Reportlet: Retailers Missing Opportunities by Shunning Onboarding Emails

The vast majority of retailers don’t bother with onboarding emails, missing an opportunity to educate new shoppers and ease them into their email campaigns. Instead, most retailers just drop new subscribers into their existing email stream, which can lead to jarring email messages in some cases.

This discovery comes out of the work I did on this year’s newly released Retail Email Subscription Benchmark Study. While the subscription study included more than a dozen retailers that I wasn’t already tracking via RetailEmail.Blogspot, it appears that only about 6% of retailers sent onboarding emails. And two-thirds of those sent only one onboarding email.

This 9-page reportlet goes on to discuss the tactics used by retailers in their onboarding emails, presents a list of onboarding email elements to consider, and includes several examples of creatives.

Visit the EEC’s Whitepaper Room to download “Retailers Missing Opportunities by Shunning Onboarding Emails,” which is free for EEC members and available for a nominal charge to non-members. Not a member? Learn more about becoming a member of the Email Experience Council.

Other related research from the Email Experience Council:
Retail Welcome Email Benchmark Study (September 2006)
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AM Inbox: 91,300% increase from Buy.com email

>>Subscription Study Released: This 37-page study presents a range of best practices and emerging best practices from 118 top online retailers. Read more.

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

Buy.com, 7/30 — Western Digital 500GB HD = $119.95
For anyone who doubts the power of email, take a look at the effect of this Buy.com email on the sales of the Logitech USB Silver QuickCam Ultra Vision, the first item featured in this email. Here is the email…



…and here is the affect on sales as of this morning. Email totally plucked this product out of obscurity and thrust it into the spotlight.



Orvis, 7/30 — New catalogs. New look. New items.
There’s been a bit of talk over the last couple of months about how best to use email with direct mail. Using email to tandem with catalogs is one opportunity, and Orvis does this very well, using email to alert subscribers that the latest catalog has been sent to them and giving them sneak peeks at upcoming catalogs—as they do in this email.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
Sam’s Club, 7/30 — Preparing for Back to College
Kmart, 7/30 — Save on jeans, fall fashions and more
Bloomingdale’s, 7/30 — Find Your Perfect Pair Of Wide Leg Jeans
Old Navy, 7/30 — 4 Days Left to Stock Up & Save, Plus Introducing New Loungewear
J. Crew, 7/30 — They're here...new arrivals
Dick’s Sporting Goods, 7/30 — Free Shipping on Select Team Gear
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AM Inbox: Looking for friends in all the right places

>>Subscription Study Released: This 37-page study presents a range of best practices and emerging best practices from 118 top online retailers. Read more.

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

AbeBooks, 7/27 — AbeBooks Avid Reader: Silver Screens, Kenyan Books, and June's Most Expensive Sales
AbeBooks is now on Facebook and is looking for friends among their subscribers. They appear to be very new to the social networking site as most of their groups have a few dozen members at most. Perhaps they are using secondary references in their emails to start to build up a critical mass, then move on to primary email references before pushing it on their blog and website.

Also worth noting: Normally AbeBooks uses the subject line “The Avid Reader:” and then lists a few key words and phrases to pique the recipient’s interest. However, in this email, they’ve started including their brand in the subject line: “AbeBooks Avid Reader.” (See Reportlet: Branded Subject Lines Underused by Retailers for more on branded subject lines.)



Macy’s, 7/29 — Introducing furniture - get 0% interest until 2009 with your Macy's card!
Macy’s announces to their subscribers that they’ve started selling furniture online.



Chadwick’s, 7/27 — Give Us 3 Minutes & Get Up To $30 OFF!
Sounding a bit like a Geico commercial, Chadwick’s tries to entice subscribers to complete a customer feedback survey.

SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
SmartBargains, 7/27 — Merry? Very. Just 1 week left of Christmas in July
DisneyShopping, 7/27 — Save Up to 40% in Our Back-to-School Shop
Sports Authority, 7/29 — Get All of Your Back to School Needs!
Kmart, 7/27 — Sales Sneak Peak + Dorm Essentials
B&H Photo Video, 7/27 — You are Invited: Photography and Video Seminars
Neiman Marcus, 7/29 — Shop Ken Downing's fall favorites + Fantasies become reality in his couture wrap-up
Sears, 7/28 — Midnight Savings: 20% Off Appliances + Free Shipping ends 6 AM
Drugstore.com, 7/29 — Up to 30% off Burt's Bees, Email Exclusive
Bloomingdale’s, 7/27 — Shop Our One Day Home Sale, July 28th. Preview Day, July 27th.
Staples, 7/27 — Save up to $200 on select all-in-ones
Ross-Simons, 7/27 — Only $95! Hammered Oval Pendant with Tiger's Eye Necklace.
Nordstrom, 7/27 — Anniversary Sale: Save on Top Trends for Fall
Drs. Foster & Smith, 7/27 — Email Exclusive: One Week Only Bonus Red Tag Sale
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Week-End Trends: Starting to cram for back to school

Email activity and promotional trends during the past week:

The RetailEmail Index rose 13% to 173 during the week ending July 27, and is up 4% from where it was four weeks ago. However, it’s worth noting that I rolled over several retailers in the Index this week. In the process, on average, retailers’ with lower frequencies were replaced by retailers with higher frequencies. So this week’s comparisons probably are not too telling.


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

Last week, 90% of the retailers in the RetailEmail Index send out at least one email, up from 85% the week prior, and up from 83% during the 4-weeks-ago period. Again it's worth noting that the sample has changed a bit.



Back to School: The retailers in the RetailEmail Index sent 32 emails referencing back to school last week, up from 14 the week before.

Christmas (Dec. 25): There were 4 emails referencing Christmas last week, up from 3 emails the week prior.

Other things referenced by retailers: fall, denim, Harry Potter, summer

Ping Time: Email is the ‘digital glue’ of web 2.0

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

>>Here’s a great presentation from The Trend Junkie. It’s targeted at the education market but there are takeaways that are relevant to retailers, who are wisely increasingly reaching out to engage customers with content. >>Follow the ping

>>MindComet discovers a php randomizing code in a SKYY Vodka email that has definite applications in retail emails. >>Follow the ping

>>Douglas Karr at the Marketing Technology Blog talks about the differences between RSS and email. >>Follow the ping

>>Tamara at Be Relevant discusses transactional emails and shares some tips from a new e-Dialog report. >>Follow the ping
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AM Inbox: The more content the merrier

>>Subscription Study Released: This 37-page study presents a range of best practices and emerging best practices from 118 top online retailers. Read more.

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

Coach, 7/27 — Browse Coach's New Online Magazine & August Newness
Buy.com has Buy.tv and Ralph Lauren has RLTV. And there are many retailers with blogs (explore tag: Blogs Tie-ins). Coach has decided to go a different direction and start Coach Clique, an online magazine. It feels a lot like Lucky Magazine with lots of images and bite-sized writing, so it’s a very quick read. It will be interesting to see how Coach incorporates Clique into their future email campaigns.



