Email Marketing Lesson If You Realize You Made A Mistake After You Press Send Just Admit It
By: Joan Pasay
A few months ago I started getting a bunch of junk Spam messages. All the messages had the same subject line. Thinking that the emails were hocking cheap Ritalin, I left them in my Spam filter and continued with my daily tasks. Besides, my ADHD was under control with my five Starbucks lattes-a-day personal remedy. Within seconds, I totally forgot about the Spam messages.
When I was doing my up my Christmas list a few weeks later, I got to my Dad?s name and thought, ?Dad is pushing eighty, I wonder if he might like some Viagra as a stocking stuffer?? I suddenly remembered all those Ritalin emails. Maybe the online drug shops had a whole variety of pharmaceuticals other than Ritalin, and I could get a great deal on my Dad?s Viagra.
I went back to my Spam filter and searched for all the messages with that same subject line. They weren?t hard to find, the subject was only one word ?
?Whoops!?
But there was no Viagra to be found. No Ritalin for that matter either. What a rip! Now what would I get my Dad for Christmas?
To make matters even worse, I realized all those Spam emails with the ?Whoops!? subject line weren?t Spam at all. They were a whack of messages from a whole bunch of email lists I actually subscribe to. It seems a ?Whoops!? message is a legitimate message that really means,
?I made a mistake, check within for details.?
All my ?Whoops!? email messages detailed URLs that had been mistyped, web addresses that had been moved, wrong dates, wrong product prices, incorrect phone numbers and a whole variety of other issues all covered under the subject line -- ?Whoops!?
I even had one message that had ?Double Whoops!? as a subject line since this was the second email message from the same company in a two-day time period that was riddled with errors.
I don?t know if ?Whoops!? is the greatest way to admit you made an error. How many people even have ?Whoops!? in their active vocabulary? I wonder what else might be a more effective email newsletter subject line when a mistake has been made?
- "Whoopsy daisy" -- No, too, childish.
- "My parents are cousins, I can?t help it!" -- No, too personal.
- ?Gall darn it, dagnamit, another error!? -- No, your subscribers will think you need a few sessions of anger therapy.
- ?Sorry, I am too cheap to get an editor? -- No, that is what your subscribers will think, but it probably isn?t the greatest option for your subject line.
Maybe:
*Sincerest apologies, URL error in [insert newsletter name here]
*Sorry to have wasted your time, telephone number error
*We will try harder next time, pricing error in [insert newsletter name here]
I asked a few business associates what they thought of the ?Whoops!? subject line. They all agreed it sounded like someone attempting to be ?down home? and trying to appear like a bumbling friend instead of a business who is having some difficulty with the e-newsletter editing process.
I guess the lesson here is to just admit you made an error and not try to cover it up with a ?Gee wilickers, I think I just might be a moron? type subject line.
None of this gets me my Dad?s Viagra, but it has lessened the load on my over-worked Spam software. I have set the software to rescue all ?Whoops!? email marketing messages and put them in the Deleted box where they belong.
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About The Author Joan Pasay Brought to you by the -- Email Marketing Club: The only place on the Internet where Email Marketing is FUN! Join now and receive a gift - guaranteed to increase your status with your friends, co-workers and boss. Click below: http://www.emailmarketingmadeeasy.com/email_marketing_club Check out Joan Pasay, The Email Marketing Coach at http://EmailMarketingMadeEasy.com/coaching Earn good karma, forward this article to everyone you know who has an email address. Copyright Joan Pasay - 2005 |
