My pet has no legs.

The Hunt
If I had a nickel for every time I’ve read or heard the word “relevance” when referring to email marketing well, I would have a lot of nickels now wouldn’t I? I’m not staying that this isn’t an issue that doesn’t need to be addressed but it seems to me that this concept of “relevancy” gets more lip service than elbow grease. I get it - times are tough and headcount is down – more with less. We all have to make do with the resources at hand but let’s think through our messaging – you, me, everyone.

The Skunk
Depending on the source and what year you can find a statistic, about 60% of US households own a pet. Dog, cat, spider monkey, I’m not sure about the breakdown of who owns what but that still leaves about 40% of the population that doesn’t own a pet and even more that don’t own one with four legs.

The message below from another one of my favorite retailers missed the “relevancy” mark. I don’t currently own a pet (previous fish owner hence the title of this blog) and I’m pretty sure that this particular retailer doesn’t have any information about me regarding the ownership of pets. Subject line reads – “Shop for your four-legged friends.” Sure, I could potentially be interested in a gift for a friend or family members pooch or puss, but for me this message was quickly disregarded as irrelevant to me.


The Resolution
Pet owners love their pets. Non pet owners, well they probably like your pet but don’t kid yourself. For more impact I would have focused on a few messaging components to really tighten up the relevancy quotient.

• If at all possible, focus on those in your database that have pets (specifically ones with four-legs that can use the products that are available online) either by adding this to data collection during the email acquisition process or surveying your member database.

• “Four-Legged Friends” has a general connotation of being canine or feline. The imagery in the top of the message is focused primarily on man’s best friend. Better to have included imagery for both types of pet owners so that when they are quickly scanning the top of the email they can determine if the message has meaning for them.

If you know your message will be irrelevant or of no interest to some of your recipients, weigh the risks. Opt-outs or SPAM complaints received due to messages that don’t resonate with the recipient are not worth the risk in today’s overcrowded inbox.