What Was This Guy Thinking?

Two minutes ago I received an e-invite to attend a webinar sponsored by a marketer whom I highly respect. Great guy ... brilliant ideas. I heard him speak several years ago and was impressed with his creative approaches and impressive results.

But clearly he's quite clueless sometimes when it comes to marketing his own business. I've included the invitation below - with a few changes to protect the the guilty. My comments follow.

(Marketing guy's name) has invited you to attend a WebEx web seminar on the web
using WebEx.

Topic: Demo General Session Webinar
Date and Time: September 28, 2006
               1:00 pm , Eastern Daylight Time
Enrollment password: This event does not require a password for registration

Please click the following link to see more information about the event or to join the event. (actual link)

To contact (marketing guy), send a message to this address: [email protected]

I was a bit stunned by the lack of any marketing savvy in the email. Since I know how good this guy is, I clicked through to read about the session - thinking I might want to attend. When I got to the Webex site, I was even more appalled. It just gave the session name, date, time and duration. That sure was exciting! Actually I was aggravated. I hate wasting my time.

As a seller, that's one of the worst things you can do these days. So I sent the marketing whiz an email, telling him that I was really disappointed in his invitation. I also pointed out that:

• The email subject line was boring.
• The workshop title didn't attract me at all.
• The lack of an enticing workshop description was glaring.
• Without his bio, no one would know how good he really was.
• The registration link should contain the "more info" that I was promised.

I'm sure he dashed it off without thinking much about it. After all, he was just sharing info on an upcoming webinar. But you can't do that today.  Make every client interaction valuable - even if it's a simple email.

Comments

[Gerold Braun]

TrackBack manually: http://www.geroldbraun.de/blog/2006/09/e-mails-schreiben-die-nicht-gelesen.html

[John]

Jill, that appears to be the automatically generated invitation email sent from Webex when someone sets the session up.

I get them all the time from people I know - but if I got them from strangers I wouldn't be likely to participate.

I wonder if webex will allow you to modify the automatic email for recipients? I'm not sure, but you're right about the email. It is very uninviting.

[Michael Stelzner]

Jill - People like us (sales and marketing types) often do not understand that people need to be persuaded to act--especially in this age of message overload. Does not surprise me. - Mike

[steve]

I agree with you Jill, and even if that is the canned email from webex, the presenter should have done research to see what it looks like before they send it, knowing that their reputation is at risk if his prospects preceive the email as garbage, which is exactly what happened to Jill. He could have also done more to make the presentation details on webex look more promising. And if Jill was on his email list, he should have sent out his own personal email with his own personal touch. And he should definately respond to Jill's email critiquing the email.

What will stop this stupid behavior, which I see all the time? Lack of response from prospects will send the signal that it is not working, and reflection and thinking on the part of the presenter as to what went wrong and what can be done about it.

If only the world was perfect....

[Linda]

That is the default email that WebEx sends out. Your 'Marketing Guy' and anyone else using WebEx should talk to them about improving the copy and making it customizable.

I was a potential user of another WebEx product and found them very open to suggested improvements. I even got them to change the legal language in their 'Terms of Use'.

Your post is right on target...we cannot assume that the online services we use show the marketing savvy we expect, or want to portray to the world.

[Chad Horenfeldt]

Jill - I see this all the time with my clients who use webex as an event management tool. Webex should stick to making sure their technology works for the actual event as I've been there too many times when I get a "page not found" error when I'm starting my meeting. PS - you may want to add a feed icon to your blog to make it easy to subscribe as it took me 2 steps instead of one (hey, I'm lazy). Check out my post called "Feed Icon Library".

[khalid bin abri]

to your company
i want to show you my new programe in event it will be the big event in whole worlds and more then 7 millyar pepole they will contact withe this event it will make your company the big company in worlds for event
to more informition contact me