Home Depot, 7/26 — Hot Offers on Appliances + Free Delivery
Email can drive subscribers to stores with in-store-only coupons, but don’t forget about store events like product demonstrations, truck shows, fashion shows, clinics, new store opening events, etc. In this email, Home Depot recruits subscribers for in-store clinics on constructing the perfect closet.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
Sony, 7/26 — Step out and be seen with a new Sony VAIO.
Finish Line, 7/26 — Want shoes that look 30 years old? Nike Vintage at the Finish Line!
Urban Outfitters, 7/26 — New Place? [promoting redecorating]
Abercrombie & Fitch, 7/26 — Jeans Are Now Sexier With New Fashion Styles And Classic Vintage Washes
Spiegel, 7/26 — 5-Hour Lunchtime Sale: Work & Weekend Favorites, from $12!
Cabela’s, 7/26 — E-mail Only Early Fall Sale @ Cabelas.com
Bloomingdale’s, 7/26 — Extra 40% Off Already Reduced Spring/Summer Items
ShopNBC, 7/26 — See What a BIG FREE Shipping Clearance Looks Like
SmartBargains, 7/26 — Choose 2 deals for $99. We'll ship for free.
Macy’s, 7/26 — Free shipping - an email exclusive at our Semi-Annual Home Sale!
Linens ’n Things, 7/26 — FREE Shipping + Super Sale Starts Now
Neiman Marcus, 7/26 — HURRY: Free OVERNIGHT Shipping is almost over!
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AM Inbox: Back-to-school solutions for hotel rooms

>>Subscription Study Released: This 37-page study presents a range of best practices and emerging best practices from 118 top online retailers. Read more.

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

Brookstone, 7/25 — Back to school solutions - create the perfect dorm room!
Something a little amiss with the picture in this email? Doesn’t much look like a dorm room to me, and that doesn’t look like a student either. It’s smart to reuse creatives when it’s appropriate, but I don’t think it works in this case, not when other retailers are using images with dorm room feels. Because the context is wrong, readers may think this product is not for them.



Newegg.com, 7/25 — $179.99 HannsG 19" LCD Monitor with FREE HP Printer, and More!
In this email, the subject line refers to an item that’s way down in the creative, well below the fold. I’m not sure if this is a tactic that’s designed to get readers to scroll down through the email looking for the deal described in the subject line, but I personally find this tactic confusing and unfriendly—and honestly a little insulting. It seemed like a mistake until I finally saw the deal mentioned. I wonder how many people were intrigued by the subject line and then quickly gave up on the email when they couldn’t immediately see the deal in the email.

Road Runner Sports, 7/25 — RUN SMART :: Get your pen & paper ready...
Road Runner Sports highlights a couple of videos in this email. Notice that the “Watch the Video” link appears before the “Shop…” link. That communicates that their primary goal is to educate. It’s a softer sell that’s likely to build a stronger relationship and boost sales longterm.



J. Jill, 7/25 — Everyone loves a great sale. Styles are now up to 70% off!
J. Jill is seeking votes for their Nature of Compassion design contest candidates. They had this contest last July as well (see July 13 AM Inbox) and announced the winner in October (see Oct. 26 AM Inbox). Oh, and the tag line at the top of this email is great.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
RadioShack, 7/25 — Before they hurry to class, hurry to RadioShack.
Sharper Image, 7/25 — End of Summer? Make it Back2s'Cool!
Fingerhut, 7/25 — Fingerhut.com has everything you need for college!
Target, 7/25 — Room service: Spend $125 in Furniture, save 15%.
Diamond.com, 7/25 — Elegance from the Mystical Far East. Save 20%
Saks Fifth Avenue, 7/25 — Everything NEW for FALL
Norm Thompson, 7/25 — You get a 3-day head start on NEW MARKDOWNS!
SmartBargains, 7/25 — $1 Million Sheet Liquidation. Shop now for Free Shipping.
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Retail Email Subscription Benchmark Study: Executive Summary

Sponsored by:

The Direct Marketing Association’s Email Experience Council recently signed up for the email newsletters of 118 of the top online retailers tracked via RetailEmail.Blogspot. What we found was that there’s a clear trend toward subscription processes that are quick and easy, and increasingly transparent.

“The old adage ‘you only get one chance to make a good first impression’ transcends to an email marketer’s efforts in creating a good opt-in experience,” says Elie Ashery, president and CEO of email marketing software and services company Gold Lasso, the sponsor of the study. “The opt-in process sets the tone of how a future email relationship between a company and customer will unfold.”

Along with this shift toward greater ease of subscribing, the confirmation page is rising in importance. Rather than making customers complete long subscription forms, many retailers are now allowing people to subscribe with just an email address and then allowing them to express delivery and content preferences on the subscription confirmation page.

Also, addressing privacy concerns is a best practice that’s seeing adoption approach the 50% mark, and providing a sample newsletters is a clear emerging best practice that should help reduce opt-outs, with nearly 12% or major online retailers doing that.

Ashery adds, “Lasting impressions taken from the opt-in process can be directly linked to the ease of subscribing, relevant subscription choices available, the speed that a confirmed opt-in email is delivered, and most importantly, information on what the subscriber should expect from their email relationship such as content, frequency and format.”

On the content front, 28% of retailers offer more than one content selection, with it ranging from two all the way up to the 50 content options offered by Amazon.com. Nearly 6% of retailers offer a local store update.

When it comes to transparency on frequency, however, retailers do a poor job. Not even 7% of retailers give subscribers any kind of idea how many emails to expect. And only one retailer, Coldwater Creek, allows subscribers to opt to receive a monthly only email.

Format-wise, nearly 12% of retailers offer plain-text versions of their newsletters during the sign-up process. Because of the superior responses from HTML emails, retailers may be hesitant to give subscribers this option.

Here are some other findings from the study:

• Only 3% of major online retailers use a double opt-in subscription process.

• Only 92% of retailers have an email sign-up form or link on their homepage.

• More than 43% of retailers allow customers to sign up for email with one click from their homepage.

• The subscriber’s name (31%) and zip code (18%) were the two most often required pieces of information.

The full study presents a range of best practices and emerging best practices for your consideration, as well as a formerly popular practice that appears to be falling out of favor. It also includes numerous examples of creatives to help illustrate each point.

Get the Full Report
Visit the Whitepaper Room to download the full 37-page report, which is free for eec platinum members, available at a discount to eec gold and silver members, and available for $199 for non-members. Not a member? Learn more about becoming a member of the Email Experience Council.

Other Research Reports Available:
Animation in Retail Emails Study
Refer a Friend Benchmark Study
Send to a Friend Benchmark Study
Retail Welcome Email Benchmark Study
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AM Inbox: Animation is a proxy for the web 2.0 video experience

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

Gap, 7/24 — New Jean Fits for Every Body
I was speaking to a reporter from PROMO Magazine the other day about the results of our Animation in Retail Emails Study and I said that one of the reasons that I believe that animation has come back is that emails are trying to mirror the web 2.0 experience—namely that there’s a connection between the popularity of video and the resurgence of animation. Since embedded video doesn’t (yet) work in email, animation is the best proxy. Gap clearly makes this connection in this email, using animation to promote its new fit videos.



Here's the animated portion of that email:


Gap, 7/24 — Exclusive Offer Just For You. Limited Time Only.
Here’s a re-engagement email from Gap. (Explore Reactivation tag.)



