Last week, a public relations firm sent a very generic, broad email message on behalf of a client to a number of bloggers, writers, publicists, and reporters. Instead of having their client picked up (which is generally the goal), a harsh response including blacklisting by many peer agencies resulted. This is a live, true example of why email marketers need to kick the habit of sending messages to their entire list, and focus on segments of their list to send truly targeted messages.
In summary, a PR firm sent a message that was generic and irrelevant to a swath of excited bloggers and writers in the tech industry. One person hit Reply-All, and it was a mess from there. You had people criticizing the agency for being irresponsible, respected writers threatening to write negatively about anyone else who replied and even being blacklisted by many on and offline publications.
Here is a screenshot of the resulting angry replies from people who clicked Reply All. Names have been obscured to protect the innocent.
The first problem was the email content. It wasn’t related or useful for who it was sent to. This is the difference in being accepted and covered by publications. In the case of general marketing practices, it’s difference between conversions and no conversions. If you don’t make it relevant, people don’t hesitate to find that Report Spam button. Like most PR professionals know, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know when it comes to pitching stories. Establishing strong relationships is crucial in the PR field just as much as it is for entrepreneurs.
The second problem people had with the email was they never signed up for these news. (I’m regularly sent pitches like this in my personal email, so it’s not much different than what the industry is doing.) People didn’t give permission to being sent email. Of course, it didn’t help that the CC field was a Listserv address, so everyone saw everyone’s replies. Get permission before you market or solicit others.
Instances like this give public relations people a bad name in the same vein that spammers give marketers a bad name. It’s because of incidents like this I slightly hesitate when I refer to what I do as “public relations” – but it’s kind of what I do as I engage with people in the public on behalf of the company. It’s also why I my heart skips a beat when I tell others that I’m in the email marketing industry. It’s all loosely related, I know. Be proud of who you are, what you do including your mistakes — or don’t do it at all.
For email marketers, this is a no-brainer. Give people a chance to confirm their interest and always give a way out. However, it’s evident not everyone knows this, so please share this with marketers who need to know it. It’s also why email marketing solutions need a powerful CRM functionality. Powerful targeting combined with a stellar platform helps improve one’s marketing power. We know email marketing – it’s the “bread and butter” so to speak of our customers’ businesses.
Another way to look at the importance of segmentation – with a smaller segmented list, your gains and losses are tracked more easily; thus less likely to encourage a wave of bloggers to burn your reputation for you. This gives you a chance to fine-tune your message.
What’s the irony, here? While the sender made a mistake, was it any more correct for people to question that agency’s complete reputation based from one email? It clearly was a mistake to CC the Listserv address, but blackballing the firm as well as 86-ing their clients just doesn’t seem any more appropriate. I have much sympathy for this agency and have reached out to them to see how we could help liberate and empower them to support their clients’ news to the media, writers and bloggers who may be interested. So far, I’m still waiting for their reply, probably because they are inundated with slogging through manual email and tasks and not automating them. Sadly, I know the feeling. 
The bottom line is this – Be careful how you treat your subscribers, they’re people too. Just as quick as you earned their trust and respect, you can shatter it in a second. Don’t let technology be the reason why you lose it.
Posted In: Email Marketing Tips
