Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Keeping Boilerplate Race Marketing Out of My Facebook E-Mail


I just received a reminder to register for a race about three hours ago.

It wasn't personalized like, "Hey, Jon, even though I know that you normally don't do triathlons, I thought you might be interested in knowing ..."

But, of course, why would a race director make that kind of effort for somebody like me when they have a big race to fill or "sell out"?  [Hmm. Maybe numbers aren't where they hoped they would be.]

Yet it didn't come in to my regular, personal e-mail, which would be expected.

We all opt in to race's Constant Contact (or similar) mailing lists.  It is part of the territory.

It came in my personal Facebook e-mail, but not from the race's official Facebook page (or account).

Again, that would have been fair game, in my mind.

No, it came from the race director's personal Facebook account.

Now wait, if I'm that race director's - at a minimum - Facebook friend, don't I know when all of their races are, what their event production's website is and when registration deadlines might be?

Probably.

This information, in my news feed, as a status update - to me - is also fair game.

So instead of taking the time to unclick me (which would be pretty good personalization, if you ask me) when you send that mass e-mail to all of your Facebook friends, just go ahead - even though I didn't understand it was part and parcel of being your Facebook friend - and send me your standard boilerplate marketing material - to my Facebook e-mail.

So, unfortunately, it didn't earn you a registration.  It just got you blocked.

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