By Harry Brelsford, CEO and Founder, SMB Nation
Several thousand of you have received an email from me the past several days with the Subject Line of “foo” and the body text of “foobar” from me. Here is the back story and the benefit.
What started out as a learning exercise inside Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Online turned into a FUBAR. I created a marketing list. Then I set the list to dynamic instead of static. I clicked Next a few times in the marketing list setup wizard and created a test email with the subject line “foo” and the text “foobar.” Then I clicked Finish and emails started going out via my Outlook client in Office 365. OMG “it” was mailing my entire customer list. I tried to right-click and stop but to no avail. I researched online how to stop a marketing list from mailing but couldn’t find the right answer. So I spent a few Karma dollars I had built up over the years and reached out to Julie Yack, a Microsoft MVP for Dynamics CRM and co-author of the well-received “ The CRM 2013 Field Guide Volume Two: How to CRM like an MVP with Dynamics CRM 2013” found on Amazon here. I purchased this book a few months ago and it’s highly recommend.
Julie deftly directed me to a settings area and I canceled the workflow for the test email. However, by then over 10,000 emails had queued and I couldn’t stop the motion. So many of you received my test email.
Interestingly, my response rate from YOU the reader was off the chart. Typically when I send out a newsletter, I receive only a few direct replies. With the foo email, I have received hundreds from replies ranging from LOL to “foo on you” to have your been hacked (a legitimate question). Another benefit is that I and receiving hundreds of bounces in the form of NDR replies. That means the email address is no longer valid. So I can use the report for the marketing list to then deactivate contacts that are invalid. Cool!
Seems to me my lemons turned into lemonade. Maybe I should send out more FUBAR mistakes as a marketing tactic! Lemme know.
