You are damaging the brand you purport to serve. There’s no softer way of putting it.
Just when a potential customer has landed at your brand’s website, you pop up.
Before they can get the answer to the question that brought them there. Before they can envision themselves owning the product. Before they can engage with the brand, you interrupt them.
Just as they’re about to tap on the detail they’re seeking, you get between them and what they want. Why?
You ostensibly offer them something of value: 15% off ain’t nothin’. But there are strings attached, aren’t there? Before they can give you their money in exchange for the goods they seek, you ask them to give you their soul. Or at least their email address. Sometimes even their digits.
You do more than merely disrupt their flow. You make them think about things that are steps removed from making a purchase. “Do I really want this company sending me emails? Do I want constant reminders in my inbox of the time I traded it for a discount? Am I ready for this kind of relationship? Or do I just want a funny tee shirt?”
(We’ll stipulate that your securing their permission to spam them does indeed create a relationship—if you’ll admit that it’s a transactional one.)
No doubt you’ve got reams of data showing how effective you are. The sales are attributable. Lots of people hand over their vitals to pay 85 cents on the dollar. And some of them even come back thanks to the emails you bombard them with.
But a lot of them tap that X in the upper right corner, don’t they? A lot of them unsubscribe to the emails, right? Sometimes right away.
You’re not just cheapening the product, you’re cheapening your brand. Worse, you make the buyer feel cheap, like a one night stand who they’d rather forget but keep running into at yoga class.
Every marketing text becomes a reminder of a compromise they made in a moment of impulse or desperation. You’re still sliding into their DMs, but they’re not getting 15% off anymore. They come to realize you just used them to get into their inbox for a quick buck.
In addition to self-selecting for low-value discount seekers, you create bad behavior and low expectations among high-value customers. Having traded something of real value—their personal information—it feels like a ripoff to pay full fare.
This isn’t to say that the occasional well-timed discount to clear out last season’s inventory isn’t without use. Nor that performance marketing has run its course. But, to flip roles in the one night stand metaphor, when your brand’s opening line is “I’m easy,” it’s hard to respect it. When you pop up even before the drinks are ordered, you send a signal about your brand. And it’s not, “I’m worth it.”
Maybe this all sounds like the ranting of a prudish luddite. But consider:
- More than 65% of shoppers abandon forms asking for personal info pre-purchase
- More than 70% of carts get abandoned before checkout
- Email lists built from organic engagement (not incentivized sign-ups) have 30% higher open rates and 45% better retention
So, on behalf of the brands you’ve convinced to let you debase them in the name of “performance,” do us a favor: tap your own “No Thanks” button and let us buy our graphic tees and jars of chili crunch without the interruption.
Maybe come back as a bonus for those who’ve shown some affinity for your brand and are exhibiting behaviors that suggest they’re ready for a deeper relationship. A little nudge in the cart, for instance, where they’re about to give you their digits anyway, might reduce the 70% abandonment rate
And to those brands you’ve already lured, it’s not too late. We’ll respect you more when you start respecting yourself again.
