Email uh-oh moments.

While social media is still all the buzz, studies continue to show (despite what social media talking heads might want you to think) that email is still a trusted, proven way to communicate.  And it is critical to promote web sites and sustain loyalty to your opted-in communities of interest.

But recently a few of our clients have made our hearts skip a beat with their email tactics.   We won’t name names since they are innocent in their gaffes, but it reminded us that while you are engineering your tinyurl to be linked from twitter driving to your blog that is automatically updated in facebook…let’s not forget the basic technical attributes of email and building an opted-in list.

1. In the category of you bought the furniture but you like to sit on the floor? We helped to build an integrated blog and web site (a delightful marriage, thanks Wordpress) for a small consulting firm.  They began to promote the site through an email blast but linked over it, straight to a PDF hosted on scribd (that they created from a word document).   They somehow missed the whole point that the blogging platform allowed for easy content updating, and the idea was for the email to link into THEIR site - not a third party document hosting site.

2.  In the category of do you want to send us flowers next? We signed up to receive an email newsletter through the official opt-in button on a client’s home page.   My colleague received a direct email back from a staffer, but directed to her first name and my last name (making an assumption, cardinal gaffe #1), asking for her USPS mailing address to complete the registration.  Funny, we know this client doesn’t do direct mail anymore so we informed them of the internal gap in their list building protocol.

3. In the category of do you want a singing telegram with those flowers? I came across a site for a political campaign this week that could have asked me for my waist size, their list of requirements to get on their opted-in list was so long.  I inquired how their list-building was going.  The response was not so good.  Really.

4. In the category of just because the shoes are at Nordstrom, doesn’t mean I can’t find similar ones at DSW. A reminder that an email blast template (used in tandem with Campaign Monitor, Mail Chimp or other similar services) is indeed a critical tool but it shouldn’t break your bank.   In getting design estimates recently for a new HTML template for two clients, one firm suggested it would be about 15 hours of time.  Another suggested two, maybe three.    Hey if the shoe fits and matches the outfit (ie the web site), give it the budget-friendly try, especially if your target audience is used to nothing or bad plain text e-alerts.  You’ll have more resources to generate good, interesting content which the email intends to promote.

5. In the category of we’ll just pretend your email was down. We got a fax from a member within a client group  to let us know his correct web site address.