Need someone to lead product management at your software company? I create software for people that create software and I'm looking for my next opportunity. Check out my resume and get in touch.

Refreshing permission

Freshness Warning
This blog post is over 20 years old. It's possible that the information you read below isn't current and the links no longer work.

19 Jun 2003

I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a marketing email from Buy.com before, despite having been a customer there for four years. Today I got a message saying that they want to start sending out notices of sales and promotions and that if I give them permission to send me email, they’ll send me a coupon.

They understood that permission goes stale and used a good tactic to re-aqcuire my permission. The message was short (only five sentences), told me exactly when I registered as a customer (April 27, 1999 at 2:27pm), and gave me a reason to give them permission (a discount coupon).

Nice job, Buy.com.

Phillip Harrington
June 19, 2003 8:40 PM

Agreed. Good job on their part. Just another example how a little creativity and honesty can go a long way to separate your marketing message from the others in a person's in box.

Erik
June 21, 2003 7:14 AM

I received the same email. I haven't made a purchase from them in over 2 years and now that I think about it, I don't think I've received an email from them in about that same time. It was a well worded email and got straight to the point. It got me to sign up just to see what deals they may give me.

jennie
July 25, 2003 2:12 PM

that's interesting -- i've never purchased anything from Buy.com, yet i've been receiving coupons, newsletters, etc., from them for years.

This discussion has been closed.

Recently Written

Too Big To Fail (Apr 9)
When a company piles resources on a new product idea, it doesn't have room to fail. That keeps it from succeeding.
Go small (Apr 4)
The strengths of a large organization are the opposite of what makes innovation work. Starting something new requires that you start with a small team.
Start with a Belief (Apr 1)
You can't use data to build products unless you start with a hypothesis.
Mastery doesn’t come from perfect planning (Dec 21)
In a ceramics class, one group focused on a single perfect dish, while another made many with no quality focus. The result? A lesson in the value of practice over perfection.
The Dark Side of Input Metrics (Nov 27)
Using input metrics in the wrong way can cause unexpected behaviors, stifled creativity, and micromanagement.
Reframe How You Think About Users of your Internal Platform (Nov 13)
Changing from "Customers" to "Partners" will give you a better perspective on internal product development.
Measuring Feature success (Oct 17)
You're building features to solve problems. If you don't know what success looks like, how did you decide on that feature at all?
How I use OKRs (Oct 13)
A description of how I use OKRs to guide a team, written so I can send to future teams.

Older...

What I'm Reading

Contact

Adam Kalsey

+1 916 600 2497

Resume

Public Key

© 1999-2024 Adam Kalsey.