In last week’s newsletter, Jeanniey confessed that she’s no deployment expert: “I am notorious for sending emails with typos, links that don’t work, image hosting paths that only work on my PC, messing up segments and more.” She shared her favorite oopsy and said that the mistakes that she’s made have all taught her phenomenal lessons. And then she asked if anyone had a “disastrous email story” to share—and many brave souls stepped forward to share their lesson-learned.

My two-cents on this is that mistakes in emails are difficult to avoid because of the complexity of the medium and volume involved. All you can do is try your best and learn from your mistakes—and the mistakes of others. That’s why I started the Oopsy Hall of Fame (I’ll be inducting the 2007 class in January). It allows marketers to see what kinds of mistakes are prevalent and try to avoid repeating them. It also touches on apologies—when they need to be made and when they don’t. I also just recently did a post on apology emails after I heard David Baker say that apology emails have higher open rates than even welcome emails.

Anyway, without further delay, here are the oopsies that our subscribers shared with us.

—Chad White

You are definitely not the only one! I have an arsenal of ‘oops’ but I’ll share my favorite of all time. I was adding the physical mailing address and associated contact details to the bottom of an email for a B2B campaign. The phone number I needed to add was spelled out and as I was translating the letters to numbers by looking at my phone and using my keyboard (forgetting that the layout of the numbers are different) – I inadvertently transposed two numbers. The correct number would have pointed someone to a help desk for product support; the incorrect number pointed to a phone sex line. There were only a few reports of people actually calling that number. I believe one was a CEO.

Naturally, I learned from this and physically dial all of the phone numbers on anything I ever send out! (And I learned that phone sex lines are not limited to 900 numbers!)

—Amy Gabriel, BT

We develop our clients’ newsletters on a development server and then switch them to the live server before deployment. We have individual user names and passwords for the development server. We once sent out a “live” deployment to our client’s entire list from our development server, which means that everyone who received it would have been prompted for a user name and password before they could read the email! Oops!

—Jenni Fox, Miles Media Group

You are not the only one who sends email disasters! I work with volunteers and was sending an email to a large group to arrange a conference call, including several I had never worked with before. I listed the possible dates/times, including “am” and “pm” options. My email was set up to spell check before sending. I wasn’t paying attention, and instead of clicking ‘ignore all’ on the am & pm options, clicked ‘change all.’ They were all changed to “Pam”—unfortunately, that’s also my name! We’ve had a good laugh about “Pam time.”

I frequently request bids from vendors via email. I usually copy and paste the details, and just change the greeting. One day a message to “Mike” began with “Hi Brian”—his main competitor!
Needless to say, I’m not responsible for hitting “send” on the real campaigns!

—Pamela Asfahani, Oncology Nursing Certification Corp.

I sent out a weekly article alert on a Monday not knowing that the URL structure for the articles linked from the email was going to change on Tuesday. The old URLs were not redirecting to the new URLs, so none of the links in the email worked. I now double check every link before the weekly alert goes out and make sure that there won't be any changes affecting those links taking place.

—Kari Rippetoe, GoWholesale

Well, I'm not sure it was a *disaster*, but it wasn't good. Within a regular monthly update we do on our virtual learning classes, we were also announcing our first digital download product created from one of our most popular teleclasses.

I had just started inserting links a bit differently than in the past. I had gotten out of the habit of checking every link because they had always worked, but when I added tracking codes to the 4 links in the email that had to do specifically with the new product, it broke them all - every single one.

For whatever reason, I thought to check them just *after* I hit the send button (of course). Another 20 minutes later and I had the links fixed and a new email sent out. I think everyone got the fixed-link email before they had a chance to find the broken links in the first. And, this email went to our most loyal customers, graduates of our programs, who tend to be very forgiving. But still. . .not my favorite moment! :-)

—Sara Avery, Newfield Network Inc.

Your post about email goofs is timely. I wrote an email promotion yesterday [Oct. 24] in which I used my own experience being evacuated due to SD fires to promote a teleseminar about legal issues and how we can’t be too prepared or cautious. Two people responded they thought it was a bit insensitive. Maybe the fires are too hot to talk about yet in a marketing context. So I blogged an apology.

—Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad

Love it! Struck a note in my world….. I’m also supposed to be an expert and every time I try to do tactical things, I screw up too…..

—David Baker, Avenue A | Razorfish

My worst flubs are pretty much the garden variety; once forgot to change the old link to a sale page (very woops), and a few typos...

I'm writing because I thought it was very ironic that the very first link after your article (the one to update my profile) didn't work! I was very entertained, nearly fell off my chair in fact.

Thanks for brightening my day :)

—Rachelle Johnson, iSpectrum Marketing

[Rachelle was one of three people to catch that intentional error. We like to keep you on your toes. :) ]

We've all been rambling on lately about the future of email—what does it mean, how will it look, etc. Those are all phenomenal topics to discuss in boardrooms and at a bar, but there are just times when you need to talk about how to best deal with the realities of the here and now. What happens when you have to execute an email?

One of my friends recently had to oversee the execution of an email for the first time. He asked a lot of questions about what he needed to watch out for. After I threw a barrage of answers at him, he stopped and said, “OK, before I strangle you, which of these do I actually need to care about?” Out of those questions, we came up with the following checklist of the must-haves for an email deployment:

1. An opt-in list. Wherever you have your list stored, make sure you have access to the original source of permission.

2. The “from” name you want to use.

3. The “reply to” email address that someone will check (or, if you are a company that cannot check these messages for security reasons—ex. pharmacy companies—a strong disclaimer that replies will not be read).

