Our latest spin around the mediasphere turned up the following nuggets:
>>The Email Experience Council’s Measurement Accuracy Roundtable introduced the new “Render Rate” metric and asked for public comments. >>Follow the ping
>>EMarketer reports that the number of online shoppers who watched retail videos grew 40% in a single year. >>Follow the ping
>>Stefan Pollard of Responsys talks about feedbacks loops and provides a comprehensive list of them. >>Follow the pingback loop
>>In my latest Email Insider column, I share five tips that help you avoid oopsies. >>Follow the ping
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Friday, January 30, 2009
AM Inbox: Few retailers mention their Facebook pages
>>Oopsy Hall of Fame: See who (unfortunately) made the list.
The Retail Email Blog monitors the email marketing campaigns of more than 100 top online retailers. Here are highlights from my inbox this morning:
J&R, 1/29 — Super Weekend Sale: JVC 42 inch LCD HDTV $779.00 + Free Shipping!
I haven’t done an official count but I think it’s safe to say that “a lot” of retailers have a presence on Facebook—yet only a handful of retailers have ever mentioned their fan pages or apps in their email campaigns. The retailers that have done so include Cooking.com, Ralph Lauren, Sony, and now J&R. Perhaps retailers are still ironing out their Facebook strategies or perhaps there’s some siloing going on and email marketers don’t want to promote social networks. Either way, it’s a missed opportunity.
Crutchfield, 1/29 — Hi-fi 2.0: Bill Crutchfield puts the focus back on sound
Crutchfield gives us another fantastic example of softening the sell. Under a Hi-Fi 2.0 banner, they present six audio tips, with each one followed by an information call-to-action and then a promotional CTA. Depending on your brand positioning, these kinds of softer sell approaches can be very effective at engaging and closing the sale.
SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
AbeBooks, 1/29 — The Avid Reader: Romance vs. Erotica
Etronics, 1/29 — Etronics.com is the place to shop for all you Valentines needs.
Orvis, 1/29 — 170+ Valentine's Day gifts that can't miss. Plus, FREE shipping - no minimum.
Tiffany, 1/29 — A Tiffany Valentine: Give To Your Heart's Content
Victoria’s Secret, 1/29 — In Store Offers + Our Newest Collection Is Here for Valentine's Day!
NFLshop, 1/29 — NFL Fans: Pre-Order Your Super Bowl Champs Gear
J&R, 1/29 — Super Weekend Sale: JVC 42 inch LCD HDTV $779.00 + Free Shipping!
Ralph Lauren, 1/29 — Introducing Ralph Lauren Lighting Online
Linens ’n Things, 1/29 — Final Weeks! Everything must go! All items now 70%-90% off*!
_____________________
SEARCH... By Post Category / By Selling Season / By Retailer / By Topic / Monthly Archive
The Retail Email Blog monitors the email marketing campaigns of more than 100 top online retailers. Here are highlights from my inbox this morning:
J&R, 1/29 — Super Weekend Sale: JVC 42 inch LCD HDTV $779.00 + Free Shipping!
I haven’t done an official count but I think it’s safe to say that “a lot” of retailers have a presence on Facebook—yet only a handful of retailers have ever mentioned their fan pages or apps in their email campaigns. The retailers that have done so include Cooking.com, Ralph Lauren, Sony, and now J&R. Perhaps retailers are still ironing out their Facebook strategies or perhaps there’s some siloing going on and email marketers don’t want to promote social networks. Either way, it’s a missed opportunity.
Crutchfield, 1/29 — Hi-fi 2.0: Bill Crutchfield puts the focus back on sound
Crutchfield gives us another fantastic example of softening the sell. Under a Hi-Fi 2.0 banner, they present six audio tips, with each one followed by an information call-to-action and then a promotional CTA. Depending on your brand positioning, these kinds of softer sell approaches can be very effective at engaging and closing the sale.
SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
AbeBooks, 1/29 — The Avid Reader: Romance vs. Erotica
Etronics, 1/29 — Etronics.com is the place to shop for all you Valentines needs.
Orvis, 1/29 — 170+ Valentine's Day gifts that can't miss. Plus, FREE shipping - no minimum.
Tiffany, 1/29 — A Tiffany Valentine: Give To Your Heart's Content
Victoria’s Secret, 1/29 — In Store Offers + Our Newest Collection Is Here for Valentine's Day!
NFLshop, 1/29 — NFL Fans: Pre-Order Your Super Bowl Champs Gear
J&R, 1/29 — Super Weekend Sale: JVC 42 inch LCD HDTV $779.00 + Free Shipping!
