The Retail Email Blog monitors the email marketing campaigns of more than 100 top online retailers. Here are highlights from my inbox this morning:
AbeBooks, 1/19 — Join the Barack Obama Book Club
Major retailers have only sent a handful of emails that reference the inauguration of President Barack Obama (including the RitzCamera email in the Scanner below), but this is my favorite by far. Sent the day before his inauguration, this is a timely email that discusses what Obama likes to read—which is not only of general interest to many people, but it’s also of interest to book collectors since Obama’s literary interests are affecting book prices. AbeBooks compiled a list of books and authors that Obama has mentioned in press interviews into an article, and also tries to align what they’re unofficially calling “Obama’s Book Club” with the book club of another influential Chicagoan, Oprah. That’s some shrewd positioning.
PC Connection, 1/19 — Write a Review...Win a TV!
Product reviews are critical to driving sales, so PC Connection has dedicated this email to stimulating product reviews with a giveaway. It’s a smart strategy that many have used before. The interesting thing here is that this is an ideal time to use a TV has the carrot for reviews, as TVs are big sellers in January in the run-up to the Super Bowl. PC Connection’s incentive even expires the day before the big game. One thing that would have made this email stronger is if they had used an image of a football game rather than a racecar. That would have increased relevancy as well as urgency. They could have also ditched the second and third prizes in favor of a larger TV.
Old Navy, 1/16 — Ends Today! Get 10% Off Plus Free Shipping, Only Online
In this email, Old Navy experiments with the addition of a second navigation bar at the bottom of the creative that’s nearly identical to the one at the top of the email. Nav bar treatments should definitely be on your list of things to test. In addition to position, try testing the order and number of the links in your nav bar. Your email subscribers are probably not the same as your run of the mill site visitor, so there is no reason that the nav bar on your site has to be the same as the one in your email—or that your email even has to have a nav bar.
SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
RitzCamera, 1/17 — How to Photograph Winter & Inauguration Week Sale
NFLshop, 1/18 — Steelers and Cardinals - Conference Champs Gear - Now Available
Wal-Mart, 1/19 — Gear Up for Super Sunday With Huge Savings
Sam’s Club, 1/18 — Big savings for the Big Game at Sam's Club
Tiffany, 1/16 — Cupid's Secret Weapon
Walgreens, 1/18 — Save 20% on Photo Valentine's Day Gifts
Kmart, 1/19 — Valentine's Day Gifts - Up to 70% Off
Walgreens, 1/16 — Save $5 for a Healthy New You
Home Depot, 1/19 — Top-Rated Products for the New Year
Buy.com, 1/16 — Buy.com videos from CES 2009
JCPenney, 1/16 — Top-Rated Home Items: Reviewed by Customers Like You
Sephora, 1/16 — Acne! Aging! Wrinkles! Solve 'em
Lillian Vernon, 1/19 — Impress Guests, Plus Less Mess - See Handtowels for All Seasons
J. Crew, 1/19 — All cardis are not created equal...
J. Jill, 1/18 — The return of studio denim. Plus, $10 off pants for 3 more days.
Spiegel, 1/18 — TODAY ONLY! Look-Defining Details at Wallet-Friendly Savings up to 60%!
The Company Store, 1/19 — Luxury Bed & Bath Sale - Treat Yourself!
Spiegel, 1/16 — NEW! Get a Sneak Peek at our 2009 Swim Preview!
Neiman Marcus, 1/16 — SPRING PREVIEW 2009: New York, Milan, Paris + Free online shipping
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1 comments:
Chad,
Thanks so much for featuring our PCConnection.com Ratings and Reviews contest email in your blog.
We've done promotions like this in the past and have found this is an excellent way to gain really valuable (and direct) insight into the thoughts of our customers about the products we sell.
As I'm sure you'd agree, email marketing is a great vehicle for spreading the word for specials like this, whether through a dedicated email as we've done or through banners creatively place in other email campaigns.
I really appreciate your feedback on the creative, and I'm glad to see that we made enough of an impact for you to feature us in your posting!
All the best,
Seth Brady
Director of Ecommerce
PC Connection
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