putting your foot[er] in it

I noticed that every external email sent from the University of Sunderland's email server had the following footer added:

I don't know where to start with this one. It might [big might] be OK for a brand to do this - but I would still point at the following.

First off; why the full URL ?  Soooooo 1997. It's 2011, email clients will read a link, so we should be looking at something like

See the University's new TV ads

... where 'new TV ads' is the hyperlink. On the subject of aesthetics - why the Times font? Again, sooo 1990s. That it might sit at the bottom of an email in a sans serif font makes it appear 'ugly'. And given the target recipients [see below] won't those people have their 'show images' option on - so make it an attractive mini-banner [with a clear 'alt text' so folks with their images off will still know what it is]

So OK, I can live with this marketing message if the email is going to a prospective customer [student] and possibly some stakeholders [to show them we do TV advertising]. But how many emails go to those people? Won't the majority of people being emailed already have contacted the uni [eg the email is a reply to an email from them] and so be aware of the uni, its prospectus, website and promotional material? How many people will see that link. Then click on it. And then move down the purchase funnel as a result?

Compare that small advantage over the disadvantages:

Every email has this on. That includes those going to [for example] academic colleagues or contacts in other universities. Perhaps the submission of an academic paper to a journal. A supply to place an order or request a quote. An enquiry to the Inland Revenue about an employee's tax details ... I could go on, but what about : the student - or student's parent - who has raised a serious complaint about the university and whose email includes that footer? Or perhaps the email from a lecturer or student who is being told they have failed a module or programme? Or a similar email from a member of academic or support staff offering condolences for the loss of a family member and that we will sort out their studies when they are able to rejoin us?

Finally - if the footer needs to be added automatically, select members of staff or email addresses - the recruitment department or staff, for example - and add it only to their emails. Or better still, have relevant staff add it to their own email options - with the knowledge that they can delete it from the 'wrong' emails.

computers: can't live without them?

Just another example of computers telling you are wrong - but proving that is not you it is them at the same time. By 'computers' I mean, of course, the people who write their software programmes - computers only do what they are told.

This example is from hotel company Gran Melia. Follow the images down and you will see my rewards card with its number - which subsequently I am told does not exist. Ho hum. 

... and as a footnote: a couple of days after I posted this entry, I got an promotional email from Gran Melia. Here's the header of the email, note my membership number which - you will recall - doesn't exist. Oh, and note also that I have 6312 points, not bad for an 'account' which at least part of their IT system doesn't recognise.

Travelodge talking with forked tongue

I needed a cheap hotel for a night away from home, and was booking a room on the Travelodge website, when I got this message ...

Couple of things: first, notice how the onus would appear to be on me to sort out the error in their system? And second, CSR? I've written two 'dictionaries' on e-commerce/marketing and I do not know what a CSR is. The only CSR I have come across is 'corporate social responsibility'. Furthermore, I did not know whether my booking had been processed of not.

Sainsbury's: poor service ... and an opportunity lost?

My local Sainsury's has - and still is - had significant renovation, including a big extension. Over recent weeks [months even] I have been mightily impressed with the project planning as various parts of the store were worked on and the building extended in several directions. In all that time the shop continued to trade with minimal impact on customers - full marks for the planning department and the contractors and staff involved. Sadly, the same cannot be said for the online-marketing department.

You see, to bring the project to an end with the 'old' shop becoming the 'new' shop - it has closed. No problem there; big signs around the shop last week saying it was closing - but I can't remember when it said it was re-opening. And I need some groceries. So I went to the Sainsbury's website .. and for 'my' branch got this page:

No mention of it being closed [the poor service] - and nothing about the improvements being undertaken which will [presumably] make it a better place to shop. Two points:

(i) the exercise will have cost a lot [millions?], so developing a temporary web page would have been a drop in the ocean in financial terms, but even worse ...

(ii) why is 'online' treated as insignificant in the planning of the refurbishment and re-launch of a 'new' store? I bet the local media advertising was booked months ago.

Footnote #1, a couple of days later: Last night there was a [PR] article in the local newspaper about the re-opening of the store - but still no message on the website saying that the shop is now bigger and stocks a wider range of products.

Footnote #2, beginning of the next week - and a flyer through my door, which includes this page:

... but still no mention of the new meat & fish counters or the new clothing and homeware on the web page for the branch. Ho hum. 

a website that I do not warm to

In my Internet Marketing  module I show the students a web page I have made which is full of errors and ask them to list those faults. I end the session by saying that this is just an exercise and there should be no commercial websites as bad as my example. And then I come across sites like this ...

Note also at the bottom the link to the developer's site ... 'nuff said?

no entry without a house number and street

Another example to file under 'no big deal' - but if something is worth doing it is worth doing it right.

I was ordering a book from Oxford University Press [us lecturers get them free :-)]  and this was part of the 'checkout' process:

Note how the 'house number and street' has no asterisk, and so is not a 'must fill in field' -  and yet I was not allowed to proceed without something being in it. I appreciate that it is rare to have nothing to put in this box - but my work address is a campus with no numbers or streets. 

as safe as the Royal Bank of Scotland?

Like a lot of people [I suspect] I sometimes register with websites and then don't visit them again for quite a while  by which tine, of course, I've forgotten the username and password I set up for the account. That happened tome today when I went to the website of one of my credit cards. I typed in what I thought was my username, but got this...

After a couple of other tries I decided that it would seem I had not registered with the account, so went to the 'register' form - where I typed in my a username - the one that had been rejected on the 'sign in' form, and yet I got this ...

So how come RBS's system one form said the username did not exist - but on another that it did?

elephants and double glazing?

For reasons I won't go into, I was looking for a line from the film 'The Elephant Man' and came across this site. Let's ignore the fact that a website about quotes in films had no quotes from this film - take a look at the ads on the right.

Now ... AdSense is meant to serve up ads that are in sync with the content of the web page - but can you find a connection between anything on this page and windows or double glazing? And - in case you are wondering - no, I haven't been searching for, or looking at, double glazing websites in the recent past [Google tracks your web usage to deliver 'relevant' ads].

is it the un-seasonal weather?

OK, so as I type this towards the end of May [in the UK] it is raining, windy and a bit chilly outside - but it is still not winter. Which is what it would seem to be on this page of the Debenhams website which I looked at this morning.

A statutory lesson that website content management - like the seasons - is an ongoing thing.

this airline ad lands in the wrong place

I'm off to Athens [again] in the summer, so wanted to book a hotel - and as I knew the one I wanted to stay in, simply typed its name into Google - and this is the SERP, note the top ad [ie, the one that is the most expensive for the advertiser*]

So I clicked on that ad, and got this page:

Note that it is part of the 'holiday booking' page - and so I could only find the cost of the hotel if I put in flight details as well. That was no good to me as my flight was already booked on another airline, and anyway easyJet don't fly to Athens from my local airport.

So I clicked on the 'where to stay' link and got this page:

But I then had to search for the hotel I wanted. Guess what, I gave up and booked on the hotel's own website - which carried the claim 'guaranteed cheaper than any other website'. An ambitious claim and [obviously] part of  a wider strategy. Students of mine and readers of my book will recognise this issue in my Gilded Truffle Hotel case study.

* OK, I know there are other issues, but it does mean that easyJet are willing to pay to be the number one listing.