Lots of Women’s Emails From Nordstrom’s

This is a tale about how to annoy email subscribers and encourage them to opt-out.

I signed up for Nordstrom Rack’s email list last year after I bought a couple of shirts from them.

Men’s shirts (I’m a man).

Since then, I’ve received almost-daily emails from Nordstrom’s. Eighty percent of the emails peddle women’s products.

Intimate apparel: “Enhance your favorite assets.”

Dresses: “Breezy silhouettes that are always in bloom.”

And handbags. So many friggin’ handbags!

Dooney & Bourke handbags two weeks ago. Rebecca Minkoff handbags last week. And Kate Spade handbags yesterday — TWICE.

10 a.m.: The “Online Flash Event” for Kate Spade handbags (“Bring A Little Fun With You Wherever You Go.”).

5 p.m.: “The kate spade new york Event ends soon.”

I’m finished with the breezy, bloomy, asset-enhancing emails. I’ve opted-out.

So what’s this mean for you?

Don’t make the same mistake Nordstrom’s made. Don’t send everything to everybody every time.

If you’re going to send an email that resonates with only a segment of your audience, send it only to that segment.

Nordstrom, should know I’m a man. They can check their sales logs. I buy only men’s products. They can mine third-party data. They’ll see that the guy named “Thomas Ruwitch” with the credit card they have on file, with the address they have on file is, in fact, a man.

So they can put me in the “interested in men’s stuff” bucket. And, please(!), take me out of the “interested in women’s stuff” bucket.

Clients tell me all the time that they’re afraid of sending too many emails.

Too many emails is not the reason people opt-out.

Frequency is not the issue. Irrelevance is the issue.

If you pound the inbox with emails that are not relevant to your subscribers, they’ll stop opening your emails.

Or they’ll opt-out.

Or, worse yet, they’ll click the “this is spam” button even if they originally opted in.

It’s easier than you many think to segment your list and send the right information to the right people at the right time.

Check out the p.s. below and sign up for one of our webinars if you’d like to learn how…