AM Inbox: So, tell us a little about yourself...

RetailEmail.Blogspot monitors the email marketing campaigns of nearly 100 of the top online retailers. Here are highlights from our inbox this morning:

Bass Pro Shops, 1/30 — Personalize Your Bass Pro Shops Emails
Wanting to send more relevant content to subscribers, Bass Pro has reached out to subscribers like me who didn't specify their interests. This is not the first time that Bass Pro has pinged me about this; the other time was in a July 11 email. Emails with personalized content produce better click-through rates, so urging subscribers to provide more information about themselves, and in particular their interests, really pays off.



Clicking through takes you to your preference page:



JC Whitney, 1/20 — Shop with Confidence!
JC Whitney highlights its product reviews, in addition to touting some of its awards and ratings.



Oriental Trading, 1/30 — Save 15% & get free shipping for St. Pat's...
Oriental Trading gives us our first St. Patrick's Day reference.

SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
Gloss, 1/30 — LOVE IS IN THE AIR! Free Shipping + 5 Fragrance Samples from GLOSS.COM
1-800-Flowers, 1/31 — Surprise your Valentine and save up to 40%*!
KB Toys, 1/30 — Sweet Valentine's Gift Ideas For Kids
Banana Republic, 1/30 — The season's feminine aesthetic + Valentine's gifts...
Lillian Vernon, 1/31 — Make memories, Shop Now & Save up to 20% on Personalized Easter Baskets & More
Barnes & Noble, 1/30 — This Week -- Coupons, Oprah's Latest Pick, Norah Jones, More
Gap, 1/30 — Trend Alert: Activewear That's Too Cute for the Gym
L.L. Bean, 1/30 — Today's Forecast: Dry, Comfortable--and Wrinkle Free [promoting rainwear]
Sports Authority, 1/30 — Shop This Week's Circular!
Polo, 1/30 — Shop Warm-Weather Looks for Spring Getaways
OfficeMax, 1/30 — Jump Drive Now 99¢ with Select Windows Vista Purchase

Reportlet: All I Want for Christmas Are Daily Deal Emails

Several retailers launched special email series during the holidays, including Petco, Home Depot and most notably the Sears brands (Sears, Kmart and Lands’ End) through their ReadySetHoliday.com website. This 11-page reportlet discusses Home Depot and Sears’ programs and includes numerous examples of creatives.

Available via the EEC’s Whitepaper Room, this reportlet is free for EEC members and available for a nominal charge to non-members. Click here to get “All I Want for Christmas Are Daily Deal Emails” from the Whitepaper Room, and click here to learn more about becoming a member of the Email Experience Council.

AM Inbox: Greasing palms

RetailEmail.Blogspot monitors the email marketing campaigns of nearly 100 of the top online retailers. Here are highlights from our inbox this morning:

Cooking.com, 1/29 — Introducing the Cooking.com Forum!
Cooking.com has announced a number of site improvements, including the launch of discussion forums. To help stimulate discussions, Cooking.com will be giving away $50 gift certificates to the three forum participants whose posts receive the most views. This is similar to what Bass Pro Shops did when it launched product reviews last year (see July 12 post).




ShopNBC, 1/29 — Free Shipping During Semi-Annual Clearance
ShopNBC is reaching out for a little feedback with this brief survey. Clicking through, subscribers are asked to rate how likely they are to recommend ShopNBC to a friend on a scale of 1 to 10, and then asked to give the main reasons for their rating?



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
Circuit City, 1/29 — Windows Vista is now at Circuit City!
Spiegel, 1/30 — Something for the one you love, You! + Free Shipping
Orvis, 1/29 — Free Shipping. Special gifts for your Valentine
DisneyShopping, 1/29 — Great Valentine's Day Gifts & Take an Extra $14 Off!
RedEnvelope, 1/29 — Sweet somethings under $50 for Valentine's Day.
FTD, 1/30 — Delight Your Valentine for Under $25
Home Depot, 1/29 — Relax in Style This Valentine's Day [promoting spas]
Brookstone, 1/29 — Valentine's gifts they'll adore
Wal-Mart, 1/29 — Gifts That Inspire Love
Sam's Club, 1/29 — Give the Perfect Gift with Sam's Club!
NFLshop, 1/29 — Pre-Order Your Super Bowl XLI Championship Gear
Reebok, 1/29 — Ultimate NFL Gear Straight from the Endzone!
Staples, 1/29 — Save up to 25% on Staples brand products
Ross-Simons, 1/29 — 3 Days Only! 15% off Jewelry & Free Shipping! Plus Valentine's Day Gift Ideas.

AM Inbox: What's the connection?

RetailEmail.Blogspot monitors the email marketing campaigns of nearly 100 of the top online retailers. Here are highlights from our inbox this morning:

Linens 'n Things, 1/26 — Exclusive GNC Offer for Linens 'n Things Guests
Linens 'n Things has given its subscribers a nice coupon for savings at GNC, but why? It's not clear to me what the connection is between LNT and GNC—not that I don't like free coupons as much as the next person. My opinion is that you have to justify lending your subscriber list out to a third party, which is what this really is. You have a Healthy Living promotion and tie GNC into it, or you at least make some kind of statement so it's clear to subscribers why you're giving a third party access to them. I think tying third parties into broader events is the why to go in general, but retailers can also follow the example of J. Jill, which back in August presented subscribers with the opportunity to get two issues of Real Simple magazine for free and explained why they were doing so (see Aug. 7 post). They made that offer again a few months later, offering the same explanation.



