Someone I know is a top marketing leader, significant influencer within the company, budget owner, and decision maker in a large, prominent company – one that would be a coveted “badge” on most websites. We talk shop often and have started evaluating outbound campaigns that this person receives. These campaigns are best-in-class because they:
Target the perfect persona
Get through the firewall
Get to the inbox
Get opened
Get read
Inspire ACTION
Shamefully, the ACTION is forwarding the email to me for critique and borderline mockery. Despite having done all the hard stuff right, the campaign is a failure for all practical purposes. This is like getting a few steps from the summit of Mt. Everest and turning around because you forgot your camera at base camp, or getting to the Super Bowl and sleeping through the alarm.
Here are some of the real-life examples of egregious misses that are now stored in a “Horrible Marketing” email folder:
Dear “First Name” (or Dear wrong name or Dear misspelled name)
I understand you are exhibiting at <acronym-laden tradeshow name that is not at all related to your industry>
“Have you been eaten by sharks?” (Note: this cliché is long past clever, if it ever was.)
“Like my blog post and I will buy you a cup of coffee”
Email paraphrased as… My company this, my company that. Me, me, me. We guarantee something unobtainable. “I’d love your thoughts around what we do and how we work.”
Content links that go nowhere
A drip campaign of “Dad jokes” that have no relation to the product or industry
Keep in mind: people are getting paid to create and send these!
I’m grateful for this exchange for many reasons, one of which is because the senders become excellent suspects for me. They qualify for a targeted, personalized, relevant outreach, something like this:
“Hi <Correct first name, spelled accurately>,
I am reaching out to you because I have reason to believe you might be frustrated with the results of your company’s outbound marketing. I help people and companies like this increase their funnel performance significantly, especially when they know who they need to target but struggle to get their attention. Might it be worthwhile to get acquainted? If yes, grab a time on my calendar link below.”
I’m getting about 20% positive response rate, when industry average for outbound campaigns is in the low single digits.
What are the worst practices you’ve seen? What do you suppose are the consequences?