So, the very first day of the new year I crossed over into the Twilight Zone. I thought I was being so good uploading a new freebie at my site and sending out an email announcing that the old give away was being taken down at midnight.
I sent myself a test email for each announcement, they looked good and the links worked just fine. I doubled checked at Aweber to make sure the broadcast times were correct and it appeared to be all systems go. Yay!
Here’s where it gets strange. I received in my inbox a previous email that I sent months ago. I did not schedule this email to be sent. I received it at both of my email addresses that are registered with Aweber. I went back into Aweber and saw no indication that the old email was sent. Hmm, I’m scratching my head about now. And no, I wasn’t drinking to celebrate New Year’s Eve.
Okay, midnight is approaching, they are getting ready to drop the ball in Times Square and all is well with the world. I waited until midnight to take down the old freebie and connect the new one. The correct email went out and all seemed well, I even retested the link. This was at my Outlook email. Later I checked the inbox on AOL and the email was there. For some reason, I tested the same link in the same email blast at AOL and it didn’t work. Uh oh. Now what?
I could not figure this out. Before I knew it, it was 3 am. I decided to check my email one more time and found a friend awake who was online. I connected via chat and asked that she check the link in my email that came to her. She was on her cell phone and said the link did not work. The link on her phone and at my AOL showed a corrupted link. She booted her laptop and checked her email and lo and behold, the link works just fine, thank you.
After finally getting some sleep, I start the day checking the email to see if anything else was amiss. I have only two emails about the broadcast I sent out.
One of the emails was an unsubscribe notice from someone who left an angry sounding comment that the old give away was gone before midnight even though I said it would be available until midnight, and the other link didn’t work so they were unsubscribing.
To say I was hesitant to open the other email is an understatement. Thankfully it was a friendly email letting me know of the problem. After several emails back and forth, it appears that it might be an issue on Firefox rather than AOL.
Like any good business person who wants to provide exemplary customer service, I sent an apology letter to the person who unsubscribed and provided both of the give aways. I have not had any comment back. I also sent another email broadcast to my subscribers just to be sure. Here’s where I experienced firsthand a key lesson in marketing – make sure your subject headings have a great title.
The email I sent announcing the new freebie had an ordinary title with the name of the PDF. The open rate was nothing to write home about. After I discovered that I had taken a trip through the Twilight Zone, I sent out another broadcast with the title, “Holy Twilight Zone Batman.” The open rate tripled, how cool is that?
I have two take aways from this experience:
- Always have a catchy title, not necessarily the name of your product. What good is the most fantastic program if people don’t open your email? Get them to open it, then you tell them what it’s about
- Hire an email, campaign manager and don’t do this myself, anymore, ever again.
I know this has been a long story, sorry. But anyone who knows me will tell you -I’m really wordy and can talk for hours.
Happy New Year. And in case you haven’t picked up your copy of Julia Neiman’s 2 Step Reality Check to Discover and Overcome the Hurdles That Stand Between You and Your Dreams, you just have to enter your name and email in the box at the top right hand side of this page. Unless, of course, you are already a subscriber, then you already received the download link in an email yesterday. Otherwise, take your chances of crossing over into the Twilight Zone with me.
I told you I was wordy.