Backcountry, 7/24 — Backcountry Newsletter - Pack Test, Green Gearheads, and Skiing in July
Backcountry, another one of the new retailers that I’m tracking, has a solid monthly newsletter that they send in addition to more frequency postcard-sized email. There are lots of good things going on in this newsletter: (1) they have an “In This Newsletter” box that’s high enough in the email to appear in preview panes, (2) they feature a review of the month, which encourages customers to share their opinions, (3) their “Employee Gear Closet” helps them show a human face (see Reportlet: Personality Goes a Long Way) and helps build credibility, and (4) they have a good mix of articles and product spotlights. A newsletter with good balance.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
Dell, 7/24 — Back to School Sale - One Day Only
CompUSA, 7/24 — Go Back to School with Award Winning Technology from Sony
Hanna Andersson, 7/24 — Boys No-Brainer Dressing Seven Days A Week
Alloy, 7/24 — best NEW denim styles + last week to save 15%
Banana Republic, 7/24 — New fall silhouettes are here
Eddie Bauer, 7/24 — Now Save up to 60%, plus New Markdowns On Your Summer Favorites.
RedEnvelope, 7/24 — Find summer treasures- shop our new jewelry collections.
Petco, 7/24 — PETCO High-Tech Pet Gadgets + Free Shipping!
SmartBargains, 7/24 — Aerobed(R): $59.98. Wake up and smell the bargain.
Costco, 7/24 — Costco's vehicle sales and auto loan programs
Crutchfield, 7/24 — Save on HDTVs and get expert help from start to finish
Nascar, 7/24 — NEW Fall Pit Caps! Plus, Save More when you Buy More
Neiman Marcus, 7/24 — ROCK & REPUBLIC gift with purchase during Back to Cool + Free Shipping
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AM Inbox: Building MySpace-like communities

>>FTC Spam Summit Briefing: Join Michael Della Penna and Jordan Cohen of Epsilon and Jerry Cerasale of the DMA for an members-only EEC meeting tomorrow afternoon to discuss key takeaways from the Federal Trade Commission's Spam Summit 2007. Not an EEC member? Join today to receive the call-in information for this important meeting.

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

PetSmart, 7/23 — Training aids and a new online pet community!
PetSmart announces the launch of an online pet community, which allows you to create a profile for your pet, browse the profiles of other pets, take surveys, read expert articles, and use the message boards. Looks like a really good stab at taking on social networking site Petster. If successful, the community would virally attract new consumers to the PetSmart brand. The trick here is not to be heavy-handed and interfering with the community too much, awkwardly interjecting with the PetSmart brand and products. I wonder if this other retailers that are strong in their category to build similar MySpace-like communities. Cooking.com, Crutchfield and Bass Pro Shops have forums, which is certainly a start toward building a richer community experience. Brands like REI and Orvis are also potential candidates for these kinds of communities.



DisneyShopping, 7/23 — Email Exclusive: Free Shipping on Our Disney Store Studio Collection
Following the announcement that DisneyShopping has become the exclusive online destination for the Disney Store (see July 17 AM Inbox), DisneyShopping has changed its logo to bring in the Disney Store branding.



Neiman Marcus, 7/23 — FREE SHIPPING: How do you make your mark?
This back-to-school Neiman Marcus email has a couple of nice elements: an interactive poll and a video of Marc by Marc Jacobs’ fall collection. Neiman has incorporated videos into their emails on several occasions now.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
Diamond.com, 7/23 — Christmas in July Sale! SAVE 20% plus Free Shipping!
Kmart, 7/23 — Save on Dorm Essentials & Back to School Clothes
Sam’s Club, 7/23 — Getting Ready for Back to School with Sam's Club
Wal-Mart, 7/23 — Gear Up for College
NFLshop, 7/23 — Back to School - Save 50% on Reebok Footwear
Dick’s Sporting Goods, 7/23 — Free Shipping & Return Shipping on Cleats over $19.99
Ross-Simons, 7/23 — 20% off Everything PLUS FREE Shipping. Our 55th Anniversary Sale.
Finish Line, 7/23 — BE HEARD! With Kicks From Finish Line
Frederick’s of Hollywood, 7/23 — On Sale. Best Selling Bras and Panties. Our Lowest Prices.
Lands’ End, 7/23 — Save on Beach Living Separates now!
Brookstone, 7/23 — Shop exciting new products from Brookstone
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FTC Spam Summit: Members-Only Briefing this Wednesday

Join Michael Della Penna and Jordan Cohen of Epsilon and Jerry Cerasale of the DMA for an members-only EEC meeting Wednesday afternoon to discuss key takeaways from the Federal Trade Commission's Spam Summit 2007. For email marketers, this two-day event signaled lawmakers’ and law enforcement officials’ attitudes and priorities in the fight against spam, provided direct insight into ISPs’ latest approaches to delivery management, and offered a broad view of evolving consumer preferences and trends.

Not an EEC member? Join today to receive the call-in information for this important meeting.

AM Inbox: Forget napkins—text that next great idea

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

Urban Outfitters, 7/20 — Say it like you mean it.
Urban Outfitters is one of about 20 new retailers that I’ve started tracking as of this week. We’re already benefiting from the injection of new blood with this email, which is using a web 2.0 trifecta of text messaging, blogs and an appeal for user-generated content to reach out to young consumers. Urban Outfitters is tapping the creative juices of their customer base for a new t-shirt idea and asking them to text in their suggestions. For contest rules, Urban Outfitters refers folks to their blog rather than a contest landing page. Also notice that they treat their blog like a department in the navigation bar at the top of their email. Urban Outfitters have very clearly embraced web 2.0.



AbeBooks, 7/20 — Harry Potter 7 & The Hunt for Signed Copies
This is a cool Harry Potter email that gives subscribers lots of ways to engage with AbeBooks. It also informs people about creating Wants—create a Want and AbeBooks will email you when what you want becomes available from any seller. Wants also tell AbeBooks which items are in demand and gives them the chance to try to fulfill that demand.



Neiman Marcus, 7/22 — FREE SHIPPING + The hottest new dress designer is:
Neiman Marcus, 7/22 — FREE SHIPPING: Do you know JAY GODFREY? You should!
Neiman Marcus was doing some A/B testing on this subject line. I’ve seen a few retailers—including Banana Republic, Bluefly and J. Crew—use cliffhanger-style subject lines like the first one here.

SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
Lands’ End, 7/20 — Get the perfect backpack - for school and beyond.
Staples, 7/20 — Hot back to school deals under a dollar.
DisneyShopping, 7/20 — FREE SHIPPING + Save Up to 40% in Back-to-School Shop
REI, 7/20 — REI Subscribers Only - 25% Off Select Gear & Clothing
Old Navy, 7/20 — Piperlime's sale is now up to 50% off.
Walgreen’s, 7/22 — Save 20% On Photo Mugs Worth Talking About
Sears, 7/20 — 15% OFF Kenmore + Fresh Deals Just for You
Coldwater Creek, 7/20 — Free shipping and light layers you'll love!
Nordstrom, 7/20 — Anniversary Sale: Shop the Fall Fashion Event of the Year
Musician’s Friend, 7/20 — Musician's Friend: Buy Now - Take Advantage Of Special Financing Offers
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Week-End Trends: Summer reading list grows

Email activity and promotional trends during the past week:

The RetailEmail Index fell 7% to 154 during the week ending July 20, and is down 1% from where it was four weeks ago. This week I’ve added a line graph of the 4-week moving average of the RetailEmail Index so you can better see how it’s trending, given its volatility from week to week.


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

Last week, 85% of the retailers in the RetailEmail Index send out at least one email, up from 81% the week prior, and up from 84% during the 4-weeks-ago period.



Back to School: The retailers in the RetailEmail Index sent 14 emails referencing back to school last week, up from 6 the week before.

Christmas (Dec. 25): There were 3 emails referencing Christmas last week, the same number as the week prior.

Halloween (Oct. 31): There were no emails referencing Halloween last week, down from 1 the week before.

Other things referenced by retailers: Harry Potter, fall, summer, swim

Ping Time: Don’t you wish your email was hot like me?

