Oops! Sorry for the mistake 🤦‍♂️

A sneaky little marketing idea: Send "accidental" emails → Apologize

Oct 27, 2023

Yesterday, I received a weird email from my favorite cruise line, Virgin Voyages:

Wait, what? 😳 Black Friday is still a month away, and Lorem Ipsum is a placeholder in design templates. Did Virgin just make a big mistake? (hint: not at all)

A few moments later, another email arrived from Virgin:

Oh, thanks for the apology, Virgin. 🚢

Here's the catch: There’s a strong chance that Virgin’s marketing team carefully orchestrated everything on purpose… And nothing was a mistake. It’s a fantastic little marketing idea.

💡 The Idea: (1) Send an “accidental” email; (2) Apologize for the intentional mistake in a follow-up email.

🧐 Why Send Mistake Emails?

If you've never tried it before — it's worth a shot. Here are 5 reasons why:

🧠 Detective’s brain: People LOVE catching mistakes. Just like you clicked on this marketing idea because of the title. It makes people feel sharp.
🎉 Create excitement: Using the "mistake" as a teaser for upcoming events or promotions generates anticipation (just like Virgin and Black Friday).
🔊 2x exposure: It's a chance to send two emails instead of one with the same message (the second one is the “apology”). Normally, I only spot one email in these campaigns, then actively search for the second. It’s an urge I can’t resist.
💖 Humanize the brand: Apologizing for a "mistake" adds a personal touch. It shows that there are real people behind our brand, making it more relatable.
💰 Prompt sales: We can offer extra discounts or extend ongoing sales as a way to say sorry for the “mistake”.

🤡 The Strategy in Action

You'd be amazed at how frequently this strategy is used: Try searching "oops" or "Lorem Ipsum" in your email inbox. You'll find plenty of examples.

Here are 3 recent ones from my own inbox:

P.S. 🙅🏻‍♂️ Don’t overuse: While researching this marketing idea, I noticed my inbox was flooded with Epidemic Sound's mishap emails. They do it every couple of weeks. Pfff.