AbeBooks, 1/26 — Avid Reader NewsFlash: Sidney Poitier's Memoir is Oprah's Latest Pick
This is a perfect follow up to Friday's post about newsiness. Here, AbeBooks is telling its subscribers on Friday something that happened on Friday. And news that Oprah's Book Club—after a year on hiatus to live down her pick of James Frey's A Million Little Pieces—has chosen Sidney Poitier's The Measure of a Man is surely relevant to AbeBooks' audience of bibliophiles. This is how retailers can use news to be timely and relevant to their subscribers.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
Staples, 1/26 — Get the new Windows Vista at Staples
Dell, 1/27 — Get Windows Vista on the award-winning line of Inspiron E1705 notebooks.
Costco, 1/27 — Windows Vista has arrived at costco.com!
TigerDirect, 1/27 — WOW: Systemax Microsoft Vista PCs are Here
CompUSA, 1/28 — Windows Vista Experience Guarantee & Install for only $19.99
AllPosters, 1/29 — Up to 30% Off - The Calorie Free Valentine
Avon, 1/27 — Be Tempting with Valentine Beauty Tips plus NEW Skin & Body Care
Ross-Simons, 1/26 — Just in! Diamond Valentine's Day Gifts From the Heart!
JCPenney, 1/29 — Save 25-60%: Fall in Love with Cupid's Favorite Gifts
Finish Line, 1/26 — Finish Line - Shop for Super Bowl XLI Champions Gear
Target, 1/28 — Free $50 e-GiftCard with select purchase, plus get 10% off
Sharper Image, 1/26 — Catalog Sneak: HD Radio with The Boston Sound!
Coach, 1/26 — Signature Stripe has a new look
Brookstone, 1/26 — Drop the mop and save with Scooba
Orvis, 1/26 — Leather sale: up to 60% off.
Old Navy, 1/29 — Stock Up & Save on Great Basics for the Family!

Week-End Trends: Kissing New Year’s goodbye

Email activity and promotional trends during the past week:

The RetailEmail Index rose 12% to 156 during the week ending Jan. 26, and is up 9% from where it was four weeks ago.


*The RetailEmail Index is a general measure of the email volume generated by the top 100 online retailers.

Last week, 84% of the retailers in the RetailEmail Index send out at least one email, up from 81% the week prior, and up from 82% during the 4-weeks-ago period



Valentine's Day: There were 23 references to Valentine's Day last week, up from 10 references the week before.

New Year's: There were 4 emails referencing the New Year’s last week, down from 9 the week prior. There weren’t any New Year’s references after Monday, so that may be the end of the New Year’s season.

AM Inbox: The keys to newsiness

RetailEmail.Blogspot monitors the email marketing campaigns of nearly 100 of the top online retailers. Here are highlights from our inbox this morning:

Dick's Sporting Goods, 1/25 — Colts and Bears Win Conference Championships
Being newsy boils down to two things: being exclusive and being quick. Now in regards to the Super Bowl match up, that's public information, so to be newsy with that nugget of information you simply have to be quick. Telling people on Thursday that the Colts and Bears Win their conference championships just isn't quick enough. I know this is just a pretense to selling products, but giving an email this subject line just makes it sound old. For instance, NFLshop sent out emails acknowledging the conference champions on Sunday night after the games, as you saw in Monday's Scanner. For those people that didn't watch the game, those emails provided some level of service by informing them of the victories. The strange thing is that Dick's sent out an email on Monday, but instead of focusing on the SuperBowl pairing, they focused on exercise apparel in an email with the subject line Exercise in Comfort and Style This Year. NFLshop surely prepared material in advance for the outcomes of the games so they could send out emails ASAP with the news; Dick's should have done the same, or at least have come up with a fresher way of presenting their products. By being several days behind the news, Dick's also made it less likely that subscribers will order their championship gear online because of shipping time.

CompUSA, 1/26 — Windows Vista Experience Guarantee - We Know You'll be Wowed
In this email CompUSA lays out its plans around the launch of Vista, which include several in-store events and services.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
Harry & David, 1/25 — Guide Cupid's aim: Our gourmet gifts are right on target
FTD, 1/25 — Beat the price increase on Roses!
Hallmark, 1/25 — SAVE With Sweet Deals For Valentine's Day
Abercrombie & Fitch, 1/25 — How Low Can You Go? Come see all our sexy denim.
Polo, 1/25 — Be the First to Shop Spring Arrivals
Coldwater Creek, 1/25 — Shop our new favorite looks ~ spring is in the air!
Nordstrom, 1/25 — Spring's New Jacket Silhouette Shoe Trend: Espadrilles
Home Depot, 1/25 — Save Up To 60% on Select Lighting
Ross-Simons, 1/25 — HUGE BLOWOUT! 20% off Everything + FREE SHIPPING!
TigerDirect, 1/25 — Next Generation RAZRs...FREE...Ends 1/31
Linens 'n Things, 1/26 — Save 20% Online & In Stores + Our Window & Bedding Spectacular
Kmart, 1/25 — Big Game = Big Savings

Ping Time: Consumers rate holiday subject lines

Our latest spin around the mediasphere turned up the following nuggets:

>> The eec worked with Return Path to find out how consumers rate holiday subject lines. The key finding: 41.1% of consumers open an email because something in the subject line caught their attention. >>Follow the ping

>> Mark Wyner at Campaign Monitor gives us a great look at CSS support in two new webmail clients: Yahoo Mail Beta and Windows Live Mail. >>Follow the ping

>>Kevin Yank at SitePoint talks about how Microsoft is trying to crush email marketers' spirits with Outlook 2007. Thank goodness only about 4% of consumers use it. >>Follow the ping

>>Silverpop says you can get higher open and click-through rates by segmenting your list based on activity level. >>Follow the ping

>>Denise Zimmerman of NetPlus Marketing explains how B2B marketers can learn a thing or two from B2C folks. >>Follow the ping

AM Inbox: Get our employee discount

RetailEmail.Blogspot monitors the email marketing campaigns of nearly 100 of the top online retailers. Here are highlights from our inbox this morning:

TigerDirect, 1/24 — Price Alert: 1gb DDR $49 - Ends Friday...Dual-Core PC Kit $299
I've seen retailers tap their subscribers for polls and casting calls, but this is the first time that I've seen a major retailer advertising employment opportunities in their newsletters.



Linens 'n Things, 1/25 — Save 20% In Store - Now thru Sunday
When you click through this email, it brings up a PDF of a coupon. I don't click on every coupon I get, but I don't recall ever having seen one in a PDF format before. Presumably, the print resolution is better than an HTML coupon.



ShopPBS, 1/24 — Reflect - Visit our Civil Rights Collection
Shop PBS is getting a jump on Black History Month, which is February, by promoting some DVDs from their Civil Rights Shop.

SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
Northern Tool, 1/24 — Chad, Over 10,000 Products Qualify - Free Shipping!
Bellacor, 1/23 — Friend, CLEARANCE SALE with Free Shipping, Up to 50% Off
FTD, 1/24 — Looking to woo someone?
Hanna Andersson, 1/23 — New! Valentine Hannas From The Heart
Cooking.com, 1/25 — What's New and Great Valentine's Gifts
Lillian Vernon, 1/24 — It CAN be done! Organize Kids' Rooms with these Cool Tools
Jo-Ann, 1/25 — Big scrapbooking sale + a 40% off coupon.
Brookstone, 1/24 — Get in shape with our newest professional-quality fitness equipment!

AM Inbox: What do you mean I'm a day late to the party?

RetailEmail.Blogspot monitors the email marketing campaigns of nearly 100 of the top online retailers. Here are highlights from our inbox this morning:

Neiman Marcus, 1/23 — MILLY scarf with purchase + more during The Hollywood Event
So I can now explain the disconnect that I commented on in yesterday's post. Neiman's emails are out of sync with the voting on its website. So yesterday when I clicked through the email send on Monday, I arrived at the voting form for the question that would be mentioned in the email later on Tuesday. Or in other words, they changed the survey question before I saw the next email and all the emails are pointed to the same web page so that you see the most current question. Confusing explanation for a confusion situation.



Alibris, 1/23 — Open now, Book lover, your free e-mail coupon awaits!
To enable it to dynamically serve up discounts based on each subscriber's buying habits, Alibris has sent this click-through coupon. The alternative would have been to create different versions of the email with different coupon values and segmented the list before sending it out. The way Alibris did it, the segmentation happens on the backend post-send.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
RedEnvelope, 1/23 — Gifts for the guy with a one-track mind.
Nordstrom, 1/23 — Heart-Warming Valentine's Day Gifts Patent Leather Flats
FTD, 1/23 — Spark Romance and Save 15%
JCPenney, 1/23 — Valentine's Sale: Extra 15% on Jewelry + Free Shipping
Oriental Trading, 1/24 — Fun & easy ways to create lasting memories, plus free shipping & 15% off...
Gap, 1/23 — New PRODUCT (RED)(TM) Styles are Here
Sephora, 1/23 — Free Lip Gloss Sample - Get Addicted
Banana Republic, 1/23 — The season's most flattering pants + shop new sizes in Tall & Petites
Bass Pro Shops, 1/23 — View the Top Rated Spring Products at Basspro.com
Foot Locker, 1/23 — 15% Off Ends Saturday --Save Today
Lands' End, 1/23 — Now Open! 2007 Swim Headquarters

AM Inbox: Tripping on the red carpet

RetailEmail.Blogspot monitors the email marketing campaigns of nearly 100 of the top online retailers. Here are highlights from our inbox this morning:

Neiman Marcus, 1/22 — The Hollywood Event: Red-carpet style + award-show buzz
Looking to capitalize on Oscar buzz and the role that fashion has always played in the awards, Neiman Marcus is pitching “red-carpet worthy dresses” and asking subscribers to vote for who they want to see on the red carpet. However, when you click through, you're instead asked to vote on your favorite red carpet fashion moment.



J. Crew, 1/22 — Weddings, parties & free shipping
This is another nice email targeting newly weds. As I pointed out in a post last week, the period between Christmas and Valentine's Day is the hot period for engagements, so it's a great time to get messages out there about wedding registries and apparel.



Overstock, 1/22 — Shop Early For Valentine's Day
In a letter from CEO Patrick Byrne, Overstock announces its entry into the car sector with Overstock Cars, explaining:

Overstock.com does not own the inventory you see listed: all these cars (new, used, and certified) are being offered by dealers. Simply navigate to a car that interests you and then choose from three options: offer the dealer's lot price, or make a counter-offer, or simply ask for more information. Your entries are automatically and immediately forwarded to the dealer, so the conversation can be started easily, without the commitment or pressure that comes from starting the conversation on their lot.

SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
Saks Fifth Avenue, 1/22 — GIVE LOVE, GET FREE SHIPPING for Valentine's Day
Wal-Mart, 1/22 — One-of-a-Kind Valentine Gifts
Dick's Sporting Goods, 1/22 — Exercise in Comfort and Style This Year
Sports Authority, 1/22 — Get Rolling This Year...
Old Navy, 1/22 — This Just In! Trendy New Knits for Women
DisneyShopping, 1/22 — Take 20% Off During Our Spring Preview
Staples, 1/22 — 7-Day Online Savings Event - save up to 30%
Alloy, 1/22 — denim starting at $29.50 plus FREE shipping
Brookstone, 1/22 — Smart ideas for sprucing up your bath!
Sony, 1/22 — Sony HDTV: the best way to watch the big game.

AM Inbox: Bears and Colts make perfect couple

RetailEmail.Blogspot monitors the email marketing campaigns of nearly 100 of the top online retailers. Here are highlights from our inbox this morning:

CompUSA, 1/21 — All TVs on Sale - Watch the BIG Game in Style
With the Super Bowl match up now settled, retailers have unleashed a wave of email promoting Big Game gear, with a heavy emphasis on big screen TVs. In addition to this email from CompUSA, other retailers promoting game gear include Crutchfield, Overstock, RitzCamera, TigerDirect, Sears and NFLshop (see Scanner below). Worth noting, RitzCamera included a link to a nice article on photographing football games.

This CompUSA email is also the first one I've seen promoting Vista, which—fingers crossed—is due to be released on Jan. 30. We should be seeing many more emails about Vista in the coming weeks.



Petco, 1/21 — February is Dental Month: Get FREE Shipping at PETCO.com
Making a play for Valentine's Day dollars, Petco is promoting its Valentine's Day Pet Party, which is on Feb. 10 at 2pm at participating stores: “Get FREE Valentine's Day cards, pet photos & more for the love of your life… your pet!” Clicking though you see that they are decorate your own Valentine's Day Pet Cookie, Valentine’s Day Pet Cookie, get a FREE Valentine’s Day Photo with Frame and enter the Best Pet Kiss Contest. (But before you do enter the Best Pet Kiss Contest, make sure you've taken advantage of all the Dental Month specials.)

SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
Crutchfield, 1/21 — Big TV for The Game? Order by 1/25 for free delivery
Overstock, 1/21 — Plan the Ultimate Super Bowl Party
RitzCamera, 1/21 — Are you ready for THE BIG GAME?
TigerDirect, 1/21 — Big Screen Savings: 56" HDTV $1099...37" LCD HDTV $599...Hurry
Sears, 1/21 — Big Savings for Your Big Game Party
NFLshop, 1/21 — NFC Champions - Congratulations to the Bears!
NFLshop, 1/21 — AFC Champions - Congratulations to the Colts!
REI, 1/19 — REI: Get the Gear, Book the Trip
Ross-Simons, 1/19 — Captivating Multicolor Gems & Precious Stones at Ross-Simons
Bloomingdale's, 1/19 — Save 20% Online + Shop For Your Perfect Patent Shoe
Sportsman's Guide, 1/20 — The Lowest Prices ON EARTH! - Plus, Over 100 NEW Items... Valuable Coupon
Lillian Vernon, 1/21 — Simplify Your Life w/ Time-Saving, Gorgeous New Kitchen Gadgets
Bluefly, 1/21 — Be a Little Edgy... [promoting contemporary accessories]

Week-End Trends: Cupid shows new resolve

Email activity and promotional trends during the past week:

The RetailEmail Index slipped 1% to 139 during the week ending Jan. 19, and is down 38%% from where it was four weeks ago.


*The RetailEmail Index is a general measure of the email volume generated by the top 100 online retailers.

Last week, 81% of the retailers in the RetailEmail Index send out at least one email, down from 84% the week prior, and down from 91% during the 4-weeks-ago period



New Year's: There were 9 emails referencing the New Year’s last week, down from 22 the week prior.

Valentine's Day: There were 10 references to Valentine's Day last week, up from 0 references the week before.

AM Inbox: January 19, 2007

*Before diving into this morning's inbox, I wanted to give one last shout out to the EEC's new research report on rendering. Buy the report for $219, or become an EEC member for $179 and get the report for free.

RetailEmail.Blogspot monitors the email marketing campaigns of nearly 100 of the top online retailers. Here are highlights from our inbox this morning:

Apple, 1/18 — Apple eNews: January 18, 2007
Apple's latest edition of eNews is almost entirely about iPhone, with the top four articles being about it. As I've said in past posts, Apple has a nice looking newsletter that's really in sync with the brand in terms of its look and content. Apple produces one of three pure newsletter format email campaigns that I track—the others being EB Games and Palm (although some of TigerDirect, Crutchfield and Orvis' emails are quasi-newsletter in style). EB Games newsletter is really cool as well, with helpful lists of Best Sellers, New Releases and titles Coming Soon. However, one of the things I don't like about these newsletters is that I think they squander their subject line real estate by including their name and issue date. For instance, EB Games sent an issue on Jan. 16 with a top story about the release of World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade that had the subject line EBgames.com Newsletter 01.16.2007. I can understand repeating your brand name in conjunction with the title of your newsletter, but I really don't see the benefit of repeating the date when the delivery date takes care of that. Dropping that would free up room for something descriptive about the content of the newsletter—like Apple eNews: The iPhone Revolution or EBgames.com Newsletter: Join the Burning Crusade—that would make the subscriber even more likely to open the email. To me it's like cover lines on a magazine cover; you include the name of the magazine but then you also call out your top stories. Newsletter subject lines should do the same thing. Any thoughts on this?



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
Target, 1/18 — There’s no place like our Home Sale, plus get an additional 10% off
Gap, 1/18 — Spring shoes for under $100 at Piperlime.
Coldwater Creek, 1/18 — Shop special looks ~ make it an occasion to remember
Home Depot, 1/18 — 10% Off Energy Star Appliances + Brand New Products
Gloss, 1/18 — 3 HOUR BEAUTY BREAK! Today only: Receive 4 Samples + Makeup Bag + Free Shipping.
Spiegel, 1/18 — A Snowfall of Savings! Up to 75% OFF Outerwear & More!
Abercrombie & Fitch, 1/18 — Come see what's classic, casual, and always sexy.
Nordstrom, 1/18 — New Day Dresses for Spring Jewelry
Finish Line, 1/18 — Up to 50% Off Nike, Puma and More
Banana Republic, 1/19 — Suits: mix it up a little + Winter Sale Final Days: up to 70% ...
Impromptu Gourmet, 1/19 — Request your FREE Catalog today!
DisneyShopping, 1/19 — Spring Sneak Peek + FREE Shipping
Sephora, 1/19 — Lash Trend: Extreme Mascaras

AM Inbox: Christmas bells turning into wedding bells

*Before diving into this morning's inbox, I wanted to make sure everyone saw that the EEC released a great new research report on rendering. By a quirk of math, you can buy the report for $219, or become an EEC member for $179 and get the report for free. Go figure.

RetailEmail.Blogspot monitors the email marketing campaigns of nearly 100 of the top online retailers. Here are highlights from our inbox this morning:

Bed Bath & Beyond, 1/17 — Bed Bath and Beyond's Bridal Toolkit
Bed Bath, which has the most popular wedding registry in the country, is hitting the sweet spot with this email, promoting its registry between Christmas (the most popular time for engagements) and Valentine's Day. They have an impressive array of tools, some of which I wasn't aware of—and my wife and I registered at Bed Bath for our wedding last April. Registries are powerful selling tools, so if you have one, promote it to subscribers during the times of year that they are most likely to need it. My only gripe about this email, is that while there's a send-to-a-friend link just above this message, it would have probably been better to put it in the main message, perhaps integrated into the “or know someone who is” language.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
Lillian Vernon, 1/17 — Say "Be Mine" with Valentine's Gifts for Him, Her, & Them
ProFlowers, 1/17 — Your Reward for Ordering Early this Valentine's...
Oriental Trading, 1/17 — Get free shipping plus save 15% for Valentine's Day...
FTD, 1/17 — Order Early for Valentine's Day and Save $10
Costco, 1/17 — Gifts From the Heart
Sony, 1/17 — Start off 2007 with great technology from Sony
Bellacor, 1/16 — Friend, End Dreary Winter Days with Free Shipping and Save up to 50%
Alloy, 1/17 — 25% OFF Best of Winter
JCPenney, 1/17 — First Look at Spring + Free Shipping!