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

>>Dylan Boyd over at eROI decries the pimpification of email by 3D Mailbox. >>Follow the ping

>>ExactTarget has released a whitepaper on email marketing to mobile device users. The report includes mobile email utilization surveys and extensive smartphone email rendering tests. >>Follow the ping

>>Melinda Krueger of Krueger Direct/Interactive suggests allowing subscribers to select negative preferences rather than positive ones. So instead of letting subscribers indicate that they’re interested in A and B, allow them to say that they’re not interested in C. >>Follow the ping

>>Kevin Hillstrom at MineThatData discusses email’s place in a multichannel retailing environment. >>Follow the ping

>>Love email marketing? Love wearing t-shirts? Then Campaign Monitor’s new t-shirt shop is right up your alley. >>Follow the ping

>>Anna Billstrom at Adventures in Email Marketing shows us 10 retail emails with their images turned off. >>Follow the ping

>>MarketingSherpa shares a case study on how Powell’s Books retooled the search button in its emails and added a shopping cart. >>Follow the ping
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AM Inbox: Dude looks like a lady

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

Sportsman’s Guide, 7/19 — Save Big... Luggage & Personal Accessories... $10 Off from The Guide
Sportsman’s Guide makes some dangerous assumptions in this email. First they assume that I’m a man. And then they assume that I’m married. Both happen to be true, but considering that when I subscribed they didn’t ask me for my name, gender or marital status, these are pretty big assumptions that are likely to offend some of their subscribers. I know a woman who is also subscribed to Sportsman's Guide's newsletter and the wording was identical in her email as well.



Northern Tool, 7/19 — Now On Sale - Sunforce Wireless Solar Motion Light
Northern Tool has done other postcard-sized emails this year, but the others focused on announcing the end of free shipping offers and the like. This is the first one this year that highlights a single product, the Sunforce Wireless Solar Motion Light, which Northern Tool featured in a July 5 email along with lots of other products. Presumably that email saw enough interest in this product that Northern Tool wanted to promote it on its own. Having at least a couple of different kinds of email formats—perhaps a postcard and a long form—helps mix things up. In my opinion, mass market retailers like Costco, HSN and Sam’s Club rely too much on long “everything but the kitchen sink” emails that are cluttered with tons of products. Mixing in shorter, more focused emails may produce better results.



Sam’s Club, 7/19 — Sam's Club Strives to Improve Service Levels for our Members
Sam’s Club is working with BIGresearch to survey their business customers and reaches out to subscribers in this email.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
Home Depot, 7/19 — Lower Prices on Grills + Weekend Project of the Month
Ralph Lauren, 7/19 — Shop Fall Classics & Enjoy Free Shipping
Abercrombie & Fitch, 7/19 — Check Out Our Soft Sueded Polos.
Williams-Sonoma, 7/19 — The Best Cookware for Corn on the Cob
Sports Authority, 7/19 — 25% Off Any Single Item - Friends & Family Coupon
Bluefly, 7/19 — All New: Exclusive Dress Preview - One week only
Brookstone, 7/19 — Spruce up, groom and clean your lawn, yard and garden
Coldwater Creek, 7/19 — Free shipping plus skirts too fabulous to miss!
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Reportlet: Unique Subscription Practices Among Retailers

This week I’m putting the final touches on the 2007 Retail Email Subscription Benchmark Study, which looks at the email subscription practices of 118 of the largest online retailers. The report won’t be available until next week, but I wanted to share some of the unique subscription practices that I found used by only one retailer in each case. In most cases these unique practices were interesting and noteworthy, but others induced a bit of head-scratching. This 5-page reportlet includes screenshots of some of the practices.

Visit the EEC’s Whitepaper Room to download “Unique Subscription Practices Among Retailers,” which is free for EEC members and available for a nominal charge to non-members. Not a member? Learn more about becoming a member of the Email Experience Council.

Other subscription research from the Email Experience Council:
2006 Retail Email Subscription Benchmark Study (July 2006)
Reportlet: Lucid Marketing Brings a Mother’s Eye to my Subscription Study (August 2006)
Reportlet: Pass CAN-SEND Now (August 2006)
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AM Inbox: Show me the product

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

J. Crew, 7/18 — Last chance for free shipping...
Do I like getting free shipping and discounts? You bet. But I also like being alerted about new products because it saves me the time of visiting retailers’ websites and stores and browsing for new stuff. Retailers like Banana Republic and Ralph Lauren do a great job of this—J. Crew is one of the ones that does not. This email is fairly indicative of the ones they send out: a nice-looking mostly text email that promotes free shipping or a sale. While they do highlight particular clothing items from time to time, but it’s not nearly often enough. As a regular J. Crew customer, it’s disappointing. Eddie Bauer, Abercrombie & Fitch, Ralph Lauren and Banana Republic are among the apparel retailers with a much stronger product and lifestyle focus in their emails. Focusing on those elements promotes interest in the brand without cheapening it too much by being too discount-oriented.



Bluefly, 7/18 — Moving Day was a Success - Check out our New Arrivals!
In a follow up to its July 17 email about its Moving Day sale (see July 18 AM Inbox), Bluefly now says that they have completed the warehouse move and have new arrivals.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
AllPosters, 7/18 — 25% OFF Everything - Be Cool for Back-to-School
Lillian Vernon, 7/18 — Shop Sparkly Bling & Girly Things on Clearance
Bluefly, 7/18 — Luxurious Cashmere Perfect to Wear Now & Into the Fall...
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AM Inbox: Christmas in July

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

MLB, 7/17 — Get a jump on the holidays - save up to 25%
This is the sixth “Christmas in July” email that I’ve received. Jo-Ann, KB Toys and Buy.com have also sent early Christmas emails this month. If you’ve still got old Christmas products from last year that you weren’t able to clear out during your after-Christmas sale, now would be a good time to take another stab at clearing out warehouse space for the inventory building that will soon start to take place in preparation for the holidays.



Bluefly, 7/17 — It's Moving Day - Great Deals on Gucci, Autumn Cashmere, YSL, BCBGMAXAZRIA - Today Only
And speaking of clearing out warehouses… In this email Bluefly is trying to clear out merchandise ahead of a warehouse move. Musician’s Friend also recently moved into a new warehouse. In preparation, it held a Warehouse Moving Sale during pretty much all of June, reminding subscribers of the sale in every email that month. If you are changing warehouse facilities and don’t want to have the expense of moving merchandise, having a moving sale is definitely something to be considered.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
Blair, 7/17 — Summer closeouts starting at $5.99
Alloy, 7/17 — up to 30% off - BEST of SUMMER - all your favorites!
Ralph Lauren, 7/17 — Sneak Peek: First Look at Fall
Hanna Andersson, 7/17 — How Jeans Become Hannas
Gap, 7/17 — The Shirt Dress: The Menswear Trend's Latest Look
Banana Republic, 7/17 — Work Style File: The Updated Work Trouser
Nordstrom, 7/17 — Fun Family Sandals from Reef Anniversary Sale - Save the Date!
Drs. Foster & Smith, 7/17 — Doggy Dental Care Tips
FTD, 7/17 — Exclusive Godiva Gift Box Offer!
Coldwater Creek, 7/17 — FREE shipping! Plus it's tee time...buy 2 & save
Avon, 7/17 — FREE Shipping + Get the Power to Smooth & Shape in just 2 Weeks
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Season Finale: 4th of July 2007

A look back on seasonal trends, email activity and standout B2C marketing:

Start to finish: The first reference to the 4th of July was made by 1-800-Flowers.com on May 5. The last reference was made by J. Crew on July 6.

The distribution curve: Retailers sent the majority of 4th of July-themed emails after June 28. The biggest day for 4th of July emails was Monday, July 2, followed by Tuesday, July 3.



