Email Marketing that Makes Sense

A couple of weeks ago, I received an email notification that my billing statement was ready.

This evening, fearing that I would be late paying the bill, I opened the email  and click on the link that said  to view, print and download the statement.

I arrived at the homepage and attempted to login to my account at least 3 times.

Then, in frustration, I called the company’s customer support line to voice my concern. All before I was able to login and pay my bill without a hitch. Now suddenly this month I couldn’t? Something had to give.

I got in touch with customer support, (which urged me to pay my bill first via their phone system) before I was forwarded to their technical support line.

I finally got someone in customer support and they explained that the wrong link was used in the email and that they did get *many* calls about it.

The lesson here?  Be clear about what you want people to do once they receive your email. If the directions  or the links are not clear, how does one expect people to accomplish the task?