My wife Rona owns a small real estate agency. The people who try to market to her continually amaze her–and not in a good way.  I told you before about the phone solicitor who lied to her.  Here’s a story about an email marketer who never told her the truth.  In fact, never told her anything.

The subject line of the email that showed up in Rona’s Inbox was Two tips to finding a better way.  Rona told me, “I clicked on it to answer the question ‘a better way to what?’  I got cutesy graphics…but still don’t know what [name changed to protect the clueless] does.”

That made me curious, so I looked at the email she’d been sent.

Sure enough, there were the graphics.  Each was supposed to be a clickable link to a video about the company.  But only one of the links worked.

That link led to an engaging little 90-second Youtube video about running your real estate office with less paperwork.  Very nice–except it didn’t include a phone number, an email, or any way to get in touch with the company.

So, let’s see: the company expected a mysterious subject line to get Rona to open the email.  Then, without telling her why, it expected her to click on a link.  Then, it assumed she would actually watch the video.  After that, it apparently expected her to go to her favorite search engine and type in the company name.

Rona’s a busy person.  Frankly, I was amazed she even opened the email.

Please, don’t be clueless.  Don’t make your marketing a mystery.   If you want people to view, read, or listen to something, tell them what’s in it for them.