Most interesting email: My favorite is Hallmark’s Take 5 email from July 5. Regular readers know that I think that Hallmark’s monthly Take 5 emails are really cool because they clamor for interaction, always asking you to share your ideas, take polls, watch a video and read articles.



I also enjoyed a July 3 email from Blair (Special $10 savings for the Fourth), which had some nice eye-catching animation. Unfortunately, Blair left the first frame of its animation blank, so anyone that viewed it in Outlook 2007 only saw a red box and didn’t see any of the message. If you’re going to use animation, remember to make sure that the first frame contains all the crucial information in case the animation is blocked (see Animation in Retail Emails Study). Blair could have fixed this animated gif simply by making the last frame into the first and keeping every else the same.



Standout subject lines:
Hallmark, 7/5 — Great Ideas For Celebrating America
Brookstone, 7/1 — Fly the Flag, and let freedom ring on our nation's birthday!
FTD, 6/27 — Celebrate July 4th With Some Red, White and Bloom!
Oriental Trading, 6/26 — It's not too late - find everything you need for July 4th fun

Read previous posts about 4th of July emails.

AM Inbox: Focus on spurring action

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

Petco, 7/15 — PETCO Summer's Here. Save on Pet Supplies, Get FREE Shipping.
In most cases, companies send commercial emails because they want subscribers to do something—buy a product, learn about a service, etc. In this email, Petco implores readers to vote for their favorite Petco stars. The problem is that when you clickthrough you learn that voting doesn’t begin until Aug. 6, and continues through most of the month. So why are they telling me to vote now? This makes for a frustrating experience for customers that were spurred to take the desired action but then learned that they couldn’t do what was asked of them.



Diamond.com, 7/13 — Fashion News Flash!!! Set your style w/Pink
This email was the first one I’ve received from Diamond.com in more than a month. Prior to that they’d sent me at least one a week and sometimes up to three. So either there was a serious break in their cadence or Diamond.com has had some serious deliverability problems over the past several weeks. Because of varying cadences, it’s difficult for me to tell when retailers are having deliverability problems, but it’s pretty clear that something has gone amiss at Diamond.com.

RedEnvelope, 7/16 — Save up to 70%. Shop our new Summer Sale markdowns.
I had a minor heart attack when saw this email. At first glance I thought it meant that I’d missed the end of daylight savings and that it was an hour earlier than I thought it was. But daylight savings doesn’t end until Oct. 18 this year. It’s also not the longest day of the year, so I’m not sure what this email is hooked on.



DisneyShopping, 7/16 — We're Bigger and Better Than Ever
DisneyShopping tells is subscribers that it is now the exclusive online destination for the Disney Store.

SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
CompUSA, 7/16 — Save up to $450 on Notebooks & See What's Hot for Back to School
eBags, 7/13 — Back to School Preview - EXTRA 20% off this weekend only
Circuit City, 7/15 — Back-to-school specials—limited time
Barnes & Noble, 7/16 — Important Harry Potter Order and Midnight Magic Information
Bloomingdale’s, 7/13 — Free Shipping + Find Prints Charming...
Old Navy, 7/16 — Must-Have Summer Prints Start at $8.50
Saks Fifth Avenue, 7/16 — GUCCI for Him, NEW for Fall
PetSmart, 7/16 — Dog tees with attitude plus Final Weeks of Free Shipping
Spiegel, 7/16 — The Top 10 Styles To Wear Now + Pay Nothing Until October!
Neiman Marcus, 7/14 — Diane VonFurstenberg wants you to get noticed + FREE SHIPPING
Wal-Mart, 7/16 — New Toys at Great Prices
Cooking, 7/14 — New from Calphalon
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Ping Time: Using email alerts to reduce sales lost to out-of-stocks

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

>>Stephanie Colleton at Return Path talks about how you can use email alerts to reduce sales lost due to out-of-stocks. >>Follow the ping

>>Campaign Monitor looked at the support for animated gifs in HTML emails across a variety of platforms. There’s good news. >>Follow the ping

>>Internet Retailer reports on results from Harte-Hanks’ “Target Marketing Priorities Analysis: 2007 Key Trends” study. There are some interesting top-10 lists, with email faring well on each of them. >>Follow the ping

>>Janine Popick at VerticalResponse talks about her saga of unsubscribing from tons of unwanted newsletters after getting a new iPhone. >>Follow the ping

>>Mark Brownlow at Email Marketing Reports gives props to Al “the Baron of Blacklists” Iverson, who provides a great update on blacklists. >>Follow the ping

>>Simms Jenkins at BrightWave Marketing digs through Constant Contact’s IPO filings to give us a rare glance inside an email marketing company. >>Follow the ping

>>Alex over at eROI wonders if Google, which has acquired FeedBurner and Postini, will now target an ESP. >>Follow the ping

AM Inbox: Wal-Mart touts nationwide site-to-store service

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

Wal-Mart, 7/12 — Free Shipping to Your Store
Wal-Mart announces to its subscribers that its Site-to-Store program is now nationwide. Internet Retailer had an article earlier this week on how the program has been highly successful at encouraging customers to make their first online purchases from Walmart.com. So the program may be very useful in promoting multichannel shopping and the increase in spending per customer that comes with that. Wal-Mart may use email to build more awareness of the program in the weeks ahead, and then expect to see the program touted again in the days leading up to Christmas.



DisneyShopping, 7/13 — Up to 75% Off Swim Shop + PJ Pals Only $4.99
Retailers are suffering through their annual summer holiday withdrawal. Now that the 4th of July is gone, the next big holiday is Labor Day, a full seven weeks away. Retailers clearly wish that it was some month other than July—like December or even October. This week I’ve seen Christmas in July emails from Jo-Ann and KB Toys, and this DisneyShopping email uses Friday the 13th as an occasion to have a kind of Halloween in July.



Drs. Foster & Smith, 7/12 — Coming Soon to a Target Store Near You
The pet goods retailer alerts subscribers to its deal with Target, which starting July 15 will start carrying its products.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
Bluefly, 7/13 — Get up to $50 off - Friday the 13th is Your Lucky Day!
Home Depot, 7/12 — What's Cooking - Kitchen Tips, Trends & Offers
Harry & David, 7/12 — FREE Samples and $10 Savings – this weekend, only in Stores!
Sports Authority, 7/12 — New David Beckham L.A. Galaxy Jerseys and Tees
Spiegel, 7/12 — Linen: The Ultimate Summer Fabric + Pay Nothing Until October!
Bluefly, 7/12 — This Just In: Dresses Featuring Nicole Milller, Vera Wang, Design History...
Abercrombie & Fitch, 7/12 — Classic Shorts With Hot New Features.
Nordstrom, 7/12 — Be the Best-Dressed Party Guest Exclusive Dior Online Offer (Details Inside)
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Takeaways from ‘Accelerating Marketing ROI’ webinar

Yesterday, ExactTarget and the Email Experience Council hosted a webinar on “Accelerating Marketing ROI.” (Download PDFs of the webinar slides in the EEC’s Whitepaper Room.) Here are just a few of the great insights and learnings from the event:

Email’s Place in the Marketing Mix
>>Joel Book, ExactTarget’s director of emarketing education, said that while websites have become the center of marketing strategies, websites don’t do a good job of converting. Email converts much more effectively. He quoted a Web-Smart CMO Report as saying that 56% of respondents said their website was or would soon become the center of their marketing strategy, and quoted a WebTrends study as saying that 98% of website visitors do not convert.
>>Email is very effective at retaining customers, said Book, and small increases in retention can lead to big increases in profits.
>>Jeanniey Mullen, the executive chairwoman of the EEC and an executive director and senior partner, global email marketing and digital dialogue services at OgilvyOne Worldwide, said there’s an Ogilvy client that has seen that customers who have shared their email address spent 2–3 times those that didn’t.

