Tag: tech

Wow, the most annoying email marketing fail I’ve received…and I’ve seen a few

Carl Setzer

With 7 years working in Real Estate, I’m on tons of email lists. I don’t mind this much, as I get to see what’s going on out in the market. Today, though, got one that violates all my marketing skills, understanding and wisdom.

  1. It was a jpg dropped into an email. I’m not a fan (mea culpa: I’ve done that in the past, mainly out of time, or, sadly, that’s all I had to work with).
  2. In the jpg were several urls. Note: I don’t say “links”. The links were NOT CLICKABLE! Simply text in the jpg.
  3. As I was interested in the property in question, I manually typed the links into a browser. Nope! No worky. Not even the bit.ly one. Not a single link worked.
  4. I saw the project name in the email addresses in the “contact us” section. That was the right URL.
  5. The creme de la creme, the piece de resistance (insert cliche of your choice here): there was no address. No city. Not even a state, region…nothing. When I finally made a url work, I could see that it was on the Washington Coast. Please note: this was for a new real estate development. “Location, Location, Location”?

It seemed like the creator of this campaign worked really hard to ensure I not only didn’t connect, but actually ended up annoyed with them. Amazing how well it violated every tenet I have for effective email communication.

So, do:

  1. Location. Events: have a date, location (address, venue…at least a city), and times. Drives me nuts to get an email for a property that looks interesting, or an event that looks really cool and, well, sorry, it’s it Atlanta. And it’s not until I’m in the registration section that I find that out? Geez!
  2. If you can at all help it, don’t just email jpgs. FYI, spam filters hate them.
  3. Links. Oh. My. Gawd! Making me TYPE your link…from an email?
  4. Links, part ii: Links MUST WORK. Test them! Most people won’t do anywhere near what I did. I was curious at that point and choose to dig. They may have got a click, but they didn’t get a sale.
  5. Segment your market and sell accordingly. I’m not working the Washington Coast market. It’s hours of driving away!
  6. Your main call to action cannot fail. If clicking on the link takes you to a Google page saying “sorry, sparky, no frickin idea what website you’re trying to find”, every erg of energy expended was wasted. Your goal is sales, right? Customers gotta get to your page. Gotta!

Keep your eyes on the prize, folks. Sales pitches to the right people, in the right way, is a splendid thing. Spam? Yeah, no.

Go forth and do great things!

Ah, Wingdings and Useful Fonts

Carl Setzer

I regularly use Wingding elements such as check-marks. And I regularly forget the letters assigned to those characters.

I’ve used this chart in the past, yet need to Google it every time. The last time I needed it, I spent several minutes digging through the Google to find it. Scared me. So, here we go. Now I’ll never lose it again.

Vista

Carl Setzer

Ballmer: Vista a ‘work in progress’
Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer called Windows Vista “a work in progress” on Thursday, but he stopped short of committing to extend the life of its predecessor, Windows XP.

 

This might sum-up Microsoft’s problem’s here. Customers were expecting the “work in progress” to have progressed further.

 

Microsoft Challenges the iPod (Again) – New York Times

Carl Setzer

Microsoft Challenges the iPod (Again) – New York Times

I’m glad Microsoft is getting going in this space; it’ll serve to keep Apple honest and not take us for granted. Competition is good, blah, blah. Apple is (hopefully) not going to make the same mistake as they did in the desktop wars of the 80’s.

Apple Waves Its Wand at the Phone – New York Times

Carl Setzer

Apple Waves Its Wand at the Phone – New York Times

One of a zillion articles on the debut of the iPhone. Dave Pogue has one key piece missing from most others: he’s actually handled one (albiet for around an hour). I really appreciate Pogue’s review, especially in lieu of the aforementioned point. If you’re excited by the thing, this a great piece to give you some insight about how the thing actually works. With that in mind, another good piece on all of this is over at Treonauts. They’ve done a great job comparing the Treo 680 and the iPhone.

Another good piece to read is this one at the NY Times. It gives a good explanation about Cingular’s motivations in all this. In here, I have one point to argue with Roger Entner an analyst with Ovum Research (Ovum? Anyway…). He’s arguing that the price point ($499) will limit its appeal. He needs to look at the iPod, and how it was introduced. I would gamble that Apple has several lower cost options in the works (the iPhone Mini and Nano?), which it will release after it has solidly grabbed the “cool” market. The iPod was quite expensive to start, which ensured it was the domain of the chic. Notice, too, that Apple always has something in the spendy category, keeping the elite fueled with ego stoking while expanding the product’s reach.

It looks to me that the keyboard will be the key marketing grounds for these devices (remember, the iPhone has the virtual one). Though I’m filled with gadget lust for one of these, it’s hard for me to ignore price (I can get an unlocked 680 for the low end price for an iPhone. It is my deepest hope that the iPhone will kick start Palm, Motorola, RIM and the rest to redouble their efforts. It’s very clear that Apple’s here for the long-haul and will innovate the pants off of anyone slacking. To my chums at Palm, look closely (and quickly) at the iPhone, then get to WORK. You have the best chance to really compete.