What to do when your email blows up

Sometimes all the testing and preparation in the world won't help. After sending out an email newsletter earlier today, the backend systems went down almost immediately meaning all links broke for about 90 minutes.

Here's what I did...would you have done anything different?

1. Put out a note via the blog to apologize and let people know I am aware of the problem and am trying to fix it.

2. Put out a similar note in a prominent position on the homepage.

3. Ensured someone was ready and waiting to answer emails and calls instantly, so that when people got in touch about the email problems they got an immediate answer. (Thanks to those who did write to let me know.)

4. Left rude messages for the ESP.

5. Removed the homepage note and updated the blog post as soon as the problem was fixed.

6. Accepted that this is going to cost me subscribers, opens, clicks, pageviews and - worst of all - credibility.

7. Banged my head against the wall for a full five minutes. S*** happens, but that's no consolation when it happens to you.

8. Since the problem was temporary, I will not burden people with a second send. But I will discuss the problem in the next newsletter issue (since the e-newsletter is for email marketers, an apology and explanation doubles nicely as relevant content).

Notes for the future:

1. If your links and reply-to address run through the same backend technology service, then a failure of that service means there is no obvious way for people to unsubscribe or contact you by email. Bad.

So somewhere in your email, put a simple contact email address that runs through a different system. That gives people an alternative when the main systems fail.

2. Take no risks with service maintenance. If your ESP is playing with their system in any way, try and hold back any campaigns until you're sure they're finished, even if you're assured that this maintenance should not affect your emails.

The unfortunate thing about lessons is you have to have them before you can learn from them...

Permalink | May 19, 2008 | 2 comment(s)
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2 Comments:

So was it bad enough to name and shame, or are you giving them another chance? ;-)
By Jack P, on 20 May, 2008

:-) Not bad enough to name and shame. Plus partly my fault for not being wary enough of preannounced system updates.
By Mark Brownlow - Email Marketing Reports, on 20 May, 2008

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