A Tale of Two Welcomes

Hello there!  This is Maddy Hubbard.  You may know me from my previous blog, Email Marketing Voodoo.  This week Tamara asked if I would be interested in co-authoring  BeRelevant!  As you can imagine, I jumped at the opportunity.

I have opted-in to some new email marketing campaigns and I because I have a new email address, I opted-in to some campaigns I was receiving before.

One of my favorites, CB2, starts the relationship with their signature tongue and cheek style.  My favorite aspect of their welcome is a reminder that "this is a dialogue  and feedback is always welcome."  It’s nice to see a retailer acknowledge their subscribers as individuals and express that they are open  to suggestions. 

A new campaign I opted in to receive from Sears, didn’t make me feel very welcome.  And maybe because I  couldn’t get through their message.  Their text email was incredibly long and for most subscribers, I suspect,  just too much to read. 

While it is a well-known best practice to send a welcome message,  what that message looks like and says should  be thought out .  Put yourself in the shoes of your subscribers.  How would you feel if your received your welcome message. 

Your welcome message should set the tone,  set expectations of what your subscribers can expect and also, don’t forget... make your subscribers feel welcome.

Comments

[Paul Dunay]

Tamara - nice post and BTW congrats on your #16 spot on Being Peter Kim's Top 20 marketing blogs - I have been following your blog ever since!

I wanted to point you to a survey of B2B marketers of their favorite Web 2.0 tools if you are interested ...

here is the survey link
http://pro5.sgizmo.com/survey.php?SURVEY=2VG35UWR8REZZIXYCRXMEI5NIOBTU7-4519-1303488&pswsgt=1186002487

here is a directory of the results
http://www.directimpactnow.com/leadgentools/web2-tools-directory.html

and here is B2B Marketing Magazine's coverage of it
http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070716/FREE/70716017/1109/FREE

and here is my most recent post on it
http://buzzmarketingfortech.blogspot.com/2007/08/b2b-marketers-vote-on-best-web-20-tools.html

best
Paul Dunay

PS let me know if you would like to do a podcast with me sometime