A few months ago I started getting a bunch of junk Spam messages. All the messages had the same subject line. Thinking that the emails were hocking cheap Ritalin, I left them in my Spam filter and continued with my daily tasks. Besides, my ADHD was
under control with my five Starbucks lattes-a-day personal remedy. Within seconds, I totally forgot about the Spam messages.
When I was doing my up my Christmas list a few weeks later, I got to my Dad's name and thought, Dad is pushing eighty, I wonder if he might like some Viagra as a stocking stuffer? I suddenly remembered all those Ritalin emails. Maybe the online drug shops had a whole variety of pharmaceuticals other than Ritalin, and I could get a great deal on my Dad's Viagra.
I went back to my Spam filter and searched for all the messages with that same subject line. They weren't hard to find, the subject was only one word
Whoops!
But there was no Viagra to be found. No Ritalin for that matter either. What a rip! Now what would I get my Dad for Christmas?
To make matters even worse, I realized all those Spam emails with the Whoops! subject line weren't Spam at all. They were a whack of messages from a whole bunch of email lists I actually subscribe to. It seems a Whoops! message is a legitimate message that really means,
I made a mistake, check within for details.
All my 'Whoops! email messages detailed URLs that had been mistyped, web addresses that had been moved, wrong dates, wrong product prices, incorrect phone numbers and a whole variety of other issues all covered under the subject line Whoops!
I even had one message that had Double Whoops! as a subject line since this was the second email message from the sam.company in a two-day time period that was riddled with errors.
I don't know if Whoops! is the greatest way to admit you made an error. How many people even have Whoops! in their active vocabulary? I wonder what else might be a more effective email newsletter subject line when a mistake has been made?
- "Whoopsy daisy" No, too, childish.
- "My parents are cousins, I can't help it!" No, too personal.
- Gall darn it, dagnamit, another error! No, your subscribers will think you need a few sessions of anger therapy.
- Sorry, I am too cheap to get an editor No, that is what your subscribers will think, but it probably isn't the greatest option for your subject line.
Maybe:
=Sincerest apologies, URL error in [insert newsletter name here]
=Sorry to have wasted your time, telephone number error
=We will try harder next time, pricing error in [insert newsletter name here]
I asked a few business associates what they thought of the Whoops! subject line. They all agreed it sounded like someone attempting to be 'down home' and trying to appear like a bumbling friend instead of a business who is having some difficulty with the e-newsletter editing process.
I guess the lesson here is to just admit you made an error and not try to cover it up with a Gee wilickers, I think I just might be a moron type subject line.
None of this gets me my Dad's Viagra, but it has lessened the load on my over-worked Spam software. I have set the software to rescue all Whoops! email marketing messages and put them in the Deleted box where they belong.
