Check out this email I received. It’s a terrific example of what not to do. I changed the URLs in the original email. 
Subject line: Re: isuckatemailmarketing.com has new Coupon Widgets for you to use
Dear Michael,
I visited your site and noticed that you are interested in ways to save money. You might be interested in some widgets that we have, in particular our Coupon Widget. It is easy for you – or your readers – to install. Just grab the code and insert it on your site. Best of all, you get paid every time one of your users uses a coupon.
Our widget code is available at http://www.isuckatemailmarketing.com.
Why use our Widget? Coupons monetize better than other forms of ads, and they are the best converting affiliate promotion, converting better than Adsense, display advertisements or text ads. You can customize the coupon widget to fit your site. You control the color, size and font, plus you can choose the logo you want. You can choose from 200 different vendors, and the coupons are always up to date.
Just grab our widget code and insert on your site. It couldn’t be any easier than that.
You might also like our Discount Finder Widget, which you can find at http://www.isuckatemailmarketing.com.
Sincerely,
Clueless
If you prefer not to receive emails from http://www.isuckatemailmarketing.com, please reply to this e-mail with a subject of “opt-out”.
What’s Wrong with this Email?
There are several aspects to this email that make it a bad example. Can you figure out what they are? Put your thoughts in the comments!
Such as… why would you be interested in allowing coupons in the first place on a site that has nothing to do with coupons? Your site is pretty straightforward, bro.
Wow, fails in so many amazing ways!
1. Completely impersonal— didn't bother to research your site, find out your name or speak to you as a real person. Spam.
2. Didn't approach you from a position of trying to see how they could help you first and why what they had to offer was a good match for your site or programs.
3. And did I say SPAM yet!? Holy crap, I can't stand those emails with the old, “hit reply with XXXXX in the subject and we'll remove you.” According to CAN-SPAM are they not supposed to make your removal a self-managed one-click option or something similar?
Zac, the email only has to provide a way to unsubscribe, it doesn’t have to be one click. Have a look at point 5 and 6 here http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/ecommerce/bus61.shtm
It's completely irrelevant. You may, in fact, enjoy saving money, but that's not what your site is about.
@Zack, the hit reply to remove is OK, as long as they do it. It has to be one step (one business magazine required multiple steps and 2 hours of my time to get unsubscribed!), with no fee, and no account number required. Your name must be removed within 10 business days.
Also, I've got an example that's even worse. A salesman sent out an email saying he was close to qualifying for a company sales prize (a trip to Ireland).
As an incentive for clients to sign up fast, he offered: $25/$50 gift certificate or a month of free service.
So, the sales guy gets a free trip to Ireland… and the client gets a gift card. Woo hoo!
Of course the first thing that stands out is it appears to be spam. You NEVER want to be the annoying pest, you want to be the welcomed guest. If you had not opt'd in for this offer, they're trying to “convince” you to try their widget.
Clearly they are lying when they said they visited your site and were looking for ways to save money. Your site is not about ways to save money at all ( appears to be a canned email) It's not congruent with your message.
As the others have said, it's obviously a templated email and they haven't actually visited your site at all.
On the marketing side, it's all about them, them, them. The only part that is about what's in it for you is where it says you get paid when a person clicks on it but there's no further details. There's no discussion on what your readers – the one's who will be clicking on the coupons – will get for it.
They haven't built a relationship beforehand, there's no previous connection. You didn't request the email and it's wasting your time. They've ignored pretty much every useful marketing precept I can think of. Losers……
Great points, everyone! Here's what really chaps my hide: the fake RE: in the subject line. This was the first time I received the email and it's an autoresponder at that. So that makes the phony RE the first lie in the email.
Saying they visited my site (and a bot doesn't count) is the second lie. Lies do not build trust and cause money to fly out of my wallet.
The RE: opens like crazy. For now. Even Naomi (iirc. hope I'm not taking her name in vain here) says so.
