Why I Don’t Unsubscribe

Because it saves me money.

 

I don’t open all those pesky e-mails from The Limited, Staples, Office Depot, Petsmart or Southwest Airlines. I only give them the e-mail address with a robust spam filter that I can only check from my desktop. I’m brand loyal but I draw the line at my phone.

 

Plus, Southwest Airlines basically blackmails me for discounts. If I don’t subscribe to those e-mails for a certain period of time I lose bonus points.

 

If it weren’t for the cheerfully colored planes and dirt cheap flights, I’d hate them. Although recent controversy involving peanuts has given me pause…

 

The Limited offers affordable woman’s professional attire well tailored to my body type. Throw in the 50% off coupons in my inbox and there’s no going back.

Occasionally, something doesn’t fit quite right. I just jump on a train or into my trusty Honda and whiz downtown (no pun intended) and I can try other awesome clothes on and exchange or buy more awesome clothes. The Limited has one important innovation over most other clothing companies: pant inseam size determines the size or the pant. My pants never need to be hemmed.

 

I Will Never Unsubscribe!

 

I’m a business owner. I buy lots of office supplies. I could finance a marketing campaign for what I spend on printer ink for my Canon. I return my empty cartridges for cash credits to Staples. The only way to get these credits is through certificates that I must, get this, PRINT in full color and take back to the store to apply to buying more ink. It’s viscous cycle. The only way to access these certificates? Through random unmarked e-mails. You have to open every damned one of them! Do I? No! I do hate Staples now.

 

I love my animals. I get some goodies for the little monsters at Petsmart. Trouble is: I gave Petsmart bogus contact info initially. It’s something I do to thwart spam. Every time I go in, they ask me if I have a coupon from the e-mail. No! Damnit, I don’t! How many times have I tried to correct my e-mail, maybe 5 times. Has it ever worked? No! So I actually look for Petsmart coupons.

 

It’s like being hit on by that mildly creepy person you didn’t really want to talk but keep bumping into. Then you found out they had some super valuable information and now they won’t call you back. Jerks.

 

In the battle of e-mail marketing, laden with open rates and calls to action- at the end of the day, I only stay if you give me money.

 

I signed on because at some point, I was given some incentive to do so and some company reinforced it with economic incentive.

 

Why I Unsubscribe

 

I finally blocked Aerogarden. I love their product by for God’s sake, give it a rest. 3-5 e-mails a day every day?! The truth is: whenever I was finally ready to take advantage of one of those AMAZING sales they kept yelling at me about in countless subject lines, it was out of stock.

 

My last Aerogarden was amazing. I loved it. Basil in January in Utah! Yes! But they changed manufacturers and there where no replacement bulbs to be found anywhere. Not on Ebay or Amazon or through big box retailers. I had a fully functioning product, costing $150, which is pretty spendy for fresh herbs and replacement filters, nutrients seed packs: another $75. No replacement light. It was an insult. When they finally coerced me into a willingness to buy, there was nothing to be bought. It’s a classic bait and switch. It demonstrates a company with a poor supply chain, inadequate manufacturing capacity, botched transportation logistics and zero interest in customer retention. So they lost me.

 

It’s easy to forget that the marketing mix is:

-Production
-Distribution
-Placement
-Promotion

 

You must have every piece of the puzzle in place before launching a broad campaign, carpet bombing every e-mail address on your list.

 

You may just end up destroying customer confidence and ending up in the Junk Mail Wasteland. Blocked. Ignored. Unsubscribed.