Marketing Fails

I was going to continue posting blogs about our fun time in Montpelier Vermont, but some things happened this week that I just had to write about.

When persistence becomes harassment

I get businesses sending out “cold call” emails. Not exactly the preferred way to do business, but if done right, a business may just pick up a client or two.

But you don’t need an MBA to know that if you p*** off potential clients, they will never do business with you. How many unanswered emails is enough? I would think if someone doesn’t respond after the second email, they are not interested.

Well, Steph, founder of a company that begins with E (and which may or may not rhyme with the word, Fashionista), seems to follow the “lets annoy the heck out of a potential client by sending multiple emails, all from different email addresses.” And, yes, she is legitimate.

Not only that, but she doesn’t bother doing due diligence. The latest email I got from her stated, “I am so impressed by how you have scaled your business.” Say what? I don’t have a business and I haven’t scaled anything. All I do is write about hiking, kayaking and Vermont. If she had just taken a few seconds to Google me, she would have seen that.

If this is how she runs her business, I don’t think she will be very successful.

She is doing what a lot of people do, just sending out emails randomly, without doing any research in the hopes that a client will magically appear. But just because a lot of people do this, doesn’t make it right or effective. It would seem to me that people should be looking for ways to stand out from the clutter. A nicely crafted, personal email would do the trick.

Surreal conversations

We all love to hate having to call Customer Service, no matter what for. Well, I have been getting mailings from Barclay’s Bank, telling me I need to open an account with them. So, I called the phone number listed on the flier to ask that I am taken off their mailing list.

Well, after spending a lovely 10 minutes in Voice Prompt h****, I reached a live person. First of all, this person had such a heavy accent, that I could only understand about half of what she was saying.

The conversation went like this:

Me: “Please take me off your mailing list. I am NOT interested in opening an account with your bank.”

Rep: “May I have your account number. I can’t help you unless you give me your account number.”

Me: (after taking a deep breath)”I do not have an account with you, the mailer is asking me to open an account.”

Rep: ” I can’t help you without an account number. What you can do is mail back the mailer, along with a letter stating you want to be taken off our list.”

Me: (after several more deep breaths) “So I need to spend time composing a letter and money on a stamp, just to be taken off your list?”

What marketing fails have you experienced lately?