Ralph Lauren, 1/29 — Introducing Ralph Lauren Lighting Online
Linens ’n Things, 1/29 — Final Weeks! Everything must go! All items now 70%-90% off*!
_____________________
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Thursday, January 29, 2009
AM Inbox: Subscriber polls, the other product review
>>Oopsy Hall of Fame: See who (unfortunately) made the list.
The Retail Email Blog monitors the email marketing campaigns of more than 100 top online retailers. Here are highlights from my inbox this morning:
Spiegel, 1/28 — The Votes Are In! And The Winning Look Is...
A day after asking subscribers which outfit from their new spring collection was their favorite (see Jan. 28 AM Inbox), Spiegel presents the results. The results of these kinds of customer polls are in the same league as customer reviews—which is to say that the promotional messaging is softer because it’s other subscribers that are telling you what to buy, not Spiegel.
Frederick’s of Hollywood, 1/28 — An unforgettable Valentine’s for $20 + free shipping.
I love how Frederick’s is being responsive to the financial environment and tailoring their messaging accordingly in this email. The staycation and Valentine’s Day collide!
SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Fingerhut, 1/28 — Fingerhut: Shop for Valentine's Day and Get a Free Gift with Product Order
FTD, 1/28 — Save $30 on a Stylish Valentine's Day Bouquet
Sephora, 1/28 — $15 gift idea!
B&H Photo Video, 1/28 — Highlights from CES + get ready for a month of Sunday spectaculars!
_____________________
SEARCH... By Post Category / By Selling Season / By Retailer / By Topic / Monthly Archive
The Retail Email Blog monitors the email marketing campaigns of more than 100 top online retailers. Here are highlights from my inbox this morning:
Spiegel, 1/28 — The Votes Are In! And The Winning Look Is...
A day after asking subscribers which outfit from their new spring collection was their favorite (see Jan. 28 AM Inbox), Spiegel presents the results. The results of these kinds of customer polls are in the same league as customer reviews—which is to say that the promotional messaging is softer because it’s other subscribers that are telling you what to buy, not Spiegel.
Frederick’s of Hollywood, 1/28 — An unforgettable Valentine’s for $20 + free shipping.
I love how Frederick’s is being responsive to the financial environment and tailoring their messaging accordingly in this email. The staycation and Valentine’s Day collide!
SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Fingerhut, 1/28 — Fingerhut: Shop for Valentine's Day and Get a Free Gift with Product Order
FTD, 1/28 — Save $30 on a Stylish Valentine's Day Bouquet
Sephora, 1/28 — $15 gift idea!
B&H Photo Video, 1/28 — Highlights from CES + get ready for a month of Sunday spectaculars!
_____________________
SEARCH... By Post Category / By Selling Season / By Retailer / By Topic / Monthly Archive
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Oopsy Hall of Fame: 2008 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 high volume and lightning fast. This year’s inductees should be cautionary tales for everyone in the industry and a reminder that you need to be on your guard, temper speed with meticulousness, and be diligent with your pre-flight checklists. (Hopefully some of these oopsies will also make you feel better about some of the mistakes that you might have made last year.) Here’s an abridged selection of oopsies:
SUBJECT LINE SLIPS
Subject lines once again proved to be fertile ground for oopsies, which is unfortunate since they play such a strong role in determining whether the recipient goes on to open and engage with the email. Errors ranged from errant spaces and misspellings to total FAILS.
Target, 9/22 — subject line
The Subject Line Slip crown goes to this Target subject line, which might even be worse than HPshopping’s “TBD” subject line from the 2006 Oopsy Hall of Fame—TBD *could* stand for something else after all. If you’re going to use a placeholder subject line, use one you can live with slipping by, like “Great savings from Target.”
Oriental Trading, 9/2 — Create the ultimate Halloween haunt & get fee shipping
If you leave the “r” out of “free,” you get the exact opposite of what you intended to offer.
RedEnvelope, 2/2 — ENTER FOR A CHANCE TO WIN A $500 RED ENVELOPE GIFT CERTIFICATE
They misspelled their own brand name. It probably looked strange in all caps as a single word but the solution is not to break it in two; it’s to stop screaming in full caps.
CompUSA, 5/26 — Memoiral Day Only - Acer 22" LCD $219 - Lenovo Dual-Core Laptop $499 & More
Misspelled “Memorial.”
TigerDirect, 11/28 — 72hr After Thanksgivinig SALE w/ $1.99 Shipping
Misspelled “Thanksgiving.”
Frederick’s of Hollywood, 2/10 — Make Valentine's Day unforgettable. Free shipping upgade on $75 orders.
Misspelled “upgrade.”
Bluefly, 7/16 — Its Time To Think About Cashmere...
