1. Bad Personalization
There used to be a time when we were wowed by seeing our name, job title, home city or other personal-but-not-too-personal information in a letter, postcard (those PURLs!) or email. Today, we pretty much expect it. But I do find it off-putting when I receive a "personalized" message that blatantly incorrectly states my past purchasing patterns or customer experiences. For example, I had been receiving fairly aggressive e-mail reminders to register for an event that I indeed signed up for two months prior. Was I really registered? I started to wonder. I called the organization and the representative understood my mild frustration and acknowledged that they were getting several emails and calls, but there was no way to remove current registrants from the marketing list. If that were the case, a note in the email, such as "Already Registered? Forward to a Friend" or something along those lines could have gone a long way to consider the different audiences receiving the emails.
2. Flawed Call to Action
It's basically Marketing 101: include a call to action in your message. It's rare that this is ever omitted, but sometimes a weak call to action is nearly as bad as not having one at all. One that seems to be overused is simply including an organization URL without a specific call to action. That is, what do you want me to do when I get to your website? Make a purchase? Seek more information? Sign up for something? Details, please. I also think we should replace the lackluster Save the Date messaging (used on everything from annual conventions to weddings), with something stronger. Even Plan to Attend is a more of a directive.
3. Weak Brand Identity
If you live in the DC metro area, you could not hope to ignore the "surge 6...7...8..." reports we hear on the local news, which references the different phases of railway track repairs happening over the last several weeks, with more to come, through the DC public transportation rail system. The idea is that this work was much overdue and shutting down parts of the system through these phases is the only way to complete it. But how and why did DC Metro let the local media control the communication and re-brand the work as "surge" rather than DC's own SafeTrack messaging? After the bad publicity of crimes at stations, fires in tunnels and failing escalator systems, DC Metro had the opportunity to try and spin this track work and at least give the public some hope of a revitalized rail system that is to come. But there was no spin. We watched as the DC Metro brand continues its spiral downward.
4. Mediocre Messages
I get that we live in a society that is much more informal than in years past. I'm ok with marketing language that reflects that. I also think with marketing language, you can break some of the rules of grammar. But some marketers are simply "phoning it in." I particularly like it when I see copy or a message that is compelling, inspirational or clever. But too often, copy is lazy or too vanilla to spark the slightest of interest or make the simplest of arguments. I'd love to see more of an investment in the art of writing.
5. Poor Use of the Medium
I imagine you'd agree that we are in an age of shorter attention spans. Also, imagery is becoming the preference of choice, particularly on social media. So as marketers, we need to leverage the medium to match the preference of users. Leverage relevant graphic imagery on social media to tell your story. Keep emails succinct and to the point. Remember: you're competing with hundreds of messages a day: you'll need to stand out in order to be remembered.
©2016. Tom Quash
