A few months ago we covered an offer that was for unidentified items with variations of money off. Subscribers were told that there was 25, 50 or 60% off the price of the last offer and they had to choose which to go for. 

The company have run a few campaigns over the last couple of years where pricing of products varied from the norm of one that was fixed. Whilst I know the purpose of such strategies, I have fallen, if that’s the word, for them more than once. 

They have offered freebies a few times. What the receiver has to do is go through the email, which will, of course, have another offer in it, to discover what the gift is. I read through copy that I would not, in normal circumstance, have bothered with. Not only that, it was described as a ‘thank you’ for having purchased something recently.

Then there was a sort of auction. We were told to make an offer on particular, quite high value, items. There was a reserve, but it was very low, their hope being that people would bid higher. It was a hook, although it was baited with something that was of value. I bid on one item but was beaten. The company then knew what I liked and what I was willing to pay.

Another campaign was one with an overall price of £25. Quite straightforward so far but there was a trick. There was a list of items, with prices from £2 to £20, and all you had to do was pick out a number of them up to the price of £25, or as near to it as you could get. It took me ages to pick the items I wanted. My total came to £23 and so I ‘bought’ an item for £2 which I wouldn’t normally buy.

The information the company got for its email marketing lists must have been overwhelming. When deciding which to go for I must have clicked through to descriptions of half a dozen items. They could probably pick me out on an identification parade. 

Try something a bit off the wall every now and again.