Good morning, Marketer, here are some more digital marketing bloopers. A few weeks ago, I mentioned Amtrak bombarding my social channels with ads for rail journeys just because I had bought a round trip to Boston. An odd allocation of dollars given that if I took a trip outside the Metro North region it would really have to be with Amtrak. More recently, I bought a ticket online for a movie at Lincoln Center in New York. In the following days I was flooded by digital promotions for…the same movie. My best guess is that the system for tracking what I’m researching online and the system for tracking what I purchase are on different figurative planets. On Black Friday I went shopping at a digital-first bath products retailer. I have been buying from them for years, so I am on their list and rightly so. Since the purchase, I’ve received three or four times the usual volume of email from them. Maybe those emails are better targeted at former customers who haven’t purchased in a while, or, of course, at cart abandoners. Having stopped by and done my holiday shopping, I am done for the year. Always remember, sending emails may be cheap, but unsubscribing from email lists is free. Kim Davis, Editorial Director |