Recently I signed up for an email from a media outlet. Since I do a bunch of email marketing, I like to see what some of these companies are up to, and how they work.
The first email was a bunch of links to their stories. Headlines. Big photos. Yawn. Okay.
The second email was from their partner. As in, they put together an email campaign on behalf of an advertiser and sent it to me.
The email was a give away that was 100% useless to me. Like, it was practically for tampons, which – as a dude – I literally have no use for.
The company assumed I was into “tampons” (I’m avoiding mentioning the actual give away, email me if you want the details), and just blasted it out.
They could have written a series of articles about tampons, menstruation, recent stories about feminine hygiene products being withheld from women in prison. Then, over the course of several emails they could track who clicked on those links to those stories, and safely assumed, “hey! I think these people are possibly interested in feminine hygiene products!”
Then they could build a smaller but better-targeted segment and get better opens and clicks for their client.
Instead, they sent an “email blast” and I unsubscribed. I’m sure they’re not losing sleep over me leaving, but they sure ain’t doing their “partners” any favors.