Fails 2 and 3
Fail 2: Confuse me, then play me out
Culprit: IMAJ Designs
There is nothing more frustrating than receiving emails that are completely irrelevant to your interests and not having an option to opt-out of the subscription.
This email from IMAJ Designs is special -- two fails in one. I was immediately confused by the meaning of the statement "Please push your 'Picture Bar' located under the Subject Line." Using language nobody understands simply does not make sense.
The next problem was the footer, which, to paraphrase, essentially says, "This is a one-time email, there's no way to unsubscribe, and if it is not wanted, just delete it." This is the email marketing equivalent of hitting on every girl in a bar until one doesn't throw a drink in your face. IMAJ is saying, "Sorry we sent this to you, and we have zero interest in having a relationship with you. That is, unless you want to buy something now!"
Fail 3: The phantom save/co-reg handoff
Culprit: Dex
Check out this next email from Dex. It had tricky opt-out options, and why I even received it in the first place made no sense -- it is completely irrelevant. When was the last time I used a phonebook? Back in the '80s, maybe?
When I decided to opt-out, the company tried to get me to opt-in to other emails from an unknown place. The default position of the radio button selection is Dex's attempt to stop me from unsubscribing. I would not typically fault this, as it is a good idea to give people relevant options if they want to leave behind a subscription. The real question is why would a subscriber opting-out of your emails want to sign up for offers from an unknown place? Why not just let me unsubscribe if I don't find any value in this relationship and nothing new of value is being offered? The idea must be to make some money from co-registration with the yellow pages to help build its email lists. Sure, times are tough, and I can understand that companies want to keep email addresses that might be valuable to them -- but this could have been executed much better.
