PetSmart sends a message each month promoting ways to save money with their PetPerks Program.

I received their latest message last night.

And after reading about the personalized email marketing messages from Columbia Sportswear  I realized that PetSmart wasn’t doing the best job of speaking to their subscribers.

The message that landed in my inbox had "Specials for Dogs", "Specials for Cats", "Specials for Fish" and  a "Grooming Special".  Here’s the problem with that.  I have two short-haired dogs.  No cats or fish and those short-haired dogs don’t go to the groomer.

Three quarters of the advertised specials don’t apply to me. 

Had PetSmart asked for my preferences they would know that I’m not interested in  cats, fish, grooming, hamsters, snakes or  anything other than dog products. And with only a way to unsubscribe, rather than update my preferences, PetSmart may never know that while I’m interested in receiving messages from them, I don’t really care about their "Specials for Cats".

By using subscriber preferences combined with a dynamic content strategy, PetSmart could send highly targeted  messages that would speak to each individual subscriber.