I recently received an email solicitation from a sponsor of an online conference that I attended. Now I understand that sponsors need to be able to reach out to attendees and try to get a return on their investment. I’m sure that somewhere in the fine print of my registration I agreed to be contacted by these guys. No problem.
The email solicitation was actually very well done. They had an image from a video “commercial” on their email with a big WATCH NOW button. Good calls to action, guys. All this was done RIGHT.
The email was so good that I actually clicked on their video commercial to see what it was all about. I was taken to their website where I prepared to watch the commercial…but the video didn’t play. Instead a Sign-up form popped up and demanded that I fork over all my information. They REQUIRED me to give:
- My Name
- My Email
- My Company
- My Title
- My Phone
- My State
- My Zip code
- My Industry
- MY REVENUE!
What is so insane about this is they are requiring me to give them all my information so I can Watch THEIR commercial!
OK folks - this is how the “GIVE / GET” game works… I GIVE YOU my information when I receive something of VALUE. You then GET my contact information and a warm Lead.
Things of value include Gift Certificates, Entrance into a Raffle, a Statistical Study, White paper or other Proprietary information not available in the public sphere…etc. The example above completely violates the Give / Get principle. These guys are trying to use a GET / GET principle. They GET all my information and then the GET me to watch their commercial.
Did they get my information? NOPE. Did I watch the commercial? NOPE.
So instead of Win/Win we wind up with Lose/Lose. What a waste of a great email marketing execution.
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