The "Oops" Mailing - To Re-mail or Not to Re-mail

One of our customers made a mistake this week. Hey we all do it. We're trying to get the email marketing newsletter out and we miss a typo or we have the wrong link, everyone is human right?

Instead of having their company name in the From Label, they simply had "March Newsletter" in the From Label. Probably just an oversight on their part. Then they had a really great subject line: "Easy Ways to Build WoM" (Word of Mouth).

What Went Wrong...

1. It looked like spam with no company name in the From Label.
2. The open rate was way lower than normal because there was no name recognition, it was 20% vs. over 35+%.
3. Their click rate was half of what it usually is.
4. The unsubscribe rate was a bit higher due to people not knowing who this was coming from.

So as instantly as it went out, this company made the decision to re-mail minutes later. They only mail a monthly newsletter so this was really important to them. The good things that happened?

• They apologized and poked fun at the situation:

Sorry gang, I should have had a cup of coffee before I originally sent this newsletter this AM. The 'from' line in the email was incorrect, as it said 'March Newsletter' instead of 'Andiamo Systems'. Which means no one knew who it came from, so a lot of people probably won't open it. Sorry for the resend, but I wanted everyone to have a chance to receive and read this newsletter.

• Their subject line read "Oops - Resend of "Easy Ways to Build WoM"
• They didn't have any unsubscribes from the second mailing.
• The second mailing gave them more opens than the first getting them back up to the 35+% open rate.
  
• Their click rate was more than double the first mailing.
• When they downloaded the list they saw that the unsubscribes were prospects that were likely never to become customers.

Potential Reasons to do a Re-mail

You don't want to do a remail for just any mistake. If it is just a typo, I'd say let it go. That's not worth potentially losing some subscribers. If it's as important as the scenario I outlines above where the recipients potentially wouldn't even know to open and read the email that's pretty big. Here are a few other scenarios:

Wrong Dates Published - If an incorrect date for an upcoming event was published your recipients might decide before clicking through they can't go. Even more confusing? If they do click through and see a different date on your site. Now confusion sets in and  they have to work at finding the right date.
Wrong Pricing Published - Whether the price was too high or too low you might find yourself with a customer service nightmare when the customers get to the page on your site to find a different price. If it's too low you might lose a lot of margin. If it's too high your call volume might go up. Either way it's dollars potentially coming out of your pocket.
Wrong Audience - If an email goes to the wrong audience, again you might find yourself with a customer service issue. Imagine if an airline sends an email confirming flights to someone who doesn't have one or if a winery sends a wine club shipment notification to someone who isn't a member. Calls will come in.

Oh and remember, if you put a wrong link in your email in your VR account you can change the link on the fly. Just go into your campaign report and where you see the   icon just click it and input the new link. Also remember to use the spell check tool, I need it myself ;-)

Comments

[Boris Mahovac]

Recently, I've been seeing "Oops..." in the subject line used purely as a ploy to have more subscribers open the email.

It's psychology, you see, people are intrigued to learn "what went wrong".

When I compare the original email with the Oops one, they are often the same, but the marketing purpose was fulfilled - I went through the email with a fine-tooth comb, i.e. I read it!

[Regina]

Thank you for such helpful insight. I will certainly keep this should I ever need it.

[Kim]

Ugg, I just did this! This moring I launched a campaign without updating the text only version, so readers who only get text would have seen a previous month's newsletter! After a bit of blue smoke I did pretty much exactly what you outlined above but I was still worried. Then moments later I received your newsletter with this article. Are you watching? Anyway, I'm feeling a bit better that I made the right call to resend. Deep breaths! Thanks!