Some people just don’t get it.
CITI sent me an invite to a Telecoms & OSS Event in the form of an HTML email with an MS Word attachment. Am I the only person that sees the paradox here. Muppets.
The email includes links to some CRM website, so I figure they must have given their email marketing some thought. They just overlooked the basics.. who do you want to reach?.
While we’re at it…
The ISPA also annoy me. They send emails to invite me to ISPA general meetings, asking me to RSVP.. but, they don’t include the agenda or list of topics to be discussed. How can I RSVP if it could be a total waste of 2 hours. I’ve asked them to include the agenda in the RSVP request. Seems my feedback goes to /dev/null and they keep doing it their way.
Because I think the work CITI does is important and I appreciate the venue CITI and the BWB provide to WAPA, WordPress Cape Town and SPIN, I’ll give them some hints on how to improve their marketing:
- Don’t send HTML / MS Word emails, just don’t.
- Include the agenda and list of speakers from the start, we’re busy people, you get one chance.
- Figure out who you want to reach and put yourself in their shoes before you send something.
- Don’t “push” too much. Send one email.
- Use your website as your primary marketing resource (not MS Word). List events there. Make it useful. Keep it accurate.
- Get an RSS/ATOM feed, so I can “pull” and you don’t have to “push”.
- Your website sucks, but I’m not going to go into that now.
I agree with you. I also find CITI’s meetings quite dull and unexciting. It seems that they either don’t understand their target audience, or don’t know their target audience. I also think they push too much, not only with the ‘marketing’, but also some of the topics they want to cover. I think they should also get more involved with other communities in Cape Town. Cape Town is in many ways turning more and more into a free culture hub in Africa. If CITI doesn’t adapt to the new ways that people are innovating, people will just lose more and more interest.
Hey Jonathan
Well put.
It’s hard to keep track of all the geeky events these days. A very diverse set of groups. I discovered another interesting one today. More about that in the next post.