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That time our email blast sent to the wrong list on a Friday afternoon

It was a gray Tuesday back in 2019. I was sitting in a cramped WeWork in Denver watching our carefully crafted nurture sequence go out to 4,000 people who had already unsubscribed twice. My boss walked by and saw my face go white. I killed the campaign in under 3 minutes but the damage was done. We spent the next week manually sending apology notes to everyone who complained. The worst part was our CEO got cc'd on a reply that called our company 'tone deaf.' That was the day we added a double confirmation step to every send. Has anyone else had a campaign go rogue like that and how did you win back trust?
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ryanj60
ryanj6019d agoTop Commenter
Wait how did the CEO react to getting that "tone deaf" email?
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ryanj60
ryanj6018d agoTop Commenter
Look, maybe the CEO was actually right to be annoyed. That email called out company culture in a way that felt more like a public shaming than constructive feedback. The tone might have come across as harsh even if the points were valid, and in a leadership role you have to consider how messages land across the whole team.
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