Transactional Emails
>>“The most underused form of email is the transactional email,” said Mullen. “A transactional email is the most highly read email.” Transactional emails are especially valuable when the customer has not signed up for your newsletter.

Email and Customer Service
>>Email is increasingly being used to reduce the cost of call centers, said Mullen. Book added that one ExactTarget customer pays approximately $8 per call. “That’s why we’re seeing email used not only for sales but for [customer] service as well,” he said.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Email Marketers
>>This portion of the webinar was based in part on ExactTarget’s “Email Marketing Power Trends” whitepaper. View a PDF of this report.



>>Regarding search, Book said: “Search is the most effective way to drive traffic to websites.” He went on to say that search is one of the legs in the 3-legged stool, explaining that search is No. 1 for traffic generation, websites are No. 1 in engagement, and email is No. 1 in dialogue.

Want to be notified of upcoming webinars hosted by the Email Experience Council and its sponsors? Then sign up to receive the weekly EEC newsletter.

Reportlet: The most popular email days of the year for retailers

As a follow-on to my reportlet about the most popular days of the week to email among retailers, I looked at the 20 most popular days of the past 12 months. The resulting 5-page reportlet includes a list of the 20 most popular email days, the percentage of retailers that sent at least one email on those days, and the proximity of those days to major holidays. It also includes charts showing the distribution of those 20 most popular email days by month of the year and day of the week.

Visit the Whitepaper Room to download “The Most Popular Email Days of the Year for Retailers,” which is free for EEC members and available for a nominal charge to non-members. Not a member? Learn more about becoming a member of the Email Experience Council.

Other day-selection research from the Email Experience Council:
Reportlet: Choosing the Best Day of the Week to Email (July 2007)
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AM Inbox: Don’t let partners hurt your reputation

>>EEC-EMC Merger: Visit the EEC’s Voice of Email blog for more on why the deal was done and what it means.

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

VisionDirect, 7/11 — Get 15% off contacts and free shipping
This is a fine reengagement email—the only problem is I’ve never shopped with VisionDirect or signed up for their newsletter. However, I do have a relationship with Drugstore.com, which powers VisionDirect’s ecommerce. So what this tells me is that Drugstore.com violated my privacy by sharing my address with VisionDirect, who then used it in a way that makes them look foolish and Drugstore.com irresponsible. A wiser way to have exposed Drugstore.com subscribers to VisionDirect would have been to highlight the partnership in one of Drugstore.com’s regular emails.



Hanna Andersson, 7/10 — Our Popular Backpacks Are Here - Still Just $28!
This is a really cute take on those children’s books where they put pictures in the place of words. Creative yet simple. A standout piece that knows its audience.



Impromptu Gourmet, 7/11 — Last chance! Free Vegetable Lasagna Roulade
At first I thought this was a really late 4th of July email, but it appears to actually be a Bastille Day email, although they don’t mention the holiday by name. In case you forgot to mark your calendar, Bastille Day is coming up on July 14.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
Ralph Lauren, 7/11 — Just In: Official US Open Styles with Free Shipping
CB2, 7/11 — Our new fall catalog's here
DisneyShopping, 7/11 — Just Arrived! Hundreds of Great New Selections
Alloy, 7/11 — take 15% off your order + all NEW styles!
Neiman Marcus, 7/11 — Free Shipping + CHLOÉ spices up your fall wardrobe
Williams-Sonoma, 7/11 — The Best of Summer: Homemade Ice Cream
Harry & David, 7/11 — Last Chance for Cherries – the ultimate summer gift!
ShopPBS, 7/10 — Save 15% on our Best Selling Titles of 2007!
Brookstone, 7/11 — Shop for exciting ways to keep cool this summer!
Northern Tool, 7/11 — Chad, Hurry, Free Shipping On UPS Orders Over $149 Ends Soon
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Reportlet: Choosing the best day of the week to email

Which day of the week you send your email on can have a major impact on your open and clickthrough rates. And the choice of that day is influenced by how many emails you send in a particular week and what your competitors are doing with their campaigns. While in some cases your competitors are creating competition for attention in your subscribers’ inboxes, in other cases their collective wisdom may give you a signal as to which days you may want to choose for your own launches. Whether you want to avoid them or go with the pack, it’s definitely helpful to know what your competitors are up to.

With that in mind, I’ve mined data collected on 104 major online retailers tracked via RetailEmail.Blogspot during a 26-week period (Dec. 30, 2006, through June 29, 2007) to determine the most popular days of the week to send emails. The resulting 6-page reportlet includes an overall day-selection analysis, plus day-selection analysis when one, two, three and four emails a week are sent. In each case, there’s a chart showing the participation rate for each day of the week so it’s easy to see exactly how popular each day is in reference to the other days of the week.

Visit the Whitepaper Room to download “Choosing the Best Day of the Week to Email,” which is free for EEC members and available for a nominal charge to non-members. Not a member? Learn more about becoming a member of the Email Experience Council.

Other day-of-the-week research from the Email Experience Council:
Check out our weekly Week-End Trends posts, which include a chart of daily participation by retailers for the past week.
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AM Inbox: Even text emails have rendering problems

>>EEC-EMC Merger. Visit the EEC’s Voice of Email blog for more on why the deal was done and what it means.

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

TigerDirect, 7/10 — FREE 2gb USB Flash Drive w/ PC Protection from CA
I’m personally not a big fan of text-only retail emails. So much of shopping is visual that I feel that it just can’t be replicated effectively with text. There’s a reason you don’t see text-only catalogs and newspaper ads by retailers. Anyway, if you are compelled to send text-only emails, you certainly want to make it as easy to read as possible. In this email, TigerDirect uses equal signs to create an opening banner that would show up well in preview panes. However, the email is littered with line returns that make the text difficult to read. Even if you’re just sending text, this shows that you need to do a pre-flight preview to make sure that it’s rendering as intended.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
KB Toys, 7/10 — Christmas in July - Up to 50% Off
Gap, 7/10 — New (PRODUCT) RED(TM) Styles Are Here
Drs. Foster & Smith, 7/10 — Dog Travel Sale
Bass Pro Shops, 7/10 — Shop Our Customer Top Rated Products
Dell, 7/10 — One-Day Special - Save up to $219 on Select New Inspiron PCs
Avon, 7/10 — Our #1 Wrinkle Treatment now NEW & Improved + FREE Shipping
Blair, 7/10 — Our biggest clearance sale ever
Crutchfield, 7/10 — Save up to $200 on Infinity & Mirage home speakers

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AM Inbox: Shift to fall picking up

>>EEC-EMC Merger. Visit the EEC’s Voice of Email blog for more on why the deal was done and what it means.

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

Old Navy, 7/9 — Be the First To Shop Our Premium Denim!
Over the past week or two I’ve been seeing a lot more fall preview emails. Back-to-school email should also ratchet up over the coming weeks. In this email, Old Navy promotes its fall looks as a secondary banner in the form of a link to a video of a commercial they’ve apparently run on MTV.