Reportlet: Holiday Frequency Increases

The holiday season is crucial for retailers, so needless to say they advertise and promote themselves like crazy, including ratcheting up their email marketing efforts. Just how much did they crank up the volume? To find out, I looked at 80 major online retailers and compared their email volume during the holidays, which I defined as the five-week period of Nov. 18 to Dec. 22, to the 15 weeks prior, Aug. 5 to Nov. 17. What I found was that retailers increased their email volume by 47% on average, upping their send rate to 2.2 emails per week from 1.5 emails per week.

Of course, that’s just an average increase. To get a better idea of how email frequency changed during the holidays, I looked at the range of email frequencies before the holidays…



…and during the holidays.



I also looked at the range of frequency increases during the holidays.



Then I broke the retailers into groups based on their email frequency before the holidays and looked to see how much each group increased their email volume per week during the holidays.



It’s perhaps not surprising that retailers with lower pre-holiday frequencies had a lot more latitude to increase their frequency during the holidays. The best example of this is Blue Nile, which increased its frequency 425% during the holidays. The jewelry retailer had the statistical benefit of sending out only 0.27 emails per week prior to the holidays. It then ramped up significantly during the holiday period, sending out three emails in the week ending Dec. 22 alone as it pushed its next-day FedEx delivery promotion. While most of the retailers that increased their frequency by more than 125% sent out less than one email per week prior to the holidays, the exception to that was RedEnvelope, which increased its frequency to 4.2 emails per week from 1.07—an increase of 294%.

Meanwhile, the most prolific emailers going into the holiday season were much more limited in their ability to increase their volume. For instance, Bluefly, which sent out an average of 6.07 emails per week prior to the holidays, boosted its frequency just 12% to 6.8 emails per week during the holidays. Similarly, Spiegel increased its frequency by only 21%, to 6.2 from 5.13.

Shockingly, several retailers actually sent fewer emails per week on average during the holidays, including Circuit City, Northern Tool, Dell, TigerDirect, MLB, ProFlowers, Bloomingdale’s and Apple. Clearly these retailers missed out on a golden opportunity to put themselves in front of customers during a period when they were most likely to open their wallets.

I hope these stats help you benchmark your 2006 holiday campaigns and prepare for a merry 2007 holiday season.

AM Inbox: Yes, Virginia, there is a winter

*Before diving into this morning's inbox, I wanted to make sure everyone saw that the EEC released a great new research report on rendering. By a quirk of math, you can buy the report for $219, or become an EEC member for $179 and get the report for free. Tough choice.

RetailEmail.Blogspot monitors the email marketing campaigns of nearly 100 of the top online retailers. Here are highlights from our inbox this morning:

Lands' End, 1/16 — Winter's here! Get boots, coats and more by the weekend!
You can really sense the relieve in this email. The extraordinarily mild winter here on the East Coast has led to great pains for coat manufacturers and sellers. In the weeks following Christmas, retailers have taken a two-pronged approach, promoting both winter gear and spring apparel, especially swimming suits. I imagine that we'll see this schizophrenic approach increasingly early in the season in the years ahead.



Alibris, 1/16 — Book lover, save up to 90% off textbooks at Alibris!
The noteworthy thing in this Alibris email targeting the back-to-college crowd is their use of forward to a friend. It's placed right next to the instructions on how to find textbooks and it asks you to “help” students by forwarding this email along to them so they can save money on their books.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
RedEnvelope, 1/16 — Be mine. Mine. All mine.
Brookstone, 1/16 — The ultimate massage gift package-from Brookstone!
NFLshop, 1/16 — Pre-Order Conference Championship Gear Today
Crutchfield, 1/16 — Free TV delivery in time for The Game
Spiegel, 1/16 — 10 Ways to Keep People Talking About Your Style: Our A-list stylist shows you how!
Blair, 1/16 — One week only - $.99 shipping
Banana Republic, 1/16 — Introducing new premium handbag collections + a chance to win...
L.L. Bean, 1/16 — Colorful New Arrivals--Inspired by Spring
Bass Pro Shops, 1/16 — Reel in a Deal at Basspro.com
Old Navy, 1/16 — Spring's Coolest Swimwear for Women, Starting at $16.50!
J. Crew, 1/16 — They're here...the new ballet flats
Crate & Barrel's CB2, 1/16 — Check out our new spring catalog

AM Inbox: Fluffy gives it 5 stars

RetailEmail.Blogspot monitors the email marketing campaigns of nearly 100 of the top online retailers. Here are highlights from our inbox this morning:

Petsmart, 1/15 — Review a Product & Read What Other Pet Parents Said
The retailer is encouraging its subscribers to get involved in the Petsmart community by writing a product review and reading a product review. Customers that read a product review are much more likely to buy the product so this is a message worth sending. Having a healthy community of product reviewers also gives you the ability to tout your “top rated” products, as Petsmart does in this email.



Circuit City, 1/14 — Hurry—3-Day Sale ends Tuesday at Circuit City
Circuit City, 1/14 — Don't miss it! 3-Day Sale at Circuit City
It looks like Circuit City was doing some A/B testing on the subject line for this email. Unfortunately, both emails had some image rendering problems.



Art.com, 1/15 — Up to 30% Off - Warm-up Winter with Art
Art is one of those products where the more you know about it, the more likely you are to buy it. This that in mind, Art.com included for the first time in its emails a box promoting its Artifacts program, which uses a multimedia presentation to explain the meaning and elements of particular paintings.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
Abebooks, 1/12 — The Avid Reader: Chad White, See the Most Expensive Books of 2006
Northern Tool, 1/12 — Chad, 10 Percent Off Northern Industrial Power, Hand and Air Tools
Dick's Sporting Goods, 1/15 — It's Now or Never! NFL Playoff Gear is Here!
Orvis, 1/15 — The perfect solution for winter's mess [promoting door mats]
Wal-Mart, 1/15 — Bright Ideas for a Healthier You
Costco, 1/14 — More Than $4000 In Savings In Exclusive Online Offers!
Spiegel, 1/15 — What's New for Spring: Shop the Season's Most-Wanted Trends Today!
Sam's Club, 1/15 — Make A Clean Sweep with Sam's Club! [promoting janitorial products]
Finish Line, 1/12 — Remember 1986 with Nike Air Force Formidable II
REI, 1/12 — January Clearance Starts Today
Sears, 1/12 — New Year Savings & Closeouts
Sportsman's Guide, 1/12 — Don't hunt around, SAVE! Buy your Hunting Gear from The Guide
Ross-Simons, 1/12 — Quality Diamond Engagement Rings-Best Price Anywhere!
Alloy, 1/13 — getaway - 236 NEW styles for spring
Target, 1/14 — Save in Kitchen + Dining, Bed + Bath and Furniture, plus get 10% off
CompUSA, 1/14 — Get ready for Game Day with up to $500 in savings on Televisions

