I recently received a B2B email announcing “exciting news,” and it piqued my interest in all the wrong ways -- meriting a Fail for Content and perhaps even for Targeting.
First of
all, the email is from someone at Numerix I
don’t know and who I’ve never met, contacted, or connected with, and at a
company I’ve never heard of. Yet this person sends me an email that opens with “Exciting
News.”
Then, the email
uses so much financial jargon that even I can’t figure out what it means -- and
I work in the financial industry. What does Numerix do? What can it do for me
or my employer? I don’t know, but I guess the acquisition helps them address a
bunch of stuff I don’t care about.
I guess
this is exciting for Numerix but, without any value proposition, this is simply
a press release with several typos.
Lessons:
- Do not assume your reader knows your company.
- Do not assume your customer understands your jargon.
- Avoid acronyms.
- Use every sales and promotional contact to reinforce your value proposition.
- Proofread your communications.
