The Labour Party is obsessed with me. No, really! Their people won’t leave me alone…
In the last two weeks Labour HQ has emailed three times to flog me tea towels (I kid you not), Ed Miliband has dropped me a line to ask me to ask him a question, Ed Balls has added to my inbox with notes on how crap George Osborne is and a bloke called David Cameron, a Labour Party supporter, has taken the trouble to write to say ‘Hey, my name’s David Cameron and I’m voting Labour!’ – this along with daily emails reminding me that an election is fast approaching…
Now, I like a tea towel as much as the next man, I’m curious to know if Ed Miliband has a brother called Glen, I’m no fan of George Osborne, find unlikely names fun: Nora Carrat, Nathan Fawkes, Chris P Bacon etc, and would hate to miss election day through forgetfulness, but I really don’t want to receive emails twice a day from a political party.
So, I opted out of all Labour Party emails. I’m sure that’s not what Labour Party HQ was hoping for but it’s running an email campaign at screaming overkill level and I won’t be the only one to unsubscribe.
When managing an email campaign, you have to show a little respect for your subscribers. Remember, you’ve been invited to share your news with them so don’t take advantage and overdo it. If you do, they’ll vote with their unsubscribe buttons.
It’s a bit like when a friend gets dumped. You feel for him, take him for a pint, listen to him, say ‘there are plenty more fiddles in the drawer’ and offer a shoulder to cry on. But then he calls around the next evening, so you go through the same routine: pub, listen, fiddles, shoulder… Then the following evening he turns up and you go for a swift half, listen less, stringed instruments are barely mentioned and there’s distinctly less sympathy. The following evening he rocks up and you don’t answer the door.
Don’t be the jilted John everyone tries to avoid. By all means, stay in touch, particularly if you have something interesting to convey but don’t test your subscribers’ patience. You’ll lose them.
Up the Greens!