Originally Posted by
xyzzy
The main reason the email worked out so poorly is that there was no obvious tie-in with FlyerTalk. Very few people on FlyerTalk know anything about Internet Brands.
The first person to call me regarding the email thought that the new owners of FlyerTalk had sold his email address to some third party. There was nothing within the actual message that appeared to have any relation whatsoever to FlyerTalk. Additionally, I am fairly certain that this person does not subscribe to TalkMail so if it was sent only to TalkMail recipients I am not sure why this person received it.
The fact that the unsubscribe address was broken only served to make matters worse. Had the message been a TalkMail special edition, or something like that, things may have gone quite differently.
IMHO, this is exactly the issue with the ibtraveldeals email itself, other than having "ib" in the name I would not have know that it was sent out for the benefit of the FT community.
Frankly, while I knew that Internet Brands had purchased FT, I did not at the time associate "ib" with Internet Brands. As xyzzy has said, having a name like "TalkMail Special Edition" or Travel Deals for the FT Community or something relating to FT would have been much better.
While I do not want to receive promotional material from any company (I try to opt out of whatever I can), I would have been less upset if it did not look like FT (read Internet Brands) had sold my email to some third party (read Travel Zoo/ibtraveldeals). Having FT in the name would have alleviated that concern.
Adding insult to injury, the broken opt out only served to make it look more SPAM like than it actually was.
Dan