From the Far Eastern Shore of Maryland I have been pounding this into the heads of everyone I come across. Email marketing is not fr.e.e.

• Someone has to write it and that someone needs to be paid.
• You need an email program, and that's not fr.e.e.
• You need a list to send it to, that's not fr.e.e.

Far too often, I see companies and clients get lazy with their email marketing, forgetting the basics of direct response marketing. They just slap an email together, hit send and zap!. Out it goes to 500,000 people. You wouldn't do that with 500,000 direct mail pieces, would you? That is exactly what magazine publisher "The Week" did last week with their message to me. They were announcing their new magazine for teens. Study the ad, and see if you can find all of the marketing sins they committed: Sins committed:

• Lead off with their logo. OK, so they are a big dumb company and maybe, just maybe their logo is recognizable. But you do not have that luxury. If you lead off with a logo, your email SCREAMS advertisement.
• Really poor headline. Heck, I hesitate to even call it a headline. At least it was in red and larger font. Your headline has one job. Get people to read the next paragraph.
• Nowhere to be found in the "electronic mail" is a "clickable" link. They could have provided a link in paragraph 2 "The Week Junior". Even the website URL in the last sentence was not clickable! You should almost always have links to past blog posts, articles or products.
• Timeliness: This email was sent to me 2 weeks ago announcing that more information was to come. Well, I am still waiting.
• Really big sin... No call to action (CTA). It does not tell me to click here by such and such date. The ad does not give me any instructions on what to do next!
• Even bigger sin... No offer. No "founding member" price, no early bird discount. Not even a full price offer. Sheesh!

I can't imagine they had a good ROI on this. Have a great weekend. If you want to confess your sins, ahem... marketing sins, shoot me a note. Remember, you won't profit unless you implement, Vance "I am not a marketing sinner" Morris Author of the book “Systematic Magic, 7 Magic Keys to Disnify Any Business” Author of the new book “Tales From the Customer Service Crypt. 10 Tales of Customer Experiences So Poor, They Should Be Buried In a Crypt For All Eternity. AND 47 Actionable Strategies, Questions, or Tactics You Can Use Right Now to Improve Your Client / Patient Experience For more on Disney Style Service and small business marketing or having Vance speak at your next event or meeting, check out the free special report "Systematic MAGIC, How to Disnify Any Business". Vance Morris is a Walt Disney World Resort Management Alumni, having spent 10 years as an executive in the Resorts. He runs the only Disney Service & Direct Response Marketing business on the planet. Here he coaches companies to create Disney Style Service Systems and then monetize them through direct response marketing. He is also the longest reigning GKIC Marketer of the Year. He can be reached at www.DeliverServiceNow.com or vance@deliverprofitsnow.com . For speaking engagements, please visit www.vancemorris.com