4. A really good subject line—not something catchy, but something that creates trust and interest in opening the email.

5. Links that work inside the content even if images are blocked. Yes, yes, you need to worry about the content, the layout and the coding, but as an absolute must-have, make sure the links work.

6. An opt-out link with a mailing address.

7. A strong reporting system on the backend to track bounces, opens and clicks.

—Jeanniey Mullen

We create shopping/advertising websites for media companies. People who register at the sites are invited to receive emails with special offers from the site. We start emailing each list after about 100 members sign up, but prior to hitting that threshold the only other email they would have received from the site is the confirmation email. I have been looking all over for some info on “starting from scratch”—a how-to or best practices for that initial email. Do the Voices of Email have any advice? —L.S.

The Voices of Email had this advice:

Rob Fitzgerald: Start the mental and marketing integration of your brand in that message—have it in the “from” line, the subject line, and in the email itself. Successful email marketing blossoms from consistency of message and consistency of branding. Also, be clear on the “what comes next,” what types of email offers will you be sending. Leave no chance for misunderstanding and your registrants will appreciate that. Be sure to present the person with the clear opportunity to opt-out from receiving any future emails from you. Lastly, don’t wait too long to send out marketing emails from the time the initial confirmation went out. There should be some immediacy to it or you risk disconnecting your registrant from your initial value-add.

Stephanie Miller: This is a great opportunity to launch an email conversation with prospects in order to engage early and lead them through the sales cycle. In fact, a conversation strategy on email is perfectly aligned with the goals of a newly launched shopping website—build the file over time, build relationships, optimize the early growth and leverage for future market saturation.

Today, you are “holding back” on sending email messages until you reach a critical mass of 100, and thus penalizing folks who join the list early. Rather, you want to celebrate these folks and “wow” them so keep reading and even tell two friends about your newsletter. Instead of thinking about it like a traditional publisher (where everyone gets the same content on the same date), think about it like a short-term email conversation—every subscriber gets the same experience. Email message one comes on day one, regardless if you signed up on June 1st or July 31st.

Offer something of real value for signing up—e.g., a free report or coupon—and use an auto-responder system that allows you to send brief, topical newsletters on a regular basis. If you have already built the website, send that content out in bite-sized, well-constructed tidbits to keep subscribers engaged. This will minimize the work and equalize the experience across all subscribers.

Once you set up this “series” of emails, you can trigger it for all new subscribers, regardless of the day they sign up, or their position in the queue. Using the same series for each subscribers ensure that each has a similar (and optimal) experience.

After you learn from this email conversation, active buyers can be converted to a more traditional promotional email program, where everyone gets the same promotion on the same day. But using a conversation in the beginning ensures that you engage fully with new subscribers, and optimize sales across the board.

Good luck!

Jeanniey Mullen: I would start with a strong subject line that includes the company name and something that indicates these are message they requested. For example: XYZ: Site special offers now available. Or: XYZ is ready to bring you special insights

I would also focus on the copy reminding people that they asked for this info, and VERY clearly giving them an opportunity to opt out of this section only.

Hope that helps!

Chip House: We’ve found that the Welcome email may in fact have the most impact of any email you ever send your subscribers. Opens, clicks etc. all tend to be the highest for an initial email, then can drop off from there if you don’t continue to engage your audience or follow-up on the promised content, education or offers promised when they opted in. My advice is to first put substantial effort into optimizing that email. Sure it is transactional in nature, but make sure you do things like:

- Reiterate what they can expect from you in terms of content and frequency.
- Ask them again to add your “from” address to their address books to “ensure good deliverability and rendering.”
- Don’t forget to make it compelling. Using HTML is best. And don’t be afraid to use the CAN-SPAM legitimized commercial content below the transactional introduction.

Getting off on the right foot will pave the way for your first set of campaigns. If you are speaking to their needs, no need to wait for a critical mass.

Chad White: Welcome emails are absolutely critical. Ideally, they not only quickly reassure subscribers that they are subscribed, but they also set the tone for the relationship and reinforce expectations that were (hopefully) established during the subscription process. Unfortunately, only about two-thirds of the retailers I track via RetailEmail.Blogspot use welcome emails, and then only a fraction use them well, missing the opportunity to promote their content, plug their services and tout unique and popular products. At the Email Insider Summit in May, Niti Chhabra, an email marketing consultant to BabyCenter, said: “Give them a reason to save the welcome email.” If you don’t feel like you’re doing that, then you should sit down and makes some changes.

Almost as important as that welcome email are the few that follow it. With each email they’re going to be asking themselves, “Was subscribing a mistake?” In some cases, you can increase your chances of keeping that new subscriber if you use an onboarding campaign, where you extend the introduction process. I just wrote a reportlet on onboarding emails that may help you, and in a few weeks I’ll be releasing the sequel to last year’s Retail Welcome Email Benchmark Study.

Have some good advice that we missed? Please add a comment and take part in the conversation.

Have a question for the Voices of Email? Email Chad your question at chad@emailexperience.org and we’ll REPLY TO ALL by posting the answers so everyone can benefit.

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