The Importance of Relevance: A Cautionary Tale

January 11, 2012

"Today I was sad," writes Tara Jacobsen at the Marketing Artfully blog. "I got a message from someone who I like a lot and have been 'friends' with on the Internet for a while."

The problem? Unlike the steady stream of relevant content the business friend used to distribute, this email was yet another in a string of irrelevant affiliate marketing messages.

Jacobsen's patience had worn thin. She considered—and decided against—three common options facing disgruntled subscribers:

Unsubscribing. While this would remove the irritating affiliate messages from her inbox, it would also eliminate the sometimes-good content.
Complaining. She refrained from expressing her displeasure in a "scathing email with lots of caps and exclamation points" because her friend is free to run his business as he likes.
Venting. Social media provides an easy outlet for frustration, but Jacobsen sees this all too frequently—and understands what it's like to be on the receiving end of a diatribe.

So what did she do? She set a rule that diverts this friend's email from her inbox and sends it straight to a "Marketing People" folder she browses through when she has the time. "[H]e went from a trusted source of information to someone who will never see the light of day again," she notes. "While I will see his info on Facebook, he will not have the ability to contact me directly anymore."

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Comments

by Paul Toschi Wed Jan 11, 2012 via web
I try to keep to the 90/10 rule. For every nine good, helpful, relevant, value-adding comments or posts, I put out one "affiliate marketing message", and I don't make it a personal "Hey, Tara, you need to check this out, it did blah blah yadda yadda". That's abuse of a friendship. Cut to the chase. "I've researched this product and think that it's good value. I use it myself (be truthful!). If you'd like to get good information on SEO, get a copy of Whiz-bang SEO here."
I'd appreciate your comments on this approach. How would you feel if you were on the receiving end?
by HaUDoin Wed Jan 11, 2012 via web
Great article, this happened to me yesterday. All good points.
by Kelsey Brookes Wed Jan 11, 2012 via web
@Paul - I think Tara would probably say that provided you ensure 90% of your content remained meaningful and relevant, you wouldn't wind up relegated to her 'marketing bin of shame'.

But you never know - these things have a cumulative effect on our psyche and I've certainly consigned otherwise useful mail to the sin bin for the same reasons.
by Kivi Leroux Miller Wed Jan 11, 2012 via web
This is where I've found custom unsub links to be very helpful. I try to group everything we send out into a handful of categories and to use the right unsub link code, including one for what I call "Occasional Specials" - that way when people click the link they can pick to get off that kind of email or all email. The system we use then tags them a certain way so we can exclude them for additional mailings of that kind. It's a little more work on our part to keep it straight, but it's kept a ton of people on our main email newsletter list who just wanted to stop getting "special offers".
by Liz Wood Thu Jan 12, 2012 via web
I definitely agree that you can't rely on unsubscribe and rant rates alone to measure effectiveness. If your open rates and click rates aren't good - your subscribers have tuned you out.

@Paul, I appreciate your commitment not to "mass personalize"! I am totally sick of seeing it in my inbox and from clients I have worked with. Most email marketers don't actually segment their list to send relevant offers/content. So the "I hand selected this offer just for you!" is ingenuine and people are aware of that.

@Kivi has the right idea so people can still get the info they want.