An Open Letter to Carl Pope & Sierra Club

Carl,

I realize the email below is a broadcast to a large audience, but since your name is on it I thought I would relay why I am not renewing with the Sierra Club directly to you. I hope that the following feedback helps you implement much needed changes to Sierra Club marketing.  I also am writing because I wanted you to be aware of my feedback directly as I’m planning on sharing these thoughts with the readers of my blog. I’m sure I’m not the only one feeling this way.

While I firmly believe in what the Sierra Club stands for I find that my involvement with the Sierra Club has been diminished by:

1. Constant badgering through excessive “renewal” notices, both email and written.
I don’t know when I joined, but I know I receive renewal notices at least every month and quite possibly weekly.  After a year or two of this I no longer care to look to see when I really need to renew. I’ve lost the interest to sort it out and have completely lost interest in trying to filter out the noise of excess marketing created by the Sierra Club.

2. Email updates laden with links that go to “donate” pages rather than supporting material about the legislation or detail on the issues.
What your marketing team seems to have lost track of is that  I joined the Sierra Club because I care about issues that effect me, my family, my community and my country. I didn’t join because I care about the Sierra Club per se. The Sierra Club represented a collection of people with a common interest and a common purpose. Unfortunately the message I receive back from the Sierra Club is less to do about the issues and more to funneling money to your organization. The email below contains 4 links to donate money and 0 links to any information about an environmental issue.

3. Marketing focused on achievement and less about value.
As someone with an online marketing background I can respect achievement based messages, but honestly what value is being provided to me and to my community. Case in point in the email below. Congrats on defeating the X proposal, note there is no link to the proposal or any other previous writing on it (per issue #2), but how does this fit into a larger value that the Sierra Club provides to me? I’m assuming its in relation to a larger Global Warming campaign, but I’d never know.

4. Spare me the emphasis on the tchotchke.
I know this just may be a personal preference but I didn’t join the Sierra Club for a marketing tchotchke, in this case the 1892 rucksack. It’s never been a deciding factor in my reason to join. I’d rather see any money put forward for this or donated material applied to more pertinent aspects of the Sierra Club. I certainly don’t need to be marketed to death about this either.

I truly wish I could just send a congratulations letter to you and your team for a job well done. Unfortunately the Sierra Club has lost me as an advocate and will have a harder time building trust for me to rejoin. I now equate the Sierra Club with excessive and unfocused marketing, wasted money and a group I’m more likely to be harassed by that an organization I can celebrate with. Sad that is never how I thought of the Sierra Club years ago.

Jim Goldstein
http://www.jmg-galleries.com
http://www.twitter.com/jimgoldstein

Attached email after the jump 

[tags]Sierra Club, Carl Pope[/tags]