More Obnoxious Subject Lines: Congrats, you are DELETED
Here an update on my personal Cancel Your Subscription Campaign.
There's so much congratulations going on, I'm surprised anything is getting done. Here's the new round of obnoxious subject lines I've been subjected to. (Ha, ha...that just came out that way.)
- Congrats, you are qualified
- Congrats! Please Confirm Your Qualification
- Congrats - another sale
- Congrats - You got another sale.
When I see these subject lines, I know I've either seen it before or will see it show up again in short order. (Please do me the courtesy of sending an email with an original, not obnoxious subject line.)
To all who fill my email box with such garbage, I reply with the following:
Congrats -You are DELETED
Those Obnoxious Email Subject Lines
Today I'm going to vent my frustration with many of the lists I subscribe to...
Why am I frustrated? you may ask... Obnoxious Email Subject Lines!
The new trend toward ever more manipulative subject lines really burns me. In addition to being manipulative, these messages are spammy, and even worse, the senders of these messages assume that I am stupid. These marketers seem to think that I won't see the manipulation and that I won't be offended by it. WRONG!
It appears that some Internet marketers will follow the leaders to their destruction.
My parents used to ask that question,
If your friends are jumping off a bridge will you follow them?
The first irritation messages showed up with subject lines like these: Your Payment Details or Confirmed, You have a new payment or You have funds
Now, this strategy only worked for a second on a couple of reasons. You see, I have rigged up my computer to go "KACHING" - like a very loud cash register - every time funds hit the PayPal account. (This is highly motivating and fun for the family...you should try it!). The first couple of times I saw these messages, I was quite confused and started trying to figure out what went wrong with my systems. Once I realized that the sender was pulling my chain and had wasted my energy I was not happy. Then as it became apparent that others were copying this strategy, evidenced by my mail box filling with more messages with the same obnoxious headlines, I got pissed.
This week, I began to take notice of a new angle on the theme. I noticed emails arriving containing the word confirm in the subject.
Confirmed download, confirmed link, Activation confirmed,
Confirmation...Confirmation... Confirm...
One even said, "Confirmation Required" and it turned out they were giving me something I didn't request at a cost of $0.00
In the last 2 weeks alone, I count about 50 of these subject lines. The only thing I want confirmed is a subscription request, or something I purchased. Again, these are manipulative tactics and is maddening on several levels. First, we have been conditioned to expect to see the "confirmation required" email for newsletter subscriptions. Now I have to set up my auto-responders to use another word. Second, I'm really concerned that these messages will begin getting caught in the spam filters. We will have to change our messages for digital delivery to avoid referring to "Your Payment".
I live my life according to this wisdom:
"When people show you who they are, believe them." - Maya Angelou
I've learned that people ALWAYS DO show you, and I believe them the first time. Living according to this adage line has provided great peace in my life, so here's what I'm going to do....
Although it will take time, I will unsubscribe from any list that uses these manipulative techniques. (I really wish there was a little script or tool that could do this in one stroke.) Modeling Arianna Huffington and her Move Your Money campaign to stop bank abuse, I am beginning my own personal Cancel Your Subscription campaign. At first I thought I'd provide an explain why when asked for the feed back. Perhaps when they get bunches of unsubscribes, they will cease and desist this maddening behaviour.
What say you? Will you join me?
