn't include the date and location. So it's not such an egregious error as not including the link--clicking just about anywhere in the e-mail would give me the answer--but c'mon, it's an event. The most important thing you need to tell me is when and where. Don't make me click for that. (To save you a click, it's Nov. 5-7 in San Diego)
Make Sure it Works
With a wad of birthday money in my pocket I'm in the market for a new digital camera. I love my Canon Powershot, so I'm thinking of just upgrading to the latest model. And lo, one of Canon's regular e-mails that I usually ignore showed up in my inbox. So I opened it up and clicked through to see what deals they were offering. And I got an error. Which prompted this rant. In the interest of fairness I just tried Canon's links again and they did work. Maybe their site was down, who knows? But in most cases you're not going to get that second chance. Make sure it works the first time.
I hate to single out organizations like this, but sometimes you need the nitty-gritty real world examples. Most people don't even open your e-mail newsletter, but for the ones who do you've got to do everything right if you want it to be effective. And most church e-mail newsletters don't have the resources of Canon or Vonage, so it's all the more reason to get the little things right:
- What am I supposed to do?
- What's the basic information?
- Does it even work?
Rob McBryde
President | Project Manager
IVM Communications
www.ivmcommunications.com
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