So I got a "Happy Holidays" email just now from Microsoft adCenter, and was immediately struck by the irony of the fact that a Microsoft product prevented me from reading an email from Microsoft. Click on the image below to enlarge, and always remember to make sure your email templates don't rely too heavily on images. I have no incentive to view the images, so emails like this usually wind up in the trash…
About Jason Stewart
Mr. Stewart leads demand generation programs for Demandbase and is a recognized marketing technologist and thought leader in the B2B lead generation and lead management space. He founded and leads the Salesforce.com user group in San Francisco and was one of the first 500 people to complete the Salesforce.com Certified Administrator process. He has spent 12 years in B2B telesales, demand generation, lead management and marketing operations with a variety of public and privately held software companies. He earned his BA in English from Rutgers University.
HAHAHAHA! HAHAHAHAHA!! This is great!
Off to Twitter land to tweet this one!
It’s not just the delicious irony; you’ve got entirely valid points about (a) email marketing best practices, (b) the difficulty of reaching people with email, therefore (c) the value of nurturing what you’ve got, with post-click marketing.
Every existing valid lead is gold. In 2009 that’ll be more true than in recent memory. It’s sure affecting our plans for the coming year.
Wow, This is great stuff. Thanks for reminding all of us not to rely too much on images.
Thanks.
Dumb and funny. The irony is that isn’t unique. With a bit of thought, we’d all be able to come up with Microsoft products that don’t work with Microsoft. Fortunately, there are fewer now than 10 years ago.
This is so funny and yet sad too. The first thing I tell my clients is that the email needs to be able to stand alone without pictures in case there is a problem with clicking on them. I can’t tell you how many of these I get from people who have converted a flyer into a jpeg and sent it out without any other info. This is also true with email signatures. Images are so great but they must only compliment your message! It’s the first tip we share with our clients that have us design e-newsletters and send them out for them. I know they appreciate it as soon as they see what can happen if they don’t. From Microsoft Country in Kirkland, WA – SB
Hmmm…a great demo of how NOT to construct an email….
Come on folks, it’s just a Christmas card for goodness sake.
I find most of the comments to this post a little over-the-top.
All the email would have contained is suitable Christmas images (as expected), not important business-related textual information.
If the author couldn’t be bothered clicking a bar to download the images he probably would not have really been bothered to reading a little Merry Christmas textual message either. No loss to either party.
This would make a good example of what not to do when sending a usual business email but as it is just a Christmas card it’s no big deal.
Sometimes, jumping onto the anti-Microsoft bandwagon indiscriminately just makes YOU look like the one who is being a little silly.
This is priceless, defeated by their own technology.
A good example of perfect email marketing…HAHAHA
OMG the number of hours I battle with Outlook every week! I hope Microsoft suffers just like us. I really need to track down software which can offer assistance when eshots fail to pass Outlooks blessed tests!
Kate
Haha, oh the irony! Microsoft kind of shot themselves in the foot with that one, how not to construct an email indeed lol.
This is incredible! It is good to know that Microsoft got a taste of its own medicine! I hate emails loaded with images that do not compliment their messages. This is a great article. Thanks.