It’s time to think about spelling “it’s” correctly in subject lines.
Sephora, 9/24 — Guess who's coming to Sephora?
This is a statement, not a question.
Road Runner Sports, 3/3 — What are you waiting for Runner? FREE SHIPPING ends today!
Plenty of retailers mess up greetings. There should be a comma after “for.”
Spiegel, 10/14 — The NEW Take on Tweeds Spiegel Shows You How To Make the Look Your Own + 20% OFF
Missing punctuation after “Tweeds.”
J. Crew, 3/17 — As seen in the the New York Times...
Repeated the “the.”
Ross-Simons, 7/4 — Estate Jewelry: 100's of NEW items - on Sale TODAY! (FREE Shipping included)
Sears, 3/3 — 1000's of Tools on Sale + Big Savings on Electronics
The apostrophes after “100” and “1000” are unnecessary. Proper spelling is “100s” and “1000s.”
B&H Photo Video, 12/23 — Last minute rush! Order before 3 PM (EST) and recieve FREE OVERNIGHT
In addition to leaving the hyphen out of “last-minute” they misspelled “receive.”
Target, 12/21 — Last-minute IN-STORE DEALS, plus FREE 2-DAY SHIPPNG on 100+ top gifts.
I really appreciate that Target correctly hyphenated “last-minute,” “in-store” and “2-day”—a lot of retailers leave those out for some reason. Unfortunately Target misspelled “shipping.”
Road Runner Sports, 2/29 — You want it.. you got it! FREE Shipping on NEW Arrivals!
One dot is a period. Three dots is an ellipsis. Two dots is nothing.
eBags, 11/18 — It?s back: 4 more days of EXTRA 20% Holiday Savings
Diamond.com, 1/14 — Spoil Yourself with Life�s Luxuries. Save 20% + Free Shipping
1-800-Flowers, 2/12 — Save $10 + we値l hand-deliver your Valentines Flowers!
There were a bunch of apostrophes and other special characters that were converted into question marks and—bizarrely—Chinese characters.
DEPLOYMENT MISHAPS
Oopsies in the deployment sphere ranged from duplicate emails to empty emails.
Sephora, 2/2 — Beauty blitz! Free shipping over $25 during the big game
The crown here goes to Sephora, which apparently had a problem with their email image map or forgot to include the code for the HTML portion of this email. When I first viewed the above-the-fold portion of the email, I thought they’d left the unsubscribe link and mailing address off the email and therefore weren’t in compliance with CAN-SPAM.
Ann Taylor, 9/26 — Unbelievable Savings: Fall's Hottest Tops $19.99
Bass Pro Shops, 9/2 — Last Week for 6-Pay - Shop Our Greatest Hunting Sale
Drs. Foster & Smith, 6/26 — Our Biggest Sale Ever on Dog and Cat Supplies
Kmart, 3/18 — Spring Fashions up to 70% off
Macy’s, 5/11 — Spring Home Sale + free shipping ends today!
Newegg.com, 4/1 — Only at Newegg: 640GB HDD $119.99, SanDisk 2GB MP3 $29.99!
Norm Thompson, 11/24 — OUR GIFT TO YOU, TODAY ONLY!
Overstock, 5/9 — 7% OFF COUPON
Sephora, 11/12 — Now open: Dylan's Candy Bar
Tiffany, 12/2 — Tiffany Silver Favorites
Toys “R” Us, 6/10 — Be The First to Play Guitar Hero On Tour for Nintendo DS!
All of those emails were sent twice, most of them in rapid succession.
NFLshop, 11/30 — Today Only - 20% Off Your Entire Order
NFLshop, 11/30 — 20% Off Your Entire Order - Hurry, Only A Few Hours Left - Ends Tonight
Flubbed subject line A/B split tests also resulted in duplicate emails being sent.
IMAGE & CODING ERRORS
Mistakes in coding and image formatting made for some of the most spectacular errors of 2008. There’s no missing these.
Newegg, 9/9 — Last Chance for Back-to-School Bargains, plus our External Hard Drive Giveaway!
Newegg wins the crown for the most unfortunate coding error. When subscribers tried to open this email, an account log-in screen popped up. However, it wasn’t for you to log-in to your Newegg account. Rather, it was to log into the password-protected server that was storing the source files for the main images in this email. Most likely the tech team previewing the email didn’t notice the problem because they were logged in to their server already. Now that wouldn’t have been so awful if you could have closed that pop-up and moved on to other emails in your inbox, but I heard from several people that opening the Newegg email eventually crashed their browser or froze it to the point that they had to reboot their computer.
