The other day I heard an ad on the radio. It was some guy who made it rich through the stock market or something equally yawn-inducing (as the wife of a financial planner, I get my fair share of money talk on a regular basis so I’m allowed to be bored by this). Anyway, he was selling his get-rich-quick tips, and all you had to do to get them delivered straight to your inbox was call him and leave your email address on his voicemail.
Huh?
You read that right. I thought I misheard it at first, too. But then I heard the commercial again later that day and again this morning, and sure enough, this guy was asking listeners to call him and leave him a message giving him your email address.
This is wrong on so many levels, I don’t even know where to begin.
Fine, I’ll start with mixing methods of communication. It reminds me of the scene from “He’s Just Not That Into You” where Drew Barrymore’s character says that she waits by her home phone for a guy to call, then she checks her Blackberry, then the email on her computer dings, then she returns the message via MySpace…it’s really too confusing to follow. And with good reason. It is absurd.
If you want someone to give you their EMAIL ADDRESS, then you can ask them to either EMAIL YOU DIRECTLY or GO TO A WEBSITE AND SUBSCRIBE. I mean, why not just give everyone listening to Sirius/XM Radio your home address and tell them to pay you a personal visit so that you can send them an email. Yeah, that makes sense.
Secondly, why make your audience remember a phone number when it’s completely easier to memorize a good URL? I’ve now heard the ad at least three times; I definitely have no idea what the phone number is, and I’m not even sure what he’s selling or what the name of his business is (if he even has one).
If you like this post, please send me a snail mail postcard with a smiley face on it, and I will Skype you to ask you to what you liked about it. Then you can send me a telegram listing those things, and then I will post them on Facebook. Sound good? Super.
