The Email Wars

I am a big fan of preference centers… when they are actually used. This example from Nordstroms is one that pains me as I had removed myself from their lists a few years back due to getting emails only for women. The fact that is killing me is that they have a profile management center where I selected ONLY men’s clothing emails. And still every other day I get emails selling women’s targeted items.

This is truly frustrating from a consumer experience and I wanted to find out if it was just me. So I picked up the phone and called some other guys I know and found a few that had subscribed to Nordstroms emails. They reported the same exact thing that I was finding. A few of them had unsubscribed just as I had before as they got tired of getting irrelevant emails.

Take a look at the profile center. It is well done, clear and sets the expectation as to what I am going to get in my inbox. Too bad that they are not delivering on it.

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If you are using a subscription center in your email opt in programs, deliver on what people are asking to receive. The worst thing that you can do it send things that they do not want. And in this case, I have seen my Nodstroms card bill and I know that they carry plenty of men’s clothes and have more than enough to share with men.