I received this promotional email this morning from Makita Tools. For those of you that don't know, I'm a hardcore DIYer and LOVE powertools (in fact, I love tools in general...maybe I'll upload some tool collection pictures at some point). So, of course, I subscribe to the email newsletters of any power tool manufacturer that has one, even though I'm partial to Makita.

Have said all that, I find their email marketing efforts to be lacking in precision. As you'll see in the email screenshot below, they combine English and Spanish in the same email. I have nothing against Spanish - I spent 4 years of my high school and college life learning it - I do have something against poor targeting when you know that you can (and should) do better!

By simply asking for 'language preference' on their email signup form (which, by the way, is a pain in the ass to get to and is hidden under the "Team Makita" link that's hardly visible at the top of the page), you could not only eliminate the annoyance of a dual-language email, but be much more prudent in targeting by doing everything (including the subject line, which was English only...go figure).

Part of the value of email marketing is being able to tightly segment and market to your house list. Makita is missing out on a significant (though I'm not sure how big their house list is...it could be much, much larger if it were easier to sign up for!) opportunity to really communicate with your target audience!