It has been about a year since I have written in my blog. My last post was about brands dealing with the very beginning of the pandemic and I think it was just difficult to want to talk about marketing with all of the more important things going on in the world. I unsubscribed from so many different email lists this year because I wasn’t going anywhere and getting constant email about delivery deals and store closings made my overflowing promotional email tab a bigger burden than a joy. But today I got a pair of emails that made me smile and I wanted to talk about them.

It’s a known thing in email marketing that “oops” and apology emails have better click-rates and response-rates than the email they are set to correct. (Here’s a good blog on the subject from Emfluence)

Knowing this has made me skeptical when I encounter one in my inbox. “Is this a real mistake or are they going for a fake-apology for clicks?”

It’s not a good idea but I have definitely seen it used over the years. Faking a mistake can damage brand trust. Some people will only see the mistake and not the apology. Others will only see the apology and not the mistake. It’s a delicate balance to strike. 

 

So back to the set of emails that made me smile.

Pack Up + Go bills itself as a surprise travel agency. You book a trip without knowing all of the details and you just… go. It’s one of those things I wanted to do pre-pandemic and may be one of the first things I plan for when the world isn’t so unpredictable safety-wise.

This morning they sent this email with the subject line:

That email made it to my update tab. It was confusing enough of a subject line that gmail believed it was actually a confirmation of having booked a trip. I knew that wasn’t possible so hadn’t been concerned it had charged me anything but I did think to myself that other people might not realize that…

About an hour later, it was followed by the following apology email.

 

I smiled because it reminded me why I liked writing about my promotional emails in the first place. 

Was this a planned mistake? I really couldn’t say. 

Was it a really good pair of subject lines that went to two different tabs of my inbox? Yes.

And the apology was pretty good too.

It also reminded me about a brand I hadn’t thought about in a while and made me think about a future where travel is a real possibility for me again. So many people are acting as if the pandemic is already over but we have a ways to go yet. It was nice to think about something “normal” for the first time in a while. 🙂