You’re Not The First And Won’t Be The Last
Many of us have experienced that sinking feeling of dread when we first realise our subscribers have been sent email newsletters by accident. Perhaps it wasn’t ready, had mistakes, or even more disturbing, your campaign of 20 scheduled emails that were supposed to be sent over the course of a year… has all been sent at once!
What you do next can be a defining moment in the relationship you have with your subscribers.
Here is the action plan I’ve used before on behalf of my clients when we have been faced with these email newsletter accidents. It may not be appropriate for every situation, but it’s an excellent place to start if you’re looking for a solution.
1. Control – Cooler Heads Will Prevail
Take a breath, stay calm and get ready to take action. Accept that the accident has occurred and while you can’t change that, you can control what comes next. Focus on taking control of the situation with your subscribers satisfaction as the priority.
2. Contain – Make Sure It’s Not Still Happening
You need to assess how the accidental emails were sent ASAP. In the event you find It’s part of some automated system that is still sending out emails, you should disable it so it doesn’t keep sending even more to your subscribers. By turning off the tap, you stop the email flood from getting any worse and effectively contain the situation.
3. Identify – Make A List Of Those Affected
It might be everyone on your mailing list or just a subset; either way, you need to know who has been affected. These are the subscribers to whom you need to make amends. The last thing you want to do is distract subscribers who were not affected by the email newsletter accident.
4. Respond – Own Up To The Accident And Send An Apology
Your subscriber’s time and privacy should be of paramount importance. Sending an email shortly after the incident with a clear subject heading like “Sorry, we sent you emails by mistake“ gives you the opportunity to take ownership of the error and reaffirm your commitment to using their information appropriately.
Calmly explain in your own voice that there was a mistake made in your email system that caused the subscriber to receive emails they shouldn’t have. Give as much detail as you feel is appropriate, if it was a human error then you can admit to it and say you’ll review your procedures so this doesn’t happen again.
Most importantly, make sure you directly apologise to your subscribers for any inconvenience this has caused and reassure them their time and privacy are very important to you.
Show Your Subscribers How Much They Mean To You
Your Subscribers should never feel like they are just a name on a list you incessantly spam trying to generate revenue.
Now everyone makes mistakes, but if you demonstrate the courage to take responsibility, willingness to do better, and are on top of the problem, most people will not only accept that, but you’ll potentially improve your subscriber sentiment towards you and your brand.
You could even take it a step further and give them a discount or some other token of apology to show how much you value them. Who knows, you may actually turn this situation into a new sale.
5. Shake it off, but learn from the mistake
Making a mistake like this can be heartbreaking, but being decisive, apologetic and transparent should help convince the majority of subscribers that they can still trust you, and not unsubscribe. You may even impress a few once you demonstrate how important their privacy and time are to you.
So move forward and accept that this sort of thing happens to the best of us. An important takeaway is to identify how and why this mistake occurred and that you take steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again. This could be a change in your processes, better planning, maybe a Quality Assurance checklist before every campaign delivery, or even simply being more mindful that mistakes with email campaigns can have a high price – so take your time to do it right.
If you need help with email newsletter solutions like Mailchimp, Active Campaign etc, or need advice handling a tricky situation like this one, check out Adeptive.
