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‘Tis the Season for Email Marketing Blunders
By Matt Keough | December 13, 2007
Opt-in email marketing is a fantastic way for university development offices to stay in touch with alumni. There are plenty of opportunities to provide the former students with updates on campus activities, homecoming events, or new awards given to the old program. Of course, there should always be a gentle appeal for continued generosity.
I am an alumnus of BGSU. I am proud to be a Falcon and have made donations to the school in the past. I’m always polite with the students calling me to ask for another contribution. My general feeling towards the institution is positive. So when I recently received an email from the Office of Alumni and Development, I was not surprised. The subject read: Happy Holidays from BGSU. I thought it was smart to reach out just to give warm wishes. All of us have seen holiday ads for a couple of months now, so using this medium to send this simple phrase was a welcome change. The message linked to a Flash presentation and had the the following text -
Sometimes the best holiday traditions are the ones you start yourself.
Happy holidays from all of us at Bowling Green State University. Please click here for a special message, and best wishes to you and yours this holiday season!
A special message? That’s almost like an major award! Let me see! I click on the link to find a winter scene of one of the nicer parts of campus accompanied by jazzy holiday music. Warm memories of my youth encircle my head like a wreath. Only to get this payoff:
What? Your special message is “Give us money!” At exactly the time I am giving gifts to the people I really care about? I was not moved to make a contribution. I was almost motivated to make one more click in the email, however.
Wouldn’t it have been better to leave me with the warm fuzzies? Could they not have simply thanked me for my previous (humble) contributions? I would have been left with a nice feeling, and would have been receptive to that overt appeal in a couple of weeks. Instead I’m feeling as cold as the bracing wind on the plains of Wood County.
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December 14th, 2007 at 11:16 am
That unsubscribe screenshot was a nice touch to this email. Aren’t your donations worth the fraction of a penny they spent to reach you with what should have been a nice gesture email.
December 14th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Thanks Mike!
Yes - that was my thought. I know what the alumni office is ultimately after. It really was a very beautiful e-card and it connected on an emotional level. Until they tried to get a gift, and strongly suggested that I should give an annual gift!
December 20th, 2007 at 10:09 am
Some things really need to have a human connection to them, like asking for a donation. Would it have killed them to have a poor college student call you to ask for money? I agree although mass email marketing is cheap and easy to dispute compared to over avenues it is impressionable and turns many people off when done incorrectly.
December 20th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
Colleen,
The phone bank calls me a couple of times a year, as well. I always give them grief about removing the bowling alley from the Student Union. It is usually a polite conversation that ends when I decline for the third time in a span of minutes to make a contribution. Once a student actually HUNG UP on me after I listened to his pitch. So, in the scheme of things, this particular email was not offensive.
- Matt