Some of Alan's views on this digital marketing malarkey ... there's more on: AlanCharlesworth.com

Sunday, April 27, 2008

not spam - but poor practice

As this email has a postal address and opt-out included, I doubt it is spam. However, it does nothing to tempt me to click on the link to 'view my invitation'. Points to note:
  • there is nothing to suggest what the invitation or offer is
  • there are two email addresses for prof Kothari
  • the sender couldn't be bothered to capitalize his/her name
all in all, a waste of time sending it out, I wonder what the open rate was?
Footnote: out of curiosity, I did click on the link - it was for some kind of personalized search engine. It looked a bit dodgy, so I did not click on the link that looked as though it might have downloaded something.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

historic review?

User generated content is perhaps the element of the Internet that has had the most significant impact on buyer behaviour, and so marketing.

One of the issues with customer reviews on sellers' web sites is the question of independence - in other words, have the reviews been 'reviewed' before they are published?

Now, as a holiday company, I have no great problem with Thomson - I've been away with them on a number of occasions ... however, while looking for a holiday for this Christmas I came across the following hotel review:
Note that it is the latest of a number of reviews - yet it is nearly two years old. Two points:
  1. Things can change in 24 months, for good and bad. A new building blocking the sea view or new owners with lower standards. Ageing facilities or a recent re-fit?
  2. No published reviews from after that date could mean that there were simply no newer entries [seems strange] - or maybe they weren't too good and so they were deleted?
Either way, it's poor review practice.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

not just KLM ...

KLM crop up frequently in this blog, so just to show:
  • I'm not picking on them, and
  • They are not the only airline that can't get its Internet marketing act together
... this is an email from Brussels Airlines. And yep, the flights on offer are all from Brussels - hello Brussels Airlines, that's not even in the same country as I live. Harrrrumph.