The article "Email Marketing and Auto-Responders: The Day I Got Dumped By An Auto-Responder" talks about autoresponders, it has been released by Joan Pasay.
I am really depressed yesterday.
An old e-newsletter flame that dumped me many months ago sent me an e-mail out of the blue. I hadn’t receievd any emails from this old flame in months. I did not even tihnk I was still on the list. Receiving that e-newsletter conjured up feelings of betrayal and hurt that I thought I had resolved after dozens of sessions with my therapist.
And to make matters worse, the e-mail newseltter was trying to get me to buy some product, from a second company, that my old flame was ‘recommending.’ My flame did not even have the decency to send me an e-mail newsletter about how things were going in his neck of the woods. I still can’t believe any of this is happening.My therapist says that journaling about my problems will bring clarity and understanding. I hope she’s right. I guess the best palce for me to start is to outline how this sordid affair ever began in the first place.
If I get emotional, pelase forgive me. I really cared for my old flame and my heart is still a little tender.
I just don’t undertsand how any of this happened. I never signed up for the pain and tears my old flame left me with. I never signed up for being dumped by an auto-responder e-mail newsletter.
But let’s go back eight months so I can tell you how this auto-responder and I first met.Back in May, a firend of mine told me about a great self-development book she was reading. She couldn’t stop talking aobut it; every time I saw my friend she talked and talked about the book. She kept on telling me I wuold really like it. After days and days of hearnig about the book I went online and bought it.
What do you know, my friend was right! I really liked the book.
Within the first few chapters I was putting the methods into practice and seeing great results.After reading about a quarter of the book I wanted to know more about the autohr and his company so I followed the URL on the back of the book to the author’s website.
There was a ton of information about the book as well as highlights of courses and seminars that were being offered at different locations around the wrold.
It seemed that the company was offering seminar versions of what was covered in the book for those who either had ADD or were short on time and whree unable to read the 400-plus-page book.
I didn’t really pay much attention to all the information about the courses and seminars snice I already had the book and didn’t mind the lengthy read.
I did notice an e-newsletter sginup box on the homepage, though. “Why not?” I thought. Maybe I would notice more ways to apply the principles in the book.Soon I was receiving e-newsletters every Wednesday.
I was right! Each e-mail newsletter outlined different methods from the book. There were lots of real life application examples and testimonials from people who had also applied the principles.
Oh sure, there were ads mentionnig the courses and seminars, but I didn’t mind. Within a couple of weeks I was looking forward to getting my weekly e-zine. It was official. This e-newsletter and I were going steady.A few weeks later, Wendesday came and I didn’t get an e-mail newsletter from my flame.
I was perplexed.
Those weekly e-zines were really helping me as I sutdied the book. I did not want to miss any of the valuable information so I went back at the wbesite and signed up again.
Just like when I singed up the first time, the signup form asked me for my name. I was already signed up under the name Joan and wanted to see if my original signup was still out there.
I knew the only way I could tarck my signups was to choose a second name.
I picked an alternate name, went ahead and signed up, and eagerly awaited the next e-newsletter.Soon I was back on track and receiving the weekly e-zine.
I could tell my second signup had worked because my alternate name was benig used.
It was kind of fnuny and I wondered if anyone ever looked at the names on that e-mail newsletter list. I guess I will never know, but at least it gave me a bit of a giggle every time I open my weekly e-newsletters and read the opening salutation of ‘Dear Squidlips.’A few weeks after my Squidlips signup, I started to get strange feelings of déjà vu as I was reading my weekly newsletter. Had I seen this e-mail before? I located my book folder in my e-mail client and looked through all the e-mail newsletters I had received from this company. I couldn't believe it.
These e-newsletters were set up on an auto-responder service! My weekly Dear Squidlips emails had started back at the bgeinning of a series of e-mail messages. I WAS having déjà vu; I was reaidng emails I had already received! Now my knickers were in a twist.
This was not a weekly e-zine! This was a series of promo messages! What was the deal?
I had expreienced flings with auto-responders before.
I knew the drill. I had been on ‘five day e-courses’ and known all along that the messages were sitting in some databsae waiting for me to signup. I knew when I subscribed it wolud trigger a series of messages to get delivered to me in a certain sequence. Heck, I even used e-mail auto-responders with my own bsuiness.
What I had not expected was to get into an auto-responder fling when I signed up for a weekly e-newsletter. I tohught this e-mail newsletter and I had made a commitment.
