Recently, we were helping a client review a boxed software solution for handling appointment scheduling. Part of what the company selling the software offered in the bundle is ‘marketing tools.’ In the same vein, another client recently purchased large-scale fundraising software – and again, bundled in with the core component, were these ‘marketing tools.’ In fact, the availability of an email marketing component is a significant part of what drove the company’s decision to buy the product. The reasoning: Now we’ll finally be able to do some of our own marketing.
Many companies are lured by the same promise – not realizing that buying an email marketing tool doesn’t make you a competent email marketer, any more than buying a band saw would make you a competent carpenter.
And soon after purchasing this email marketing tool, the problems begin…