Week-End Trends: New Year’s celebration continues

Email activity and promotional trends during the past week:

The RetailEmail Index up 8% to 139 during the week ending Jan. 12, and is down 42% from where it was four weeks ago, which was during the height of the holiday season for email marketers.


*The RetailEmail Index is a general measure of the email volume generated by the top 100 online retailers.

Last week, 83% of the retailers in the RetailEmail Index send out at least one email, up from 80% the week prior, but down from 94% from the 4-weeks-ago period



New Year's: There were 22 emails referencing the New Year last week, down from 47 the week prior.

Valentine's Day: There were no references to Valentine's Day last week, down from 3 references the week before.

Easter: There were also no references to Easter last week, after we got our first reference the week prior.

Ping Time: Retailers are missing promotional opportunities with transactional emails

Our latest spin around the mediasphere turned up the following nuggets:

>>Silverpop has released a study that looks at how 84 top online retailers use transactional email and the types of promotional offers they include. One of the key findings in the study is that just one in five transactional emails studied included promotional offers within purchase confirmation notices. >>Follow the ping

>>EROI’s Return on Subscriber blog talks about paper opt-ins and blacklists and asks, “When did paper become the least trustworthy form of consent?” >>Follow the ping

>>Return Path CEO and Chairman Matt Blumberg gives us his five email predictions for 2007. His No. 1 prediction? “More spam is on the way.” >>Follow the ping

>>On Mark Brownlow's No Man Is An Iland blog, he analyzes 12 months worth of his newsletter data to discover the articles that got the most clicks. To see his top 9… >>Follow the ping

>>Tamara over at B2BEmailMarketing pointed out research from CDMS that revealed that 31% of top U.K. companies are not complying with the EU Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications, which requires that people opt-in to email lists, more than 2 years after it became law in the UK in December 2003. >>Follow the ping

AM Inbox: Google Checkout's cheerleaders

RetailEmail.Blogspot monitors the email marketing campaigns of nearly 100 of the top online retailers. Here are highlights from our inbox this morning:

RitzCamera, 1/11 — Save $10.00 With Google Checkout!
RitzCamera is promoting Google Checkout yet again in this email, which inspired me to do a quick search to see which other major retailers have been mentioning Google Checkout in their emails and how often. ShopPBS was the first major e-tailer to tout Google Checkout in their emails, mentioning it in a Sept. 28 email (see Sept. 28 post). Since then, ShopPBS has mentioned it only one other time. Petco has mentioned it once, Bluefly twice, eBags seven times, and RitzCamera six times, including this email. But by far the biggest cheerleader for Google Checkout has been Buy.com, which has mentioned it in 34 emails, including heavy mentions during the height of the holiday season.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
Lands' End, 1/12 — Introducing Lands’ End Sport.
NFLshop, 1/12 — Be a Saint Playoff Tees & Coin - Commemorate Their 2006 Playoff Run
L.L. Bean, 1/11 — Limited-Time Savings on Winter Favorites
Sportsman's Guide, 1/11 — New Look for the New Year Domestic Deals from The Guide!
Abercrombie & Fitch, 1/11 — Spring at A&F - it's new, it's here
Harry & David, 1/11 — Save big on America’s favorite gourmet gifts
Home Depot, 1/11 — Get Organized This Winter - Shop Now!
Nordstrom, 1/11 — New Office Looks from Semantiks Nike Spring 2007 Trunk Show
ShopPBS, 1/12 — Free Shipping for Email Members Only!
Bluefly, 1/12 — Gotta Getaway? [promoting swimwear]
Dell, 1/12 — The Dell Inspiron E1505: Crisp, cool graphics for your gaming needs.

AM Inbox: An reminder so we don't forget about email reminders

RetailEmail.Blogspot monitors the email marketing campaigns of nearly 100 of the top online retailers. Here are highlights from our inbox this morning:

Lillian Vernon, 1/11 — Introducing Lilly's Reminders - Sign up for Free & Save $5
Lillian Vernon has introduced an email reminder service. Just register and sign up for reminders, and the retailer will send you emails—even text your cellphone—to remind you of important gifting dates. Lillian also throws in a nice incentive, sign up for five reminders and you get $5 off your next order. Reminder services are another great way that email can become more personalized and customer-relevant.



Banana Republic, 1/11 — New size offerings: The most sizes, only online
Looking to use its online channel to serve big and tall customers, which are difficult to serve in stores because of space limitations, Banana Republic is touting its wide size selection. Banana also uses this email to try to reach the friends of subscribers that are in the big-and-tall category, asking subscribers to tell others about their expanded size selection online and prominently featuring a forward-to-a-friend link. This is a very good example of how send to a friend can be integrated into an email. I regularly see missed opportunities in similar emails and especially in “friends and family” emails, but Banana nails this.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
DisneyShopping, 1/10 — Welcome to Great New Savings on Our Home Collection!
Crutchfield, 1/10 — Big TV + big savings = a great way to watch the game
Circuit City, 1/11 — Coupon inside! Save big at Circuit City
Spiegel, 1/10 — Exclusive Invitation: Save up to 60% during our Private Swim Sale!
Victoria's Secret, 1/11 — Swim 2007 Available Now. Plus, Free Shipping Offer. Details Inside.
Spiegel, 1/11 — Our Spring 2007 Signature Collection has arrived! Shop Now & Pay Nothing until May!
Target, 1/11 — Free shipping on bedding for a true-to-you bedroom, plus get 10% off
Bluefly, 1/11 — What's Your Fit?
Gloss, 1/11 — Brand NEW Beauty + FREE SHIPPING at Gloss.com
Hallmark, 1/10 — Upgrade your bouquet for free
Reebok, 1/11 — Start the year off right!

