The Rise of Automated Pestering: When Marketing Goes Too Far

15 Votes

2024-09-23 Published, 2024-11-27 Updated
312 Words, 2 Minute Read

Richard (Senior Partner)

Richard has been with the firm since 1992 and was one of the founding partners

Introduction

Anyone who's ever filled in a contact form, or enquiry, or registered with a service that offers paid solutions will be familiar with automated pestering, that is, the relentless spam either reminding you to get in touch, or providing incentives for signing up.

I have personally experienced a massive growth in automated hassle over the last few years, and quite frankly it's annoying. I'm going to provide two recent examples of this, and I will be including email content in this article, but it's important to understand that these are singled out specifically, they are simply recent and yet to be deleted.

Bark

Bark is a platform for connecting suppliers with consumers, and it's not free. It is free to register and list your company, but if you want to do business then you need 'credits' which are consumed with each deal, successful or not.

This isn't a new idea, with platforms like applegate and upwork being around for a while, but it's a lucrative venture since there is zero risk for the platform, and all the risk on the suppliers.

Regardless, this isn't about the business model, it's about the automated pestering, so here it is:

+2 days - 50% off first credit pack.
+5 days - 50% off first credit pack.
+6 days - 50% off first credit pack.
+10 days - You didn't buy our credits - survey.
+18 days - Summary - 5 leads, no responses.
+19 days - 100% free extra credits.
+28 days - The offer that beats all others, still 100% extra credits.
+32 days - 100% free extra credits.
+36 days - Don't miss out, claim your double credits before it expires.
+38 days - 24 Hour flash sale, 50% off.
+40 days - We've teamed up with Revolut....
+44 days - win a £1,000 voucher
+46 days - 5 free leads each month when you try Elite pro
+50 days - Fancy 100% extra free credits on your first credit pack?
+60 days - Bet you weren't expecting this, <-- I was
+65 days - The click is ticking

So as we can see this is clearly automated, and you can tell that from the very basic layout of each email, with slightly varying content all promoting the varying discounts on credit packs.

Axowa

This lead provider was contacted a couple of months ago to get pricing, a simple enough phone call and at the time we said we'd consider it and come back to them. As you can already guess, it wasn't that simple.

+7 days - I emailed you a few days ago about xxx leads, but didn't hear back from you...
+20 days - You contacted us a while ago about xxx leads. Are you still in the market for xxx leads or any other kind of leads?
+22 days - I emailed you a few days ago about xxx leads, but didn't hear back from you...
+38 days - xxx Leads?
+40 days - Re: xxx Leads?
+55 days - xxx Leads?
+57 days - Re: xxx Leads?

Well, same pestering, different company. The email content is essentially the same, alternating between two terse email's with the usual 'didn't hear back from you' trigger lines. Does this work for anyone? seriously. At this point the email is blocked at the gateway, but I've no doubt it will continue in silence.

Reddit

Yes, indeed even Reddit, the platform that despises spam, is responsible for spam, so here it is.

+1 day - We’ve helped businesses not only launch successfully but provide the support to optimize and grow their campaigns.
+9 days - I tried calling you to discuss your business goals but I couldn’t reach you.
+18 days - To kick this off, we start off with a call to understand your business and goals. Do you have time to meet this week?
+26 days - Just making sure you’re the right person to talk with about your Reddit Ads account? Let me know if there’s someone else at your company that would be a better fit.
+36 days - Re: I'm your Reddit POC, Need Help?
+38 days - Re: I'm your Reddit POC, Need help?
+46 days - Company & Reddit Ads
+60 days - Re: Company & Reddit Ads

I suspect these will continue for some time to come, unfortunately, and no, I won't be talking to Belk about Reddit advertising, because you're annoying.

Does this work?

I would say no, I was actually quite interested in exploring 'bark' before the spam started, and likewise axowa.com were on the list before the automated spam started, but surely I must be the exception here?

If automated pestering didn't work, then why would they do it?

The research suggests that there is a sweet point at 2 or 3 follow-up emails (note; follow-up, not pestering), with the first follow-up increasing response rates by 22% (Source: Ignotionapp - a provider of pestering).

Saleshandy.com, suggests that you should wait 3-5 days before the first follow-up, and that each follow-up should provide new relevant information, and the limit should be 3 follow-ups.

Given that, bark.com are clearly off the list and the only reason I haven't blocked them was to curate this email. They are now blocked. Reddit is also blocked, simply because I don't need their pestering email's, and actually I don't need Reddit, but its a nice resource to have.

Red Flags

It seems that there are some 'phrases' that just annoy the chuff out of most people, yet we see these repeatidly in pestering, I'm talking about...

Any updates on this
As per my last email
Didn't hear back from you
Hope you're well
I hope you're doing well
Just checking in
Just checking in on the status of this
Just looping in
Per our conversation
Please advise
Please feel free to reach out
Regarding your last email
Thanks in advance
You're the right person

Seriously, many of these are scored badly in the spam engine, and are just plainly annoying.

Conclusion

Automated pestering is a growing trend in marketing, and whilst the evidence from the providers of such services seems to suggest it improves response, I'm not sure if it does. For me, specifically, it annoys me when I get spam chasing up a response to something I've already dealt with, or don't have any need to pursue right now, and those who do, get added to the spam list meaning that if I contact them again in the future, I won't get any replies and surely that's counter-productive.

Another issue is that a lot of this automated pestering is operated from several providers who have had their email servers added to spam blacklists, meaning that many more companies are probably trying to pester me, but I won't receive them. This is clearly an unwanted by-product of pestering, and is scales quickly.

Companies who want to automate the pestering should consider that annoying potential customers will not always be beneficial no matter what providers say. At GEN, we accept enquiries from many sources online and over the phone, but we only automatically send an email once, and that is to acknowledge the enquiry and provide a full list of contact information, and because we take GDPR seriously, after 90 days with no further contact we purge the enquiry from the system.

I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on the matter?

15 Votes

Comments (1)

Sally X · 2024-09-24 12:57 UTC
I think theres some merit in sending one followup, but I think after that its a diminishing return. I too get quickly annoyed with Just checking.. and Please advise.. and I do add them to the spam folder. I also note that very few have any real way to unsubscribe from the spam even though its an automated system and should have 1 click unsubscribe - maybe thats why they get spam flagged