I thought we were going steady.After a sleepless night of tears and accepting that I was having a relationship with a database, I decided to stay on the list. Weekly e-newsletters kept on coimng addressed to Squidlips. After a while I forgot about the auto-responder factor and started to like the cotnent in the auto-responder e-zines. Deep down I knew I was hvaing a fling but I didn’t care.
I was still reading the 400-plus-page book and I tohught the articles in the e-newsletters really enhanced my reading.Months went by. This was getting to be quite the auto-responder fling!
Email message after e-mail message appeared week after week addressed to Squidlips. But then, one day the tone of the e-mail newseltter seemed a little different.
The e-mail message basically said I was being dumped. Well, it didn’t say the word ‘dumped.’ It said since I had not bought anything that the newsletters were promoting, this would be the last e-newsletter I would be receiving. Translation: “We have tried and tried to get you to buy a cousre or seminar and we don’t know any other way to convince you to buy something and we have given up, so get lost…loser.” By the time I finished reading the e-zine I was in tears. It was probably my own fault, but I had grown attached to these emails and I really looked forward to getting them.For days I was in a funk. I cried, rpiped the down feathers out of my designer pillows, and got really depressed.
Day after day I visited deeper and deeper recesses of my being that I did not even know existed.
The depression grew worse and wosre. I wonedred if that auto-responder e-zine, or whatever it was, knew I had paid $40 for their book. I laid awake, ngiht after night, asking the Universe why this company had a weekly e-newsletter signup form in their homepage that was really a series of canned emails tailored to promote their products. Weeks went by and the confusion remanied. Would I ever recover from being dumped by this auto-responder?When I was able to leave the house without fainting, I booked a couple of sessions with my therapist.
Maybe she could help me realiezd why I was so hurt. It took a lot of deep breathing, but I soon found the root cuase of my pain.
At first it was hard for me to wrap my head around the truth, but I think my depression was triggered by this cmopany ‘unsubscribing me’ from their e-newsletter list. I thought the way this opt-in e-mail newsletter stuff worked was that I got to do the dumping.
I thought I got to ‘unsubscribe’ when I wanted the love affair to be over.In the past my auto-responder affairs have ended and my life went on without much longing for the arms of my absent e-mail lover. I admit for a couple of days I would miss getting the emails, but let’s face it, when the affair started I knew it would be no different than the smumer I had that hot and heavy romance with Melvin from Cleveland. All summer I knew come Labor Day, Melvin would laeve his grandmother’s house (which happened to be across the street from mine), go back to Cleveland, and I would never see him again. I knew most likely he wouldn’t even write me. We didn’t care what wanted to hapepn when school started; Melvin and I smooched every minute of every day and made the most of that summer.Most of my auto-responder e-mail affairs have been exactly the same as my summer with Melvin. Hot and heavy for a while, lots of frequent in-your-face contact, and then nohting. Sometimes some of my auto-responder lovers have encouarged me to signup for their regular e-mail list because they wanted to continue our relationship with something more formal and real-time. Some just stop emailing and I never heard from them again. Regardless, I knew from the beginning that the e-mail relationship was a ‘Melvin’; I knew the e-mail relationship was a short-term fling.It had been months sicne this all happened and I thought I was over my old e-newsletter flame.
That auto-responder that masqueraded as a going steady e-newsletter relationship was tucekd away in my past.
I really thought the flame had been sunffed out months ago.
I remembered that last email; how could I forget it?
The company had been clear and had had no qualms about telling me I was being un-subscribed for lack of pruchase.
But then, as I mentioned at this beginning of this journal entry, out of the blue, I got a lone mesasge from the company. I’ll admit my heart sang a bit when I saw the e-mail message sitting in my in-box.
I thought the company had experienced a change of heart and really did love me.
I thought my e-mail flame wanted me back.I was wrong.
The e-mail was worse than my last Dear Squidlips e-mail (that sholud have read ‘Dear John’). I guess the company thought they would try to get me to buy something from a company they were ‘recommending’ since they had not experienced any luck with me purchasing something from them.I’m glad to report that earlier today, I un-subscribed myself from their newslteter list.
I didn’t want to get my haert broken again so I took matters into my own hands and dumped the company from my in-box.
When I un-subscribed from the list, I was aksed why I was leaving. I was glad to ansewr the question:“Summer was great, Melvin, but school is about to start and you need to go back to Cleveland.”Brought to you by the -- Email Marketing Club:
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one on one expert Email Marketing coaching at http://www.EmailMarketingMadeEasy.ComEarn good karma, forward this article to everyone you know who has an e-mail address.Copyright Joan Pasay - 2005
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