It's just lazy marketing isn't it? I recently got an email from a company who I'd purchased from some weeks ago and they'd even spelt their own company name incorrectly! There's just no excuse.

What a pity we are all too busy worrying about the return of a campaign, we cannot take five minutes to write some comprehensible copy. I remember Ed Weatherall saying in a recent Blog, ‘we all have to work towards a deadline but let’s make sure that quality doesn’t suffer because of it’.

It’s no excuse but responsibilities for marketers have sprouted and spread like spinach (anyone who has grown the stuff will know exactly what I mean). We’re expected to understand and exploit Social Media, implement SEO/PPC, market on a shoestring, create, design and broadcast dazzling campaigns, monitor everything that moves within a 300 mile radius of our desks, pillow talk with our customers, sleep with prospects and that’s just on a Thursday!

Richard’s answer is to ‘pay a professional’; however, I’m sure that most of us don’t have the budget for such a luxury. I hold my hands up to poor spelling and grammar but just so you know, I’m currently hopping on one leg, juggling 7 balls, balancing a rabbit on my head while I fight off the blood sucking hounds that want more of my budget.

For me the Yahoo! Email is less about the way it is written, which from my perspective is horrendous; not great admittedly, but the length of it. I was always told to test an advert using the age old AIDA acronym. Surely Yahoo! Wouldn't send out a letter or place an advert with the way they have laid out their email. Even if it means limiting the user acceptance of the email, is it not better that the email looked inviting to read, people expect much more these days, and that email just doesn't cut it.

Good point Richard. How would you spell that out for international marketers going after non-native speakers? Do you think the marketing community does (or should) make allowances in that case?

Richard,

Forget all of the poor wording, etc. and realize that the real crime here is that it's not clear what the purpose of the email is!

A couple of reads leaves me with the impression that Yahoo UK is trying to boost sales by letting you know that they've lower their prices. However, this was hard to understand and it took reading all the way to the 3rd paragraph to "get it".

Clearly the wrong person wrote this email. Technically they got it right; however, they blew it when to came to writing a letter that "sells".

- Dr. Jim Anderson
The Accidental PM Blog
"Home Of The Billion Dollar Product Manager"
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You'r absolutely right Richard. I feel more and more a sign of the times.