WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll ·
12/09/2019 22:50
What do they hope to achieve from being so needy?
I recently went into Superdrug to buy a couple of things and was offered a loyalty card. The assistant told me that I'd receive an email every now and then when they had a promotional offer day, but she promised I wouldn't get spammed. I got spammed. One week and a bit of receiving an advertising email every day meant that I simply unsubscribed. I imagine that most people probably react in exactly the same way.
They had my express permission to contact me with occasional advertising and therefore a potential long-term warm sales lead. They instantly abused this permission so they lost it completely, along with a fair measure of goodwill and my inclination towards choosing their shop.
They aren't the only ones; plenty of retailers do the same - usually online ones, but also the sort who tell you they need your email address, which they 'will only use to send you a copy of your receipt' - and then, again, abuse it to spam you.
Even ones for the kinds of occasional products where you're unlikely to be placing weekly or even monthly orders do it too. I buy a stock of lightbulbs - enough to qualify for free postage - which will last a couple of years or so. Every week, they sent me hawking emails, urging me to buy more (and it's not like they even have many new exciting stock lines).
Printer ink companies too. We're just a small household, not a huge office. Especially considering that now, most of us tend to print things out far less than we did a decade ago; and even then, a cartridge (or set) would still last ages.
They just get blocked/unsubscribed from straight away. And even the ones that don't get blocked send out enough emails that they get a momentary glance and then ignored ("Oh, it's just XXXX again"). Those that send one a month or one a quarter tend to receive much more interest and it might even get read and thus lead to a sale.
Why do they do it? Haven't they realised by now from their high rate of unsubscriber attrition? Are their marketing people the same in their personal lives - calling and texting friends 100 times a day, just to say "Hello, I'm still here!" When does marketing turn into stalking? It really baffles me.