What not to post on 9/11

With today’s 20th anniversary, I’d like to share how I completely miscalculated how to commemorate today with an audience.

When you're in the position of recognizing something that strikes our collective memory so profoundly on behalf of a client and their audience, saying something – saying anything will have ramifications way beyond the day-to-day communications we're used to.

I'm sharing this because as marketers in the business of audience building, we are constantly searching for more. More likes, more reactions, more engagement. We need more. And then when it comes, it may not be what you were envisioning.

Here's how it went down.

For my client, I was charged with sending an email every Tuesday morning to 80k people to get a $5 discount on their limo service. It's the same offer, every week – $5 off. Because the offer doesn't change, I look up whatever holiday it is that day, and then create a design around that day.

Here's a few samples of some of my favorites (these are bonafide holidays): Gorgeous Grandma Day, National Ants on a Log Day, National Landline Telephone Day...

On Tuesday, September 11, 2018, it was #NeverForget day and it was clear what I needed to design for.

After searching through Shutterstock for my favorite vector design, I thought it would be good to find a series of quotes to remember the day. It seemed easy. Find positive quotes, right?

Keep it positive and find quotes short enough so someone could quickly read them. I also thought the source should be recognizable to most people.

What could go wrong?

I searched and collected about 10 quotes pretty quickly and then started added them to the eblast until I had what felt like a good number — not too many, easy to scan and then a minimized link at the very end (no button) to still provide the offer for the day.

This too was a mistake I didn't see coming. In a prior blast around a holiday, I left the offer out in respect for the day and my client got pummeled for not offering the weekly discount.

It was one of the quickest designs I'd done and collecting what people had said over the past 17 years seemed like the perfect approach.

And then I sent it.

I should have paid more attention to MailChimp's sweaty warning before sending.

In less than 5 minutes I received my first angry response. In the past 2 years of sending weekly emails to eighty thousand people, I had never received a single responses aside from "where's the discount link". This email hit a nerve.

The response centered around how we as a nation did not respond to that day like we should have in this person's opinion, and the tone of my email reflected that incorrect response. They also went on to say how they would never use my client’s limo service again.

I was horrified. In over 20 years of digital marketing I'd never created content that elicited so much anger that I lost a client for a client.

My first thought was to use what I had learned on how to respond to negative social media posts.

I'd seen several examples of companies who actually improved their standing by how they responded to negative posts. I genuinely apologized and acknowledged that there are many different perspectives to which I was completely ignorant of when pushing out this email. I never intended on offending anyone and I also explained that this mistake was mine alone. The client of whom I was representing never needed prior approval of other posts before they went out and they had not seen or approved this before it went out. I expressed my hope that they would not punish my client for my mistake. I sent my response, copying my client and then immediately called him.

My client loved the email.

He was not angry or even phased by the negative response. He said when he saw the email he loved it so much he showed everyone in the office. He also appreciated the response I had crafted back.

And then several more came quickly on the heels of the first. These were similar in anger but focused on the political positioning of the sources – left vs right. Now my wife said immediately, what were you thinking? I remember exactly what I was thinking especially on one quote in particular. Two quotes were almost exactly alike, one from one side of the isle, the second from the other and I choose the shorter quote. Yes. In hindsight, I certainly could have balanced the two sides but I'm also not certain that would have made a difference because after responding to each and every angry response (5 total), the responses stopped and then picked back up towards the end of the day and this time they were different.

They were all positive and thankful for the message.

One response was from a woman who lost someone in one of the towers and said these quotes meant so much to her.

Again, I had never received feedback on 2 years of emails until this day and when I started receiving thank yous and in the same numbers (5 if I recall correctly), it became a lesson I'll never forget.

Be careful with your audience. They are precious. Even if they aren't providing measurable engagement, many are listening.

Also, love that client who supports you even when you make a mistake :)

Here's that email and the quotes.

Prompt for interns:

9/11 seems to be considerably different for those of us who watched it in real-time when it happened and those who were not and only know about it how it’s covered in school.

What is something you think about or feel about that event you don’t feel most older folks understand?

Or, how would you describe that event to a younger person who is learning about it for the first time?