Sports Authority, 7/9 — Need Help Finding The Right Running Shoe?
Sport Authority makes sure that their subscribers know about their shoe finder app. Alerting readers to tools to help them browse online pays off well. This strategy is also worth exploring if it’s hard to find these tools on your website—as is the case this shoe finder app. Of course, you could also make sure your website makes it easier to locate these tools as well.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
Alloy, 7/9 — all NEW Fall styles + 15% off your order
Neiman Marcus, 7/9 — PRADA: The fall collections plus FREE SHIPPING
J. Crew, 7/9 — Looks we love: cafe capri + ballet flat
Sam’s Club, 7/9 — Put the Summer on Ice with Sam's Club [promoting diamonds]
Banana Republic, 7/9 — Shine in our latest arrivals + new sale savings up to 60% off!
Foot Locker, 7/9 — Take 25% Off--no minimum purchase
Spiegel, 7/9 — Shop our Summer Sale & Save up to 75% + Pay Nothing Until October
Bloomingdale’s, 7/9 — Introducing Jill Stuart
Macy’s, 7/9 — $5 Shipping and savings at the Summer White Sale!
Sears, 7/9 — Free appliance delivery + savings for your home
Home Depot, 7/9 — Last Week to Save 20% on Rugs!
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DMA’s Email Marketing Council merges with EEC

Today the Direct Marketing Association announced that it has acquired the Email Experience Council and merged its Email Marketing Council into the EEC. The merger is a huge plus for the EEC and for the email marketing industry, bringing together the leadership and memberships of the two organizations and forging an email marketing powerhouse. Visit the EEC’s Voice of Email blog for more on why the deal was done and what it means.

AM Inbox: How coding issues can make you noncompliant with CAN-SPAM

>>eTail 2007 Show Discount: Thinking of attending the eTail 2007 show in Washington, DC, on Aug. 6-9? If you’re an EEC member, be sure to use the discount code in your EEC newsletter to get 15% off the registration fee. Non-members won’t be able to see the discount code, so become a member today.

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

TigerDirect, 7/7 — Price Alert: Intel 3.33ghz Vista PC $239 (No Rebates)...Hurry
TigerDirect had a coding error that essentially wiped out the bottom portion of this email. Unfortunately what was wiped out included TigerDirect’s address and the unsubscribe information, so the error actually resulted in the email not being CAN-SPAM compliant. This is yet another reason to make sure that you’re coding is solid and that you preflight test all your emails.



Drugstore.com, 7/8 — Save up to 30% on uncommonly good deals
Drugstore.com is showing us something new in this email. Instead of highlighting individual products below its opening message as they normally do, in this email they are promoting product categories. Here’s yesterday’s email (left) and an email from July 1:


SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
Hanna Andersson, 7/6 — All New Fall Website, Over 160 New Hannas, And School Deals, Too!
Circuit City, 7/7 — Act now—back-to-school savings at Circuit City
RadioShack, 7/8 — Take Your Life on the Road
Toys “R” Us, 7/8 — Transformers SUPERSTORE!
Overstock, 7/6 — EMAIL-ONLY FREE SHIPPING
Staples, 7/6 — 1¢ deals at Staples are back!
Sears, 7/6 — Tonight Only: Save Online from 12am-6am
REI, 7/6 — Add Some Sole to Your Summer + Teva Free Shipping
Sharper Image, 7/6 — New Deeper Discounts at Sharper Image Half-Yearly Sale!

Week-End Trends: Gone in a flash

Email activity and promotional trends during the past week:

The RetailEmail Index fell 15% to 142 during the week ending July 6, and is down 12% from where it was four weeks ago.


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

Last week, 75% of the retailers in the RetailEmail Index send out at least one email, down from 84% the week prior, and down from 85% during the 4-weeks-ago period.



4th of July: The retailers in the RetailEmail Index sent 27 emails referencing the 4th of July last week, up from 16 the week before.

Back to school: There were 4 references to back to school last week, up from 2 the week before.

Other things referenced by retailers: Harry Potter, Transformers, fall, summer, vacation, outdoors

Navigation improvements and other updates

To make it easier for you to find what you’re looking for on RetailEmail.Blogspot, I’ve changed the navigation bar and added new ways to search for content. You can now search by post category, by retailer, by topic and by selling season—in addition to exploring recent posts and the monthly archive. I’ve also recently updated the Resource & Tools and Recommended Blogs sections. I hope you find these improvements useful and welcome any feedback you might have.

Ping Time: Turning RSS into emails

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

>>Mark Brownlow at Email Marketing Reports talks about turning RSS into emails. >>Follow the ping

>>MailChimp reports that HTML email looks great on the iPhone. >>Follow the ping

>>Jeanne Jennings writes a ClickZ article about improving email performance with testing: different testing approaches, what to test and key metrics for various elements. >>Follow the ping

>>Justin Premick at AWeber talks about the temptation of trying to get unconfirmed subscribers to confirm. >>Follow the ping

>>Denise Cox talks about how to build recognition so that folks that sign up for your emails don’t email you later saying, “I don’t recall signing up to receive this.” >>Follow the ping

AM Inbox: Passing the personality test

>>Buttons Vs. Links Results. For the results of the EEC's button vs. link calls-to-action survey, click here.

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

Orvis, 7/5 — Get a Mach reel at half price this month
It looks like Orvis wants to get some extra mileage out of 10-time author and fly-fishing expert Tom Rosenbauer, who is also the marketing director of Orvis Rod & Tackle. It would appear that Orvis got a good response out of the April 13 email they built around Rosenbauer’s recommendations (see April 16 AM Inbox) and have decided to have a monthly email featuring his picks and advice. In May I wrote a reportlet about injecting more personality into your emails (see Personality Goes a Long Way). Other marketers can certainly learn from Orvis’ approach, which was to test a one-off campaign built around a personality, and then if successful, turn it into a regular part of the email campaign.



Lillian Vernon, 7/5 — Dress Up Summer Fun! Shop 50 Clearance Costumes
Lillian Vernon appears to be clearing out some old Halloween inventory in preparation for this October.

SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
Hallmark, 7/5 — Great Ideas For Celebrating America
Circuit City, 7/5 — 3-day sale at Circuit City, ends Saturday
Buy.com, 7/5 — 2TB Storage Server, Holiday Coupon Expires Sunday,..
Victoria’s Secret, 7/5 — Hurry! Sale Ends In Stores July 9.
Sears, 7/5 — The 3 Day Sale Starts Now!
Musician’s Friend, 7/5 — Musician's Friend: Save Extra 10% - Scratch N Dent Explosion
Kmart, 7/5 — Sneak Peak + Perfect Patios + Lush Lawns
Lands’ End, 7/5 — We have the shorts that flatter YOU!

AM Inbox: Happy 4th of July

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

It was a really quiet day for inboxes yesterday, but here are a couple of Independence Day good wishes from Macy’s and Ralph Lauren:

Macy’s, 7/4 — Happy 4th of July from Macy's!



Ralph Lauren, 7/4 — Happy 4th of July



Blair, 7/3 — Special $10 savings for the Fourth
For those of you viewing this in Outlook 2007’s RSS reader, you see why we advise you not to have the first frame of your animated gifs blank (see Animation in Retail Emails Study).



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
CompUSA, 7/3 — We've Got XP Pro Computers Plus FREE Shipping on July 4th
Musician’s Friend, 7/3 — Musician's Friend: Starts Today - July 4th Sale
Art.com, 7/3 — Up to 30% Off + Must-See Art Exhibits
Gap, 7/3 — Wide Leg Pants: Get A Leg Up On Fall's Latest Look
Banana Republic, 7/3 — The must-have denim silhouette [promoting wide-leg jeans]
Dell, 7/3 — New! Introducing the World's Thinnest 13.3" Notebook.