Oopsy Hall of Fame: 2006 Inductees

This is the kind of fame that nobody wants, but highlighting the email marketing slips and gaffes by some of the world’s largest online retailers drives home the importance of being careful with your brand in a medium that’s lightning fast. This year’s inductees should be cautionary tales for everyone in the industry, who will hopefully avoid these kinds of errors in 2007.

Perhaps not unsurprisingly, a great many errors occurred in subject lines. Clearly some of these subject lines were left until last, and sometimes they were never gotten to:

HP, 10/9 — TBD

Overstock, 10/11 — XXFIRST_NAMEXX, shop our CLEARANCE EVENT
Interestingly, Overstock didn’t require or even request my name when I signed up for their newsletter.

Nordstrom, 10/5 — Winter's Best New Coats Free Shipping (Details Inside)Winter's Best New Coats Free Shipping (Details Inside)

Orvis, 11/22 — Free Ship. Ends Nov 26. Must Act Now.

Home Depot, 7/27, 4 pm — Relax and Entertain – No Shipping Charges on All Patio Furniture
Presumably this is an en-dash or em-dash that didn’t make it through Home Depot's email system.

Lands’ End, 11/10 — Turtlenecks with Outerwear HQ banner
I really liked this mistake because they appeared to have a system in place to minimize the damage should a non-final subject line slip through. This is clearly a production subject line that describes the content of the email: a turtleneck promotion on top, followed by a banner promoting its Outerwear HQ. While not as good as the final polished subject line would have been, it’s much better than “TBD.” Other retailers should consider following Land’s End’s lead on this, giving their in-production emails names that plainly describe what’s in them. That way, if an email does slip through the cracks with that production subject line, it’s not a total disaster.

Overstock, 12/5 — 12 Days O Christmas - Pirates of the Caribean for $9.99
They misspelled “Caribbean,” but who the heck cares when you’re selling it for $9.99?! Apparently subscribers didn’t give a hoot. Shoppers flooded into Overstock’s site, causing them to list the DVD as “sold out” to alleviate traffic as the site started to sputter under the crush of visitors, according to an Internet Retailer article.

Bloomingdale’s, 11/8 — Together We Can Make a World of Difference
A nice campaign, but Bloomingdale’s didn’t capitalize the C in AmeriCares, which made me trip over it when I first read it. Fortunately they styled the name correctly throughout the rest of the email, but that first reference in particular is important. When I was getting my Master’s in Journalism at New York University, I had a professor, former New York Daily News editor Dick Blood, that would fail any assignment that had a proper noun misspelled, even if the rest of it was Pulitzer worthy. That’s just how important it is to get names right.



Circuit City, 12/5 — Circuit City’s live webcast with Rudy Giuliani--don’t miss it!
I actually had to do a little online sleuthing to find out exactly what was missing here. The main message here should have been about former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and New York City Fire Commissioner Nick Scoppetta joining Circuit City in the launch of the “firedog Across America” campaign honoring America’s firefighters, and should have included details about getting the webcast. Instead, they repeated the “nominate your local firehouse” message.



Apple, 11/2 — Apple eNews: November 2, 2006
The runarounds on the pictures weren’t done properly. As a result, the pictures obscure the text at the beginning of these two articles.





Apple, 10/5 — Apple eNews: October 5, 2006
And in this issue of Apple eNews, you’ll see that the issue date is June 1, 2006, despite the fact that it was delivered on Oct. 5 and clearly intended for that date according to the subject line.



Crutchfield, 11/13 — Bose holiday specials, plus free shipping
Missing the apostrophes in “I’m” and “you’ll”:

Hello Electronics Fan,
This week, Im proud to announce the certification of our call centers by J.D. Power and Associates* for providingAn Outstanding Customer Service Experience. This distinction acknowledges the strong commitment by our Sales Advisors, Tech Support Advisors, and Customer Service representatives to providing top-notch service, every step of the way. Give them a call — youll see what I mean.

AllPosters, 7/26 — 30% off - 1 Day Sale - Try Our Professional Framing!
Watch those countdowns. After “2 Days Left,” you have “1 Day Left.”



EBGames, 7/25 — EBgames.com Newsletter 7.25.2006
Some of the coding is showing in the search button.



And those were just some of the more glaring slip ups. There were several minor typos, misspelling and style inconsistencies as well, but most probably went unnoticed by subscribers.

So, assuming you notice the mistake quickly, or it’s pointed out to you, what do you do? Do you run a correction? In journalism, this is a question that’s asked all the time. My advice as an editor to you is to only correct material mistakes, those that change or skew the understanding of the message. So for instance, I would not have bothered subscribers by resending a Sept. 26 email from Drugstore.com (Last Chance – get Free Shipping on your next order) after having sent an email without a subject line:



On the other hand, I would have corrected the Circuit City-Giuliani email I mentioned above if given the opportunity because the meaning of the email was severely affected. I also agree with Sharper Image’s decision to follow up on an Oct. 12 email (Save $20! San Antonio Store Anniversary Special) that they apparently sent to everyone on their mailing list, instead of just the subscribers in the San Antonio area. The next day they sent an email (Oops! Texas isn’t THAT big! Save $20 anywhere.) that poked a little fun at themselves for the mistake while also making the offer good at all their stores nationwide. It was a nice mea culpa, and the subject line was so good that it made it into my Subject Line Hall of Fame.

