Re: Here is how you can save time in social media (a spam-ish email from @Hootsuite)

What follows is an email I got from Hootsuite earlier today. I call it "spam" because I don't appreciate sales emails. I know technically I agreed to receive it because I agreed to their terms of service when I signed up with them, but seeing as they pulled the hard sell AND made a false claim I'm still looking at this as spam.

So, what follows is the email they sent me and what follows that is my reply--not that they'll get it since the sales pitch is from a "no-reply" address. Great sales tactic, guys. This forces people like me to blog about their problems with Hootsuite--you know, so Google can index said posts and show them to people who might be looking for Hootsuite reviews or opinions on Hootsuite customer service. I think potential Hootesuite customers would be interested learning about how Hootsuite treats their users. Or, in my case, their former users. Anyway, here is the email:

On Jul 25, 2013, at 10:05 AM, Craig at HootSuite wrote:


You are one of our most active HootSuite users but are not taking full advantage of what Hootsuite offers. For example, right now…

You are NOT saving time with social media because you don’t have HootSuite Bulk Scheduling
You are NOT working smarter because you don’t have HootSuite Team Members to share the workload
You are NOT getting expert social media training because you don’t have access to HootSuite University
You are NOT demonstrating social media success to your boss because you aren’t tracking metrics (like follower growth, brand mentions, “Likes”, clicks, etc.) without HootSuite Advanced Analytics
To get all this and more out of HootSuite you need to upgrade to Pro today! Try HootSuite Pro Free for 30 days and see how much more productive you can be.

No Risk! You will not be charged if you change your mind before the end of your 30 day Free trial.



Thank you,

Craig Ryomoto
Director, HootSuite Pro

Wow. You know what? You're right. I'm not doing those things. You know why?

Because:

You are NOT respecting me as a potential customer by telling me what I should do.

You are NOT respecting me as a person by using bold faced fonts to try and convince me that your product is something I should try.

You are NOT going to get me as a customer because I do NOT appreciate the hard sell.

Oh and you are WRONG that I am one of your most active HootSuite users because I have not opened your iOS app in months and haven't visited your site in even more months.

Now I'm going to click unsubscribe. Thanks!

-Pete