I was skimming through my online marketing inbox and it gave me this post idea. I thought, “why not show everyone the awful marketing emails I get in my inbox daily? Let’s show them examples of bad email marketing.”
This inbox is different from my spam inbox.
I have one of those too. I don’t look in there often. I really don’t need $10,000,000 from a Nigerian prince, thanks.
No, the inbox I’m talking about is one that I purposely set up so that I could sign up for marketing emails.
Why would I torture myself that way?
Well, I consider it my job.
I take a look at spammy programs (and good ones too) and let you know all about it.
This inbox is one I set up to look for programs to review. It’s how I’ve been able to compile this list of reviews.
So…
I thought it would be fun to show you the absolutely terrible ways that people use email marketing sometimes.
Let’s dig into this!
(P.S. I clear this box out every couple of days. I currently have 400 emails in there.)
Bad Email Example #1 – Cancellation Notice
This is the first email in my inbox, and it doesn’t disappoint. The subject line is, “Cancellation Notice” and that’s supposed to scare me, I suppose.
Let’s take a look at what this email says:
What happens when I click on the links?
UGH.
It goes to Explode My Payday, which is a low-quality program that I did a review on some time ago.
Where’s my bonus like the email offered?
Oh right. That email was just completely made up (as they pretty much all are).
Bad Email Example #2 – Take my hand, my whole life too
This email starts with a little ode to Elvis.
When you click on the link, here’s what happens:
To be honest, I’ve never clicked on one of these notifications coming off of a scammy marketing email. I’ve been too afraid.
So, let’s do it together.
It’ll be a learning experience for both of us!
After I allowed notifications (I’ll immediately need to learn how to disable those!), I was redirected to a new page with a new notification. And I now have to enter my email again.
After that, I was not only redirected to ANOTHER window with another notification request, but a completely different window also opened up with another freaking notification request. I mean, who the hell wants to jump through all these hoops? What are these marketers thinking??!
OK, now we’re in this process, so let’s keep going.
The first window finally redirected me to something “real” called the Tier 5 Partnership Program.
Interesting. I’ll have to look into that one.
The 2nd window opened up ANOTHER window with another notification request.
I clicked allow and it just opened up another window with another notification request. OK, I’m going to call that one a dead end.
Meanwhile, one of the windows opened up another window with one of these dumb surveys.
I just clicked the first button, and it redirected me to a website that looks to be a low-quality blog, so I’m not sure of the point of all that.
The whole reason I wanted to do this post is because I wanted to show you how terrible and how ridiculous email marketing and online marketing can be.
This is a guide in what NOT to do.
Bad Email Example #3 – Is This Still Your Best Email Address?
Maria is someone who shows up in my regular email inbox, which really annoys me. I let it go through in case she gives me something juicy to review.
The problem is, it’s almost always the same program. I’ll show you in a sec.
This is what the email says:
Maria wants me to confirm my email address. But when I do, it goes to this:
Millionaire Biz Pro. It’s always Millionaire Biz Pro. I’m so tired of seeing this one, I wish Maria would switch it up a little. And in case you’re wondering, I did a Millionaire Biz Pro review too.
And in case you’re wondering and don’t feel like reading that review, it’s also a low-quality product that I would recommend you avoid.
Bad Email Example #4 – Your payment #42414446474 has been received
Here’s another tricky email. They put in the subject line that your payment has been received. Of course, any curious person wants to see exactly what they paid when they don’t remember ordering anything!
Here’s the email looks like:
And what happens when you click on the links?
Is a receipt confirmed??
Absolutely not.
You’re sent to a squeeze page where you need to enter your email so you can get even more bad examples of email marketing.
Yay.
For “fun”, I entered my email, and it directed me to a sales video.
Well, at least I have more programs to take a look at and review.
Put this one on my list!
Bad Email Example #5 – I have a DELIVERY that was meant for YOU
Do people really fall for this type of thing? Do they really think there’s a delivery meant for them, so they click on the link and then they’re sucked into the sales video that’s presented and they just *have* to buy it?
I really don’t understand how this type of marketing works?
