How NOT to use E-mail Marketing . . . . !

How NOT to use E-mail Marketing . . . . !

Naturally, as a writer who has an inclination to get into the marketing/sales/promotional writing area of the industry, I am going to notice what others do in this regard.  Especially well-known outfits.
And, this post has something of a 'here we go again' element to it.  This blog is called 'Writings, Etc.'  Yet, in the relatively recent past, many of my blog posts have had to do with cars -- automobiles -- in one way or another.

Well, there are a variety of reasons for that.

From the point of view of a writer in general, things strike me when they are intriguing, sentimental, and other things of that nature [such as my posts on running across antique cars along the roadway in a few posts just about a year ago.  And, for the record, I've yet to encounter that this year.]

From a personal point of view, I had of necessity not only to find a new vehicle when the prior one failed inspection for enough reasons for experts to recommend against putting the money into a car of that age, but -- for budget reasons -- to get something I could acquire without financing and on the cheap.

For what I paid for it, that car has served me well for a little over a year; but with another inspection due, the same sort of thing is coming up now:  time to to upgrade at least by a few years, and hopefully a more reliable model as well.

Then, from the writing 'business' point of view:  outside my writing as a Technical Writer and my work for the Demand Studios folks [which ranged over a dizzying number of different topics], probably a larger percentage of my freelance work has been in some kind of review writing than it has in any other kind of assignment.

In my observation, there are four primary markets for freelance writing of a 'review' category:  1) food-related, 2) entertainment-related [including books], 3) reviews of a specific industry or industry sub-niche as a whole, and 4) automotive related.

I periodically do book reviews on this blog [and also on Street Articles], just as a matter of personal and professional interest.  I don't often have a chance to do food-related reviews, although I have sort of done that but more in a retail client than writing client circumstance.  Some of my early freelance work either definitely qualified as "industry niche review" and additional specific articles bordered on doing so.

So, with the personal interest involved with dealing with buying a used car in as restricted circumstances as possible, and then managing the inevitable mechanical issues that followed doing so, an interest in the ins-and-outs of things automotive seemed natural during this past year.

How, readers are wondering at this point, has this anything to do with the title of:  "How NOT to use E-mail Marketing . . . . !"

Well, near the start I mentioned that I'm again looking for a car in circumstance where the chances are good it will need to be a cash sale -- though things have improved in various other ways in a little over the year since I bought the current model.

I started putting out Internet feelers as soon as I decided that the need for a replacement was on the horizon.  [This being the fourth area mentioned in my immediately preceding post as to where my Interent time has gone in these last about 12 weeks.]

Mostly, I get only very 'canned' responses, with things like lists of various bargains around the area.  And that's not the part I'm dissing, here. 

I have opened a couple of those e-mails, and if I were ready to make a move right now [as opposed to a month or two from now], I'd be contacing those folks about some of those potential deals.
The series of contacts that set me off on this topic is a series of contacts from a local dealer.

A dealer who evidently can't keep any track at all of contact history with a prospect.

I actually went so far as to talk on the phone with them about what I wanted [a used ideally Toyota approximately 8 years old or less at a really good price; and probably cash but if they COULD get financing for me I'd do it].

That sales rep assured me that financing even unusual situations like mine was likely [I've heard THAT before!], and that he'd have a result of that inquiry by the end of that same day.
It was late enough in the day I thought next day was reasonable.

After that, I didn't hear anything at all from the dealership for about 6 weeks; and because I was wrapping up stuff with one client and ramping up with another client at the time, I didn't follow up.
A few weeks ago, I began getting e-mail marketing again from this same dealership.

I had gone from being interested in a used to a new Toyota; no one said anything about a financing decision, and the e-mails came from two different people with the second of them referring in the subject line to the guy who was going to look into the financing --

In other words, this dealership:  1) got EVERYTHING wrong, 2) didn't do the basic follow-up to a contact you expect as a minimal indication of competence from ANY vendor in ANY industry, and 3) looked as though they had never really communicated with me personally at all, when they had.
I've been in retail in a variety of capacities, including training in sales-oriented writing and some work as a telemarketer.

The purpose of e-mail marketing is to engage a prospect [at least one writer calls a pre-qualification prospect more of a 'suspect', actually.]

It's also a long-standing adage of salesworthy marketing efforts that goes back to door-to-door, Fuller Brush sales, days that the best and fastest way to lose such 'engagement' is to fail to put the prospect [and hopefully eventually customer] in a customer-centric, or priority, position.

Making the customer feel as though you haven't the most basic skills of tracking the history or your interaction with that customer during the marketing and sales process is a losing game.
As such, this particular local vendor precisely exemplifies the title of this blog post:  "How NOT to use E-mail Marketing . . . . !"