Misguided by Williams-Sonoma

I take words seriously. Interactive marketers have to. Space is small (despite the bottomless cup feel of cyberspace, you don't have all the space in the word to ramble on), time is short because attention spans can be and, yes, every word counts.

So the subject line in a recent email from Williams-Sonoma Home really intrigued me.

Shop Our Fall Decorating Guide

Wow, not just the new fall products like everyone else is blasting me about (online and in my overstuffed mailbox), but a guide. A way to think about decorating for fall. I have my own ideas on these matters ,of course, but who doesn't love to hear from an expert once in a while, especially if that expert is a home goods company?

So I opened the email. Let me rephrase that, I opened the email FIRST. Admittedly, I actually opened it before personal and business emails (maybe it was the weekend of anguishing over remodeling decisions that got me). It started out well. There was a decent image of products arranged together, some individual shots (kind of generic, but not awful), and, above them a paragraph that made a point about mixing materials. OK, I'm paying attention, you still got me. Then I clicked through.

The Fall Decorating Guide was 66 words and a bunch of thumbnails. That's their idea of a guide? More like a catalog. No guiding. Just selling. No thanks.