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By Darryl Stewart
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© 2024 IBEX PAYROLL BLOG. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

How to get Medicine Hat people to unsubscribe in record time

By Darryl Stewart, Head of the Herd

Day three of our “Why not Medicine Hat?” campaign started full of promise:

  • We had researched almost 100 small business people in Medicine Hat.
  • We had crafted a 30 second survey to help up figure out how to best serve Medicine Hat.
  • We had secured a special gift for each person who took the survey and written a wonderful email explaining what we are up to.

We felt we would not upset anyone with the offer of a bestselling book in return for a 30 second survey.  The worst that could happen is that we would be ignored.  The best is that we would get to understand Medicine Hat people and businesses a little better and start a few real conversations.

Basically the worst happened.  We were totally ignored.  We also saw the highest unsubscribe rate we have ever had on an email campaign and one of the lowest open rates ever.  At first we were stunned. Had we really missed the mark that bad?

The post mortem revealed some glaring errors in our approach.  Basically, we interrupted a bunch of busy business people with what appeared to be a spam email at the busiest time in the business day.  We got exactly what we deserved!

Why write about our mistake?  We are all about helping other businesses and organizations.  If our lesson helps someone else, then something good came out of this.

As far as Medicine Hat, there is some good news.  The personal touch works much better.  If we take the time to seek people out, listen to their needs and have a real conversation, we get to meet some really cool people, in a really cool place.  More on that in future posts.

Anyone else want to share a marketing mistake?

  1. sure! I had these really cool waterbottles printed with my company’s logo and website. They were the hit of the trade show and everyone heard my schpiel (?). It was great, up until the very last person taking the very last water bottle pointed out the spelling mistake in my website.
    🙁

    • Not too many hits on your website?

      Trust us Lisa, we feel your pain!

IBEX Payroll extends our profound respect and immeasurable gratitude to all the ancestors and keepers of the land on whose traditional territories our work takes place. We acknowledge that we are on Treaty 1 territory, the traditional gathering place of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene people and the traditional homeland of the Métis people. This land is sacred, historical, and significant. 

Every time we acknowledge this truth, we have an invitation and an opportunity to reflect on the wrongs of the past, what we do in the present, and what we can do to continually honour the people whose lands and water we benefit from today. 

This statement only acts as a first step in honouring the land we reside on and its peoples, and must be paired with education, understanding and informed action.