Are there that many gullible people out there, or are these email marketers actually failing and losing money on leads that get them nowhere? (My guess is #2 which is why people don’t think affiliate marketing and online marketing don’t work. They’re doing it the wrong way.)
OK, let’s take a look at this email:
The good news is that when I click on these links, it just takes me directly to the sales page of a program. I didn’t have to jump through 52 hoops to get somewhere.
The bad news is that it takes me to a scam program called Profit Point Autonomy.
You can read all about why I think Profit Point Autonomy is a scam here if you’d like.
Let’s just say that it’s a low-quality product and whoever is behind it will take your money and run. No refunds for you!
Bad Email # 6 – Congrats! You’re Hired! Can You Start Immediately?
OK, this is one that I truly hate.
I cannot stand when these marketers make it seem like you’ve been hired for a real job. I think that’s the sneakiest and slimiest of all tactics.
The thing is, the people that these marketers target are generally people who are desperate for money. So I think it’s really low to trick them into thinking they got a job and then to send them off to some dumb marketing ploy that will just waste more of their money.
Let’s take a look at this email:
Martha first tells us that we’re hired, then tells us that she’s going to show us thousands of online jobs we can start right away.
Uh-huh, sure Jan.
When clicking on the link, of course, I go to a squeeze page where I need to enter my email again.
When I enter my email, it takes me on one of those endless cycles like we’ve already seen with bad email example #2. First, it shows me I can spin a wheel for a prize, but when I click on it, it takes me to a page where I have to enter my email again. Meanwhile, another tab has opened where I’m supposed to enter my email again.
Yea, no thanks!
Bad Email #7 – Alright. Okay.
Let’s take a look at one more email. We’ll end it at lucky #7. That’s the actual subject line of this email. There’s HTML code in the subject line.
These marketers care so little about anything.
Here’s what this email says:
I’ve gotten a ton of these types of emails lately and they all take me to the same squeeze page:
Where does this squeeze page go?
Let’s find out!
It takes me to another squeeze page.
How do these marketers not see how completely frustrating this is to the end-user?
Although, I know the answer.
They don’t care.
They only care about $$$$.
I entered my email address again, and it says that a video was sent to my email.
I click on the link in the new email that was sent to me, and I finally get to a real program.
This one is for 12 Minute Affiliate, which is not a terrible program, but dang. It was too much of a pain to get there!
I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted!
What a pain these emails are!
Learn Online & Email Marketing the Right Way
I could probably show you 431 examples of bad email marketing (that’s how many are in my inbox right now), but we’d be here for a few days.
I think you get the point.
Examples of bad email marketing include emails that:
- Trick
- Deceive
- Are from unknown users
- Have very little information in them
- Have links to unknown places
- Tell you you’ve been hired
I know you know what these emails look like. I’m talking to you about this from a marketer’s point of view. You may get down the road in your online marketing career and you may be tempted to do this kind of email marketing because some program told you this was the best way to do it.
Maybe this kind of marketing works to some extent. Although, I have no idea how. Who wants to constantly be dealing with push notifications and entering your email address again and again….?
In any case, as with anything in life, there’s a wrong way to do things and a right way to do things. I recommend you learn how to do things the right way for long-lasting success.
These marketers that junk up our inboxes might get a few initial sales, but they’re not making money long-term. If you want to learn how to grow your income the right way by using methods that work consistently over time, then check out my review on my #1 recommendation on learning how to earn an income online.
(They have training on email marketing too!)
Conclusion
I really hope these examples of bad email marketing really helped to open your eyes to what NOT to do. If you see an email and you immediately think “spam”, it’s probably not a good idea to copy that method. lol
Again, these methods might work in the short-term (the VERY short-term), but this isn’t a money-making method that’s sustainable. Yes, the money is in the list, but you need to treat your list kindly, and not like an ATM machine.
It will pay off far more in the future.
P.S. I started this post last night and when I woke up this morning, this is what I see when I open my computer:
Remember all of those notifications that I allowed? Here they are! If this happens to you, you just hit “Settings”, then for each URL that you allowed, there are three little dots on the right side. Click on those, and there will be an option to remove the URL.