When I look for emails or a series of emails to evaluate and review for the Email Zoo, I usually look for something to stand out. Whether it’s something humorous, or different, or offensive, for the millions of emails that are sent every day, I need a hook for a post. Unfortunately for GNC’s sake, their hook is not a positive one.
Like the Abercrombie explosion I experienced a couple of months ago, GNC went from sending me nothing to overkill in about two weeks. See my inbox:
Let’s do the count: 17 messages in 16 days.
If you look at the subject lines, they’re all over the place. An anniversary sale, a President’s Day sale, a Valentine’s Day message, plus tons of free shipping offers and other offers.
The biggest thing that stands out here is that GNC launched a new product: GNC Stat!
What is Stat!? Looks like a “drug-free, natural remedy that helps you restore balance.”
The problem? It’s the 15th email I received in the last two weeks. A product launch should have its own cycle of marketing communications, not get lost in the free shipping and President’s Day offers.
The moral of the story? Segmentation and timing are everything. Clearly, GNC forgot to respect their subscribers with this cycle.
Maybe I’m on a renegade list again…
Andrew Kordek
Justin Premick
Chris Wheeler
Scott Cohen
Jake Holman
AngeBarber
DJ Waldow
jacaldwell
Wendy Croissant
Luke Glasner
Scott Hardigree
Maddy Hubbard
Rory Carlyle
Kelly Lorenz
Remy Bergsma
Laura McIntire
Jordie van Rijn
elenah13
loveofemail
georgiachristian
preemo55
I like the email from February 8 – the anniversary “surprise” sale. Is it really a surprise that they’re having a sale after email upon email promoting sales?
Did you check out their Preferences/Unsubscribe page? Do they have opt-down options?
Cheers,
Kelly
Kelly,
The funny thing is I approach my review posts like that of the average consumer. So I don’t really look for that sort of thing at least at the surface level.
That said, I did investigate, and it’s an “On-Off” subscription process. So clearly, as my inbox indicates, there is no attempt to segment or give the subscribers options.
BTW, I received three more messages from GNC since writing this post yesterday. Crazy, huh?
I don’t get it. Are marketers really this far behind the curve? Who in there right mind sends 17 emails in 16 days with absolutely NO SEGMENTATION?
I’m saddened by this given the size of GNC. They should be able to do much better than this as a nationally recognized company.
Definition of this Campaign: “Batch n’ Blast” … wait no, it’s just, “BLAST-BLAST-BLAST”.
When I see this kinda of stuff, I am reminded that whoever is steering the ship over there has never had any experience in running email. While I am saddened by this, it will eventually catch up when they see that in 90-120 days the size of their list shrink as they strip mine the database.
It comes down to this folks….find someone to run your email program who has run one or who knows how to run one.
Andrew
Great post and comments! I’m VP of Direct Marketing for GNC – so pretty much the one who is steering the ship behind the curve. What’s that commercial, “that IS a problem and we ARE working on it”? We get it.
Hard to respond specifically without sounding defensive (based on what I’ve written, then deleted because it sounded too defensive). But, we aren’t as dumb as you give us credit for. We don’t need a column in a retail email blog with some good comments for us to know what we are doing – but do appreciate the feedback. I was hoping that someone like Andrew Kordek would be someone I could minimize until I read his bio and found that some really smart email marketers are giving us free (if painful) feedback. (I love Groupon!!)
So will close with this. Keep an eye on GNC. It won’t happen over night because it IS a tough drug to wean onesself from. But we ARE smarter than you might think and are working hard on emailing less and segmenting more.
Keep up the good work!
Dave,
Truly appreciate you reading and responding. As Andrew alluded to, since we are a tight knit group here in the email marketing industry, there is definitely a mentality of “We’re all in this together.” Particularly with the increased proliferation of spam, we try to make sure that the “good marketers” like the GNCs of the world can stand out and truly provide their customers with what they want.
I, like Andrew, come from the client side of the house when it comes to email marketing. I understand the demands of the C-suite and the incredibly fast nature of promotions, launches, etc. I also know that smart email marketing takes time and manpower, something which clients don’t necessarily have all the time. And I certainly am not a perfect email marketer–that’s for sure.
I will join with Andrew in saying that I’m stoked you guys are working on it. I look forward to seeing what GNC comes up with (I haven’t unsubscribed, after all!).
What’s the Friars Club mantra? “We only roast the ones we love.” Well, we love email marketers!
Hey Dave,
Thanks for stopping by the blog and for your open and honest comment, I truly appreciate it. I started this blog with the hopes and thoughts that great interactions like this would take place in a very constructive way.
I am super happy that you joined the conversation and hope that you will continue to take part.
I know email marketing is hard and so many people like to give their opinion on it. We are here to help and if you would like any assistance on anything let myself or anyone know.
The email community is pretty small and tight knit and some of smartest people are always wanting to help. Thanks again for stopping by and I love the fact that you guys are working on it. Most companies dont….and I know that firsthand.
Andrew
Dave,
I’m in accord with Andrew and Scott here. We’re here to help; we just have to point out the flaws in everyday email marketing in order to get people like yourself to engage us. We all have lived in the trenches for long enough to know the pains and nuances of running an email dept, you’re not alone.
Feel free to join in the #emailmarketing twitter babble to keep up with us daily. There’s always good things going on.
Viva la Email!
Dave,
Love your open response to the blogpost here. Really courageous to post a message like that.
I guess you normally dont e-mail with such a high frequency. So maybe you could tell us something about stats of the two weeks that where mentioned. I was wondering what your clickthrough and especially your unsubscribe rates were…
Jordie
[...] I told the VP of Direct Marketing at GNC who responded to my Email Zoo post, us email marketers are all in this together. Social media won’t be the death of email. Spam [...]
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[...] I told the VP of Direct Marketing at GNC who responded to my Email Zoo post, us email marketers are all in this together. Social media won’t be the death of email. Spam [...]