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.

Don't Say the B-Word!

The Hunt
You don't have to talk to many marketers before you hear the word "blast" roll off the tongue - at which point my left eye starts to twitch, my leg starts to shake and expletives begin to fly from my mouth like a raunchy truck driver after too much coffee. Graphic? Yes. True? Pretty close. For those of you that have worked with me, clients, prospects and colleagues alike you know that it has been my personal mission to ban the word "blast" from the email industry forever (much like the hyphen in e-mail, which is gaining success as well). Call me an email snob, but if you are a legitimate marketer the word "blast" should never pass your lips unless you are using it to describe the fun networking event you attended last night. Nothing about your marketing efforts should convey that there is no forethought or planning to your marketing and "blast" does exactly that.

The Skunk
Clearly the skunk here is the awful, five-letter dirty word that has made its way in to the vocabulary of email marketers everywhere --- BLAST. A word that so inherently indicates that we are an industry that doesn't care where our messages land so long as we hit someone with an email address and at least one good eye. One colleague likened it to confetti cannons – blast the confetti cannon and you will be cleaning up the mess for months! It’s not too far from the truth really. Look at this industry, email marketers continue to exist today that believe this is the right approach. Call it what you want, "spray and pray," "batch and blast," it is the behavior that has caused so much consumer distrust in email marketing and years later, we are still cleaning up the mess. It is this same mentality that has caused your friends to call you a SPAMMER after you tell them what you do for a living.

The Resolution
Let’s keep "blast" in the past and move into a new, more intelligent era of email communication where we refer to our email communications as campaign launches or customer email distributions. As professional email marketers we are mindful about message content that contains email "dirty words or phrases" like "free" or "limited time offer." The same consideration needs to be given to how we as marketers refer to what we do on a daily basis. We need to "walk the walk" by removing the word "blast" from our daily vernacular starting now. This will also help educate those internal customers that have a stake in your email marketing as well as making it a little easier for sweet old aunt Margie to better understand what you do.