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Email overload?

Membership
#1

Does anyone else on here feel they are increasingly bombarded by TWS emails? When I joined, I opted into receiving emails because I am (obviously) interested in wine but less so when they are so frequent.

I did a quick count of emails from April/May last year compared to this. In 2021 I had 7 emails in that period. With 2 plus weeks still left in May, I’m already up to 11 for the same period in 2022- these are pure marketing emails, not orders, enquiries etc.

It’s beginning to feel like the Sunday Times Wine Club who used to send me so much junk. Generally the TWS content is more interesting but I wish I could find a better landing place between nil and 15 in 2 months- quality over quantity. I wonder if this is just my imagination or is a change in policy towards more ‘active’ marketing philosophy.

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#2

I’ve not noticed much more.

I think they’re in a bit of a damned if they do, damned if they don’t situation here. There’s also huge uproar if things sell out before people find out about them.

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#3

I think I agree with Patrick on this one. We would be upset if they sold out of a wine we wanted if we did not get any notifcation.
Lawrence

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#4

They are sending more emails. But emails are easy to discard whether one reads them or not.

And it’s better to be alerted of things you might want, than not know about them.

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#5

Agree

#6

And the platform still doesn’t support alerts, @SteveF

#7

I get them almost daily, but as the frequency increases my attention decreases so now I tend to give them a fairly cursory skim or sometimes not even that. Somehow I doubt that email bombardment of members is a very effective marketing method. It would be interesting to know if successive email promotions do produce diminishing returns, though I suppose that depends too on what is being offered.

Of course it is at least a cheap method!

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#8

Then maybe I’m wrong, though the count I gave above for the most recent months at least suggest otherwise.

I agree there is a balance to be struck. I’m all in favour of personalised contact, for example the new notification for out of stock wines is great, something I’ve already used, and I don’t count them as marketing emails. Equally it would be good to extend that to being able to select your own areas of interest for new wines. Certainly for the limited volume stuff and EP. But I’m talking more about very generic emails and whether there are more than there used to be, or not, I’m reaching the point when I’m not even opening them, whereas I always used to.

#9

Yep, that is very much my experience too. It’s hardly a major problem, you can just bin them, but that surely is not the desired outcome. Less is more and all that…

#10

I have the opposite problem. I never get emails from TWS about anything, I have lost count of the times I have opted in, moaned about it, spoken to someone and despite many reassurances I still get none. Like really none.

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#11

Personally, I’m happy with the amount I get. I tend to know from the title whether or not I’m likely to be interested too. I’m a little less enthusiastic about the increasing number of wines now offered EP, all of which result in emails and most of which I’m not interested in, but this is a very minor gripe.

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#12

There does seem to be a new “email me when in stock” function, with a slight loophole.

https://www.thewinesociety.com/product/domaine-sylvain-pataille-marsannay-rose-fleur-de-pinot-2019

Posted about a week ago, with no “due in” date, you could add an email address. Which I did, and forgot about it.

I checked by chance today, and there’s a due in date and you can order it. So I have (first rule of the Community), for delivery in June. But I’ve not been emailed (presumably because it isn’t in stock). I therefore predict that for popular wines (no idea how much of this they will have), if they follow this model they will email everyone on release date but the wine will have been pre-ordered in advance by people who happen to have checked the website. This may cause some adverse comment.

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#13

A wine I want to order (not saying what!) is due in but no facility to order just yet. I’ll just have to keep checking, I suppose.

I’m not too fussed about the number of emails. I can normally tell if they are of interest, and they’re easy to delete, after all.

I have no evidence either way, but my impression is that there are fewer paper mailings from TWS than there used to be.

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#14

I have to say I agree. I work in the advertising industry so I understand that businesses need to market, but I’d say the volume of TWS emails is now excessive.

It’s got to the point where, despite how invested I am in the organisation, I increasingly delete without reading beyond the headline.

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#15

The New Classicism in marketing. No buddy-duddies left here!

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#16

Someone mentioned that if you put it on your wish list it becomes orderable from there.

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#17

Thanks, yes, I’ve now gone down that route but the delivery options are into June, over a week after it’s due in. I fear I’ll get one of those “Unfortunately…” emails.

Let’s see!

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#18

If I get more than one marketing email per month from any organisation then I unsubscribe. It wastes my time deleting them even without reading them.

In the case of TWS I have opted for paper and I often read cover to cover whereas on a screen I would just have a cursory glance and close.

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#19

Not any more - I told them to stop sending me emails a couple of years or so ago. They were sending me so many that I never even looked at them anyway. I’ve since stopped most TWS snail mail too.

I only very rarely responded to marketing mailings anyway - usually I wait until I need a particular wine, or style of wine, and then look online to see what they have.

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#20

Hi everyone. This is a really difficult question and one where the right number is always an individual preference. Before i go into what we do to measure members satisfaction with our approach you may be interested that e mail represents our biggest traffic source to the website and therefore helps us to maintain sales momentum which also helps us to maintain value and invest in The Society. Changing our approach would compromise both. It is also worth saying that we have not changed our policy, but there may be times when administrative communications (AGM etc) En Primeur offers and regular promotions come together to increase volume in a given period.

That said, we do measure member response to what we do in a quarterly survey that is sent to 12k members and receives about 3000 responses. (highly statistically significant) In it, we ask about the frequency of communications. Print frequency scores 81% for about right The List scores 85% for about right and e mail scores 80%

These scores are an increasing trend as we continue to fine-tune our approach to marketing and expand member preferences. If they changed significantly then this would be a clear message to change our approach.

As always, the right answer is to address every members individual requirements, not possible now, but we are always looking for ways to make what we do more relevant. In the same survey, we also ask about the relevance of our communications and e mail scores highest, well ahead of The List and print generally.

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