2 Comments

Bad Merchant Communications 101

Jul 4, 2005
by

I don’t mean to always point out the bad in merchant communications. I do for two reasons: the bad one stick out (meaning the good ones don’t get noticed as being great which is one reason they are great… they just make sense) and they are funnier.

You would think that a merchant that might want to restart its program (or a network that signed the e-mail) would have thought more about the following e-mail. For starters, I have no idea what Tiny Monkey Cards is/was and didn’t even know we signed up for it.

While there is a nice laundry list of things that my company (or any Publisher) could have done wrong, the real reason is not listed.

Change in content at Merchant’s website

If you look at the Tiny Monkey Card website you will see a single page stating simply (and without capitalization) “sorry! we are currently remodeling our website. email us if you’d like to be notified when we relaunch.”

Need for a new template when a program is discontinued

    Dear David Lewis:

    We regret to inform you that TinyMonkey Cards has removed you from their Affiliate Program. Merchants may remove affiliates from their programs for many different reasons, including violation of legal terms, inactivity, changes in site content, etc. If you feel that you have been removed in error, or would like further clarification on why you were removed, please contact slee@tinymonkey.com.
    LinkShare manages hundreds of other affiliate programs. We encourage you to log in and find other programs with which you may want to partner.

    Best,
    LinkShare Corporation

    http://www.linkshare.com

Unsubscribe me

Needless to say, there is no need to notify me when the site relaunches.

Filed under: Affiliate Marketing
  • http://www.molanderassoc.com Jeff Molander

    The Rodney Dangerfields of online marketing.

    I’m pleased, however, to see affiliate networks personalizing their e-mails. It only took 7 years to implement mail merge. Perhaps, some day, they’ll also learn that business communications typically aren’t formatted as “Dear {First Name Last Name}.” Gotta crawl first :)

  • http://www.anycoupons.com David Lewis

    “Affiliates” never get the respect that Publishers (especially the ones who are Partners to Merchants) have come to expect. Mail merge or not.