Strangely, the most useful emails I'm getting right now are all RE: in the subject line. I won't say who it is, but this guy is absolutely packing his email full of information. Information I'm *not* seeing on all the useful blogs.
This is one of those “go figure” situations.
I don't care. It's fake. It's a lie. You don't lie to me and then try to
give me value and you sure as hell don't get my money.
re: can also mean “regarding.” For instance, if you placed an order with Company X and there was a delay in shipping your product they might say “RE: Your recent order” — re: as in “regarding” not re: as in “reply.” This case straddles that line and I think tilts substantially toward faking a reply. Still, I think there CAN be valid uses of “re:” that aren't lies.
The “RE:”. Was wondering if you were interested in the coupons widget to begin with.
Even so if it's a reply, the message would be as simple as “Here's the widget, and following is a pdf guide on setting it up on your blog [ link to kick-ass coupon widget site ]”
It's not an actual reply, it's a first sending.
Re: How many stupid people are on the planet. I get so many emails now using this approach, the funny thing is, I opened the first couple because I thought I may have sent an email out to this person, only to find I was obviously wrong and it was spam. From a spammers point of view, I opened the email so they know I'm active, them comes the onslaught of even more spammy spam. When will they stop!!
Short-term gains for long-term failure.
Agreed. The RE: blah blah blah is so totally a give away to the obvious SPAM this is. I get these all the time – most of them go straight to the spam box but a few do get through. And the unsubscribe method is the worst…
Hm, that is a great trick to make your readers do the work for you. Well done. But other from that this small blogging tip this post does not provide any useful information. We all receive numerous spams and most of them are of poor quality. How about to show what is your opinion about this email? What is exactly wrong with it.
Sincerely I found this blog from one top listing and expected way more.
I already gave my opinion in the comments. Did you read them? I like to engage my readers, and they enjoy it, too. Sorry if you feel that is some kind of “trick.”
To tell the truth I missed your opinion as it was hidden
well in the comments section. I agree 100% that engaging your readers is very important, but I also believe that you have to give at least something before you ask your readers opinion. For example I have a questions and answers section at and there I first give my own answer and then suggest other people to answer in comments.
Maybe you are right to do so. I just shared my opinion as a new reader of your blog, hope it was somewhat useful.
Point well taken, Edward. I'm glad you're here and commenting! This is what
makes it fun.
I already did in the comments. If I just gave my opinion right away, it
I usually wait and see
wouldn't be “Open Discussion,” now, would it?
what others think before I weigh in with my own thoughts.
Open Discussion posts are more of a dialog with you, not a mouthpiece for my
opinion.
Thanks for the post. I just started getting into email marketing so any tips I can get are much appreciated. Personally I would never use the words “I suck” in my domain name…that's just me. I don't know a lot about your site, but this email seems irrelevant to you. I get crap like this all the time.
Best, John
mmm, the email adress was invented.. I guess o.O
I changed the domain name because I didn't want to send them any traffic.
That wasn't the original domain.
Well, aside from the obvious issues about this email including that it is most likely spam and all of the previous comments about it – the one thing that really popped out to me was: LACK OF VALUE of their product. They really did not build any sort of value tied to why someone would want to use their 'product' and what the benefit would be. Sure, anyone can throw out a sentence saying “Our Widget (coupons) monetize better than other forms of ads…” but heck, tell me why! Don't just tell me to insert your code into my well established site and expect me to do it!
Seems like a couple of twists from the classic Cold Calling school! “… I'm just following up (we've never met) on our previous conversation (we've never talked) on saving you money (sure, we all want to save money)…” Who knows what they'll actually say if you engaged in a real-time conversation!
An apt comparison, methinks!
Seems like a couple of twists from the classic Cold Calling school! “… I'm just following up (we've never met) on our previous conversation (we've never talked) on saving you money (sure, we all want to save money)…” Who knows what they'll actually say if you engaged in a real-time conversation!
An apt comparison, methinks!
I would say while Email marketing one should concentrate on the list of emails and websites to whom they are going to send. As this may effect so much on your website image.