AlanAllport.Com

Is it just me, or is there anyone else who is fed up with deceptive email subject lines?

What do I mean by deceptive email subject lines?

Subject lines like ‘You’ve made a sale!’, ‘Here are you login details’, ‘Here’s your download’.

And then the body message of the email makes it clear that the sender is just trying to sell you something i.e. you haven’t made a sale etc. at all.

Of course, the aim of these email subject lines is just to get you to open the email in the first place. We all get so much email these days that it is getting harder to get your marketing messages through and opened. So, certain marketers are, shall we say, being a little economical with truth in an attempt to get you to open their email messages.

But, I ask you honestly, if you open such a message and then find that you actually haven’t made a sale, etc. how do you then feel – let down, cheated? I know I do and that then makes me feel negatively towards the marketer who sent me the email message.

And feeling negatively towards the marketer – is that going to prompt me to be the least bit interested in whatever it is that they’re promoting? Do I really have to answer that question?

Surely commonsense tells you that getting people to feel negatively towards you when sending your emails is not the best way to build up the kind of rapport and empathy necessary if they’re going to trust and like you. And if your potential customers don’t get to trust and like you, they’re not very likely to become actual customers.

I know some people will say that all’s fair in love, war and marketing, but I really do think this is a counterproductive practice.

I don’t like it and I hope you won’t do it.