AM Inbox: Vetting catalog items via email marketing

RetailEmail.Blogspot monitors the email marketing campaigns of nearly 100 of the top online retailers. Here are highlights from our inbox this morning:

Lillian Vernon, 1/10 — Save 15% on Cool Web-Only Items Not Available in the Catalog
This email reminded me that email marketing is a great way to tout merchandise that you're trying to vet for your catalog. Instead of paying printing and postage costs to promote an item in print that may not do well, use email marketing to test it first. If it does well, include it in the catalog, and if not look for another item. I don't know if this is what Lillian Vernon is doing, but they are spinning it the right way: They make it sound like this merchandise is special or exclusive, when really they may just be testing out a limited purchase of the item from the supplier.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
OfficeMax, 1/9 — Save up to $50 on Select Products for Tax Preparation
Gap, 1/9 — New Year, New Look
Coach, 1/9 — Start the year fresh: new satchels, footwear, totes...
Saks Fifth Avenue, 1/9 — Freshen Up! MEN'S CLASSICS have staying power.
Crate & Barrel, 1/9 — Introducing Everyday Best Buys
JCPenney, 1/10 — Resort Shop: Travel in Style with New Looks & Luggage!
Saks Fifth Avenue, 1/10 — NEW Nanette Lepore + SHOP & GET A GIFT CARD
Bloomingdale's, 1/10 — Introducing L.A.M.B. + Extra 30% Off Fall Merchandise

Season Finale: Christmas 2006

A look back on seasonal trends, email activity and standout B2C marketing during the Christmas season:

Start to finish: The first reference to the holidays was by Sam’s Club on Sept. 6. The last reference was by Sportsman’s Guide on Dec. 28.

First references by retailers: Instead of doing a distribution curve of holiday emails like I usually do, this time I’m giving you a chart indicating when 89 of the top online retailers made their first reference to the holidays in an email. The most popular days for first references were Nov. 13 and 7, followed by Nov. 17, 16, 14, 6, 3 and Oct. 31.

(And for those of you that want to get a good idea of the distribution curve for holiday emails, just look at the RetailEmail Index chart from this past week. You’ll see that email volume spiked in the weeks ending Dec. 8, 15 and 22.)



Most interesting email: Gloss’s Dec. 4 email (Make Your Holidays a Little Merrier with 2 EXCLUSIVE GIFTS! Only at Gloss.com) was the most interesting to me because it tries to tackle what has become an expected holiday giveaway: free shipping. Unfortunately retailers have now trained consumers to expect free shipping, which can seriously dent the bottom line. But to stay competitive, retailers now have to offer it. In this email, Gloss offers an alternative, giving customers the option between free shipping and a sample of Gloss Holiday Favorites and a makeup bag. Offering free shipping puts Gloss on par with every other retailer that's offering it, but then they offer them something else that's attractive but presumably less expensive. (We're assuming that the samples cost less than shipping on average, otherwise this is not a smart option to give shoppers.) The samples would have made a great stocking stuffer, so this offer should have been pretty effective during the holiday season, since small gifts like that can be hard to come by.



Jo-Ann tries some similar in an email on Dec. 14 (50% off coupon or free 2-day express upgrade), but this particular offer forces the customer to work out the math to figure out which is the better option for them, which may frustrate them or make them anxious about their choice. The genius behind the Gloss offer is that the sample set can’t be bought and therefore the price of it can’t be compared to the shipping cost.



Noteworthy trends: I was really intrigued by all the variation in the 12 Days of Christmas campaigns by retailers. Some started really early, like NFLshop.com, which started on Nov. 27; while others started really late. The retailer that was latest to the game was Blair, which launched its 12 Days campaign in a Dec. 12 email (Finish your holiday shopping with this special offer), leaving it very little time before shipping became difficult (see Dec. 13 post).

Recognizing that retailers need to time such campaigns to the shopping habits of their customers, I like Avon’s 12 Days campaign best (also see Dec. 13 post). Their campaign was timed so that it ended on the last day for guaranteed Christmas delivery, and unlike most other retailers, Avon ran its 12 Days campaign via email everyday, not just through its website. Avon usually sends an average of three emails a week, so sending an email for 12 straight days is about twice as much as normal, but since the campaign makes it clear when the extra emails will stop (after 12 days) and because it was the run-up to Christmas, I thought subscribers would understand and not be angry about the additional emails.



Akin to the 12 Days campaigns, were the holiday countdowns. A few counted down until Christmas, but most counted down until the last day for guaranteed Christmas delivery. JCPenney had the coolest countdown, in large part because it was a dynamic countdown. The email knew how many days left till Christmas and a cute little girl would pop up in the upper right-hand corner with a box showing how many days remained. If you opened the same email several days later, it would display the up-to-date number. And now that the holidays are over, the little girl has laid down her Santa Claus hat and left us with a holiday greeting. Very slick.



Standout subject lines:
Harry & David, 12/5 — We've got the Pears ... who really wants the partridge or tree?
RedEnvelope, 11/13 — Let's hear it for the wise men. [promoting gifts for men]
Gap, 11/15 — Gap Girl's Holiday Survival Guide: Solutions, Ideas & Tips
EBags, 11/21 — Deck the Halls, Avoid the Malls: 15% Off
Target, 11/1 — Got a list? We've got the gift
Old Navy, 11/6 — Fleece on Earth: Women's Jackets, Starting at $24.50
RedEnvelope, 11/29 — Make them go gaga. [promoting gifts for babies]
Lands' End, 12/12 — Great Gifts That Will Warm Their Hearts (and Their Toes).
Target, 12/19 — No time? No problem. Kiss your to-buy list 'Good-Bye.'
Orvis, 12/21 — Same-day delivery. Perfect last-minute gifts. [promoting e-gift cards]
Target, 11/15 — Just what you always wanted: Free shipping on 15,000 items
JCPenney, 12/7 — Just in the Nick of Time: Our Biggest Sale + Free Shipping

Previous posts about Christmas:
12/27 — Reportlet: E-gift card promotions
12/26 — AM Inbox: Reeling in gift card dollars
12/22 — AM Inbox: Guaranteed not to arrive in time for Christmas
12/20 — AM Inbox: First after-Christmas sale reference
12/17 — Week-End Trends: Massive surge in email volume as shipping deadline nears
12/15 — AM Inbox: Don't let your gift cards go naked
12/13 — AM Inbox: Belated countdown
11/28 — AM Inbox: Special Cyber Monday edition
11/15 — AM Inbox: Even Santa’s elves need extra time for these
11/9 — AM Inbox: Special holiday email series
11/4 — Week-End Trends: Santa dances on Halloween’s grave
11/2 — AM Inbox: Too much Christmas spirit
9/6 — AM Inbox: First Holiday and winter references