Re: Is Fogdog's email marketing Wrong?

From: Kim Brooks <kbrooks_at_bardo-brooks.com>
Date: Fri 03 Mar 2000 11:16:23 -0800

MARK WELCH WROTE:
> I spent several hours on Tuesday trying to convince
> Fogdog.com that their current "Draft-A-Friend"
> unsolicited commercial email (UCE) campaign is Wrong.

Is it unsolicited email? Yes. Is it wrong? I don't
think so. Should you get irritated at FogDog? No, but
you should probably get irritated at whoever gave them
your name.

I have done several campaigns where we give points for
friends recruiting friends. I have always recommended
a slightly different approach - the registrant is told
"tell your friends; when they register, you'll get
points." Then it's up to the registrant to do the
contact work. We don't want the burden or
responsibility of contacting people, and if the
registrant is asked to do the legwork, they naturally
target better. Using this same campaign with 4
different clients in a range of industries, we've never
had a single compaint.

FogDog is doing the same concept, but they ask the
registrant to supply the email addresses directly to
them, rather than making the visitor do the legwork.

The benefit of controlling the contact, FogDog's
approach: they get to control the message and track
how many go out. The drawbacks:
- the email is delivered from them, and has a more
  commercial feel (thus the spam accusation).
- Users might be wary of giving out friends email
  addresses, so it could have a lower response rate
  than if users could deliver the message how they
  wanted and to whom they wanted, without fear of
  violating their friends' mailboxes.
- The message also ends up less personal and therefore
  less targeted. If I participate in the promotion, I'm
  more likely to email my friend Bob with something like,
  "Bob, you should join in this program - could help you
  earn new skis before the next season starts. At least
  get me some points! I could use some, too." Versus
  FogDog's current, generic welcome message.

Anyway, I don't think it's spam, but for the all the
drawbacks listed above, I still recommend to clients
that they let the participants control the contact with
friends. You lose some control of messaging and
tracking, but you invariably end up with higher
response rates and better targeting.

Kim Brooks
kbrooks_at_bardo-brooks.com




Received on Fri Mar 03 2000 - 13:16:23 CST