AM Inbox: No sloganeering here

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

Home Depot, 7/2 — Still Time to Save at Our 4th of July Event
I was on the Email Marketing Roundtable forum yesterday and there was a question about the use of slogans in emails, whether they were that important. The sense was that they weren’t important, and that certainly appears to be the case when looking at what retailers do. I did a quick survey of the retailers I track and it looks like somewhere between 10% and 15% use their slogan in their emails. Usually it was in conjunction with their logos. Some of the retailers that appeared to use slogans regularly include Home Depot, Dell, Petco, Drugstore.com, Overstock.com, Dick’s Sporting Goods, RadioShack and Staples.



Reebok, 7/2 — Enter Reebok's Fan-tastic Giveaway today
A couple of weeks ago I was critical of a Home Depot email that made subscribers search for the right place to click (see June 22 AM Inbox). While Home Depot didn’t make its images clickable, at least all their calls-to-action were. That was not the case in this Reebok email, where neither of the calls-to-action were functional. Broken links are annoying, but the absence of a link where there’s supposed to be one is even more frustrating to subscribers. This should be an essential element of quality assurance before any email is launched.



Jo-Ann, 7/2 — Christmas in July + free shipping!
Jo-Ann tries to beat the holiday rush with this email about Christmas craft projects.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
Brookstone, 7/2 — Fly the Flag, and let freedom ring on our nation's birthday!
Spiegel, 7/2 — 4th of July Savings Spectacular: Extra 20% OFF Sitewide!
Buy.com, 7/2 — 4th of July Coupon
CompUSA, 7/2 — Savings to Fire up Your 4th - Save up to $400 on Notebooks
Sears, 7/2 — Hurry, 4th of July Savings End Soon!
J. Crew, 7/2 — Free shipping (happy 4th)
Old Navy, 7/2 — Stripes Are Back, Plus Summer Sale is in Full Swing!
Williams-Sonoma, 7/2 — New: Mini Burgers for Summer Parties
Ralph Lauren, 7/2 — Men's Signature Summer Styles & Free Shipping

Season Finale: Father’s Day 2007

A look back on seasonal trends, email activity and standout B2C marketing:

Start to finish: The first reference to Father’s Day was from Orvis on April 16. The last reference was from the Sportsman’s Guide on June 18.

The distribution curve: Retailers sent the majority of their Father’s Day emails after June 4. The biggest day for Father’s Day emails was Tuesday, June 5, followed by Monday, June 11.



Most interesting email: Home Depot had a solid email on May 31 (Find the Perfect Father's Day Gift & More) that highlighted gifts for different kinds of dads. It also included a fun Mower Mayhem game that promotes products between each round.



Surprises: Omaha Steaks usually gives away a free set of knives and/or burgers with some of its packages. But in a June 11 email (SAVE 69% on the Dad Pack PLUS get a Free TOOL SET...3 Days Only), they upped their relevancy by offering a free tool set with every order as part of a Father’s Day promotion.



Cool tool: In a June 10 email (Ready in 5 - Gifts for Dad!), Sears promoted its Ready in 5 “order online, pick up in store” program. As time ticks down on holiday gift buying, using these types of services to drive customers to stores can give you a competitive edge.



Standout subject lines:
RedEnvelope, 5/22 — Free Father's Day shipping. Earn preferred child status.
RedEnvelope, 6/4 — Why man discovered fire. [promoting grilling products]
MLB, 5/30 — Shop for Dad, your MVP.
FTD, 6/12 — A New Spin on Ties for Father's Day - Mrs. Fields Tie Box Only $19.99!
RadioShack, 6/3 — The SuperDad Gift Guide
NFLshop, 5/15 — Gifts For Dad + Enter To Win Super Dad Sweepstakes
RedEnvelope, 6/6 — Six gadgets no Dad can resist.

Subject lines that stand out for the wrong reasons:
RedEnvelope, 5/29 — Every Dad has his day. Go Ahead, make his.
RedEnvelope has had some subject line gems for sure, but this isn’t one of them. This is a strange combination of a pun on “every dog has his day” (so dog=dad) and Dirty Harry’s famous quote “Go ahead, make my day.” If we make his day, is he going to shoot us? Back to the drawing board.

Brookstone, 5/28 — He's given you his time, love and guidance. Now, pay him back with gifts he'll love
This is a massive 83 characters long! There’s been several studies that show that open rates fall off considerably when subject lines exceed 50-60 characters.

Read previous posts about Father’s Day emails.

AM Inbox: The proper way to pass the email baton

>>Buttons Vs. Links: Vote today! The EEC wants to know if you think primary calls-to-action perform better as links or buttons. Please take a few seconds to visit the EEC homepage and take our one-question survey. I’ll let you know later this week which way the community is leaning.

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

Gloss, 6/29 — A Special Offer from Gloss.com
Gloss “simply could not resist” sending one last email on June 30, the day that they were ceasing operations, but they sent out a more noteworthy email the day before. In this email, they offer left over bags from a promotion they did in April (see April 18 AM Inbox) to incentivize folks to sign up for email newsletters from their partner sites. View the landing page for the sign ups. In keeping with their privacy policy, this is the proper way to try to hand off email subscribers, although Gloss could have sent more than one message to try to migrate folks to its partners.



Dell, 6/29 — The New Inspiron Notebooks - Add Some Color to Your Hi-Def Lifestyle
Dell is trying to play up the fashion angle in its latest emails. They introduced the branding and color scheme in this email first in a June 26 email. I love the call-to-action buttons.



Crate & Barrel, 6/29 — Clean up time!
The subject line doesn’t do this email justice, mainly because they missed the opportunity to include The Land of Nod brand in the subject line. Considering that one of the goals of this email is to make sure that subscribers know that Crate & Barrel own the kids brand, I’m not sure why they would leave it out. An alternative subject line could have been: “It’s clean up time in The Land of Nod!”



Sam’s Club, 6/29 — The Cure for High Gas Prices is Sam's Club
Sam’s Club shows that they’re aware of the financial pressures on consumers and offers themselves as a solution to that problem. This is a good example of being relevant and responsive to current concerns.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
Sears, 6/29 — 4th of July Savings + Free Gift Card
FTD, 7/1 — One Day Only: Save 25% on 4th of July Gifts!
Neiman Marcus, 6/30 — TREND ALERT: Colored denim is back + FREE SHIPPING
Brookstone, 6/29 — Stop Snoring! Clinically Tested Sona Anti-Snore Pillow
HSN, 7/1 — It's Our Birthday, but the Surprises are All for You!
Saks Fifth Avenue, 6/30 — Saks Fifth Avenue New York July Store Events
Staples, 6/29 — Catch the deals in this week's circular. There's still time!
eBags, 6/29 — Exclusive: 25% off NEW eBags Collections
TigerDirect, 6/30 — Price Alert: 40% Off Sony VAIO All-in-One Intel PC
Avon, 6/30 — The Tropic Zone: What's NEW & HOT in Summer Skin Care & Makeup
Macy’s, 7/1 — Free shipping with $100 Alfani purchase!
Drugstore.com, 7/1 — Save up to 40% and get in the swim of summer

Week-End Trends: Prelude to fireworks

Email activity and promotional trends during the past week:

The RetailEmail Index rose 7% to 168 during the week ending June 29, and is up 19% from where it was four weeks ago.


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

Last week, 84% of the retailers in the RetailEmail Index send out at least one email, up from 85% the week prior, but up from 81% during the 4-weeks-ago period.



4th of July: The retailers in the RetailEmail Index sent 16 emails referencing the 4th of July last week, up from 8 the week before.

Back to school: There were 2 references to back to school last week, up from none the week before.

Other things referenced by retailers: Harry Potter, Transformers, summer, vacation, outdoors, swim, fall