SAQ must review its email marketing rules

For my part, I receive electronic communications from this branch of the alcools quite regularly. I imagine I consented to these mailings when I registered for tasting courses a few years ago. SAQ must review its email marketing rules. Perhaps it was rather in a slight moment of madness when I thought of building a wine cellar. This great idea did not last long and my interest in the SAQ’s promotional emails also faded quickly.

But here’s the thing. There’s no way to stop getting business proposals from the Crown Corporation once you’ve gotten your finger in their system. At first, it’s annoying. In the long run, it’s irritating. And after a few years, you become aggressive.

Email marketing is not a new science

The basic rules have not just been invented and do not change, because they are based on a simple and universal principle: respect. The target agrees to receive your emails? Wonderful. You must do everything to deliver quality content to them to maintain the privilege of being able to communicate with them. The target loses interest in your mailings? You must give them back their freedom without asking any questions. It’s simple, right?

It is now completely unacceptable to do email marketing (especially with our own taxes) without giving the target recipients the opportunity to unsubscribe from the mailing list. However, the SAQ persists and signs. With each missive, the same story repeats itself:

The original address of the email is

From a simple customer service point of view, this is inelegant. We do not use a subliminal message with negative connotations in a sending address.
– No quick unsubscribe link is accessible from the indonesia email list sent. An address is clearly visible at the bottom of the email “   , but it is not personalized and we do not know in what circumstances it should be used or even if a real person will respond to us.

I imagine that the unsubscribe procedure must look something like returning to the website, accessing your SAQ Signature account (you still have to remember having registered), finding the preferences area and indicating that you no longer wish to receive make it easy for customers to get what they need from this sender. This is a procedure that goes against the spirit of the new anti-spam law  that is due to come into force in the coming months. I invite you to read the Bang Marketing newsletters published last year on this subject:

Are Your Emails Legal?

So I tried to access my account to unsubscribe from the mailing list, but a message says it is no longer active. I will have to contact the SAQ directly to unsubscribe. This is a far cry from best practices in email marketing.

And if I may, while suggesting improvements cz leads to the program, here are a few additional small suggestions that would benefit from being implemented:

– integrate a social sharing button into newsletters;
– add links to the company’s social platforms directly into the email;
– allow forwarding by email to a friend.

A viral effect could help expand the SAQ’s loyal customer base… as long as we don’t keep them on the mailing list against their will afterwards!

Have questions about email marketing best practices? Share them with our readers!

See you next week!