Click here to view the embedded video.

As an email marketing specialist I was able to detect that this may be due large in part to a misconfiguration in the CRM which is probably mostly the dealer’s responsibility but also a training issue with the CRM provider. I suspect this because of the variable at the very bottom %%ChannelUser%%.

But as a customer, this is confusing and unprofessional.

From a branding perspective, this is completely user unfriendly. As part of the set up process the vendor should make sure this unsubscribe page is properly branded. If the system does not support that then, well, that’s a different story. This page must be branded to represent the dealership.

From a functional perspective this is completely confusing. What do customers think when they see this? This certainly takes away any warm fuzzy I may possibly have with this dealer.

There isn’t much more to be said about this. The visual speaks for itself. It is an abomination that stands as one of the leading examples of how not to use a CRM and how not to do email marketing.

When I first got in to email marketing I spent much of my time setting up, configuring, and maintaining automated email campaigns but more and more I find that the best way to connect with people via email is to take the time to craft highly personal communications and avoid automation to some extent. One benefit for doing this is that you often are able to nip a misconfiguration like this in the bud because you do a walk-through of your opt-in and opt-out processes.

If you are going to pursue automation in your email marketing, definitely take the time to put control measures in place to help minimize or avoid scenarios like this by testing your process when you initially set up the campaign and anytime you make a change, even the tiniest change to any part of your process.