The Video That Did Not Change My Life

“Change your life in 10 minutes a day!” exclaimed the subject line of the email that landed in my inbox. No, not really, but it was close. Guaranteed to catch your eye (I mean, we all have ten minutes, right? And who’s not up for a good life change?), the subject line did its job and more: I opened the email. And in a time where the average email open rate is 32%, that’s pretty impressive (thanks to Hubspot for the stat. By the way, they’ve got a great piece on email open rates by industry. HubSpot is a fantastic resource that I highly recommend.)

Anyway, back to my personal predicament. I read the email. Made a note to go back to it. Left it in my inbox so I wouldn’t forget. I mean, who doesn’t want a quick fitness video that will change your life?

515 Days to Change Your Life

In case you’re wondering, I received that email a breathtaking 515 days ago. It’s still sitting exactly where it was when I received it, and I’m – well, I’m still sitting in the exact same life as I was 515 days ago. Actually, that’s not true. In some weird way, having that email in my inbox served as a constant reminder that I needed to be in better shape. And, in fact, I did get in better shape – by getting back to the gym.

So, I guess you could say that the video did change my life – just not in the way the marketer expected it to. Attention, marketer: I apologize for not responding to your offer, but thanks for the life-changing email! The moral of the story: use whatever reminders, incentives, kicks in the pants you need – do whatever works for you. In my case, it’s occasionally an aging email.⧉

What about you? Leave a comment telling me about how you remind yourself of important things. I’d love to hear about it!