Newegg very wisely sent an apology email to everyone who opened this email, explaining that the issue was caused by a server outage:
*Tip of the hat to Andrew Kordek over at Sears, DJ Waldow over at Bronto and Smith-Harmon’s own Aaron Smith for their assistance on figuring this oopsy out.
Sharper Image, 3/4 — Up to 60% off - Save now on hot products!
Although not as bad as Apple’s oopsy in early 2007 where their email arrived as raw code (see Feb. 2, 2007 AM Inbox), this text-only Sharper Image email arrived without line breaks or clickable links in some cases depending on your email client. Check out the Feb. 28 AM Inbox to see what it was supposed to look like.
Sports Authority, 4/8 — SportsAuthority.com: Get Kansas Jayhawks Champions Gear
Sports Authority suffered a coding error that scrambled part of their message and wiped out all the legalese at the bottom of their email—including their mailing address and unsubscribe link—making this email in violation of CAN-SPAM. TigerDirect suffered a similar coding error in 2007 that put them in violation of CAN-SPAM as well (see July 9, 2007 AM Inbox).
CompUSA, 4/11 — 3.5-inch GPS $99...Logitech VX Mouse $19...4gb SD Memory $24
While introducing a new logo and navigation bar, CompUSA made a coding error that causes neither of them to appear in the email. The preheader loaded but after that you jump right into the body of the email.
Alibris, 8/24 — Only hours left to spend your $10 coupon!
Nearly a dozen times last year, Alibris had alignment problems with their emails that resulted in large white spaces in one of the two columns in their emails (whichever had less content). Thankfully Alibris saw my posts and was able to add the needed valign="top" coding to fix the problem.
Cooking.com, 1/18 — Big Game Day Essentials + Shipping Offers
In this email there’s a coding or rendering problem that pushes the main body down, making it appear in the preview pane that the email is blank. On the upside, Cooking.com thankfully has a preheader message that includes “Can’t see the image? Click here.”
Bloomingdale’s, 10/30 — Extra 30-50% Off Already Reduced Sale Items
Just like you should be careful with your placeholder subject lines (if you use them), you should also be careful with your placeholder alt text. In this email, Bloomingdale’s uses “Name Of Image” as their placeholder alt text…which never got replaced. For non-product images like this one, you might be better off with no alt text by default or simply using your brand name.
CompUSA, 7/2 — Exclusive Offer: Save $100 & Say Goodbye to Typing! Details Inside...
Used in the right circumstances, personalized greetings can give your emails a lift. But they can also trip you up. Personalized greeting errors helped get a March 18, 2007 Crutchfield email inducted into the 2007 Oopsy Hall of Fame and an Oct. 11, 2006 Overstock email inducted into the 2006 Oopsy Hall of Fame. In this CompUSA email, my name failed to load properly—but on the plus-side, the email didn’t display a null set message as these errors often do. Usually these errors happen because the marketer doesn’t have the subscriber’s name on file, because they didn’t ask for it during the email sign-up process and didn’t get it through an order. That’s not the case with CompUSA, which does ask for subscribers’ names during email sign-up. So something else went awry during this personalization.
Tiffany, 7/29 — Tiffany Effortless Chic
I don’t talk about broken links very often but is probably the No. 1 error that I encounter. In this email, the “If you can't view this e-mail, please click here.” link took you to a different email.
Road Runner Sports, 1/25 — Just because we love you ... Valentine's Special Offer!
In this email, clicking both the primary calls-to-action generated “HTTP Status 404 – Could not find the requested link” errors.
ShopNBC, 12/14 — Exciting & new @ ShopNBC Free Shipping inside
When your email is one big image—and you don’t use any alt text—your email is pretty much ruined by a broken image source code or other issue. Exhibit A:
Staples, 11/21 — Win your entire purchase! Plus, over $650 in savings!
I think there was supposed to be a banner image following the primary image, but instead a portion of the primary image is repeated.
Lillian Vernon, 2/13 — $9.99 or Less Sale + Take an Additional 20% Off
Similar to what happened to the Staples email above, this email repeats a portion of the primary image. Unfortunately, the repetition of that image obscures the HTML text “Shop Now” call-to-action.
Hanna Andersson, 10/7 — Picture Perfect New Holiday Hannas For The Whole Family
Hanna Andersson is our winner for the most ironic image alignment problem. (It’s just a few pixels to the left of “picture perfect.”)
Toys “R” Us, 6/10 — Be The First to Play Guitar Hero On Tour for Nintendo DS!
This is one of the many Toys “R” Us emails that has suffered an alignment problem with the images making up the logo.
Avon, 11/22 — Weekend CLEARANCE SALE: Up To 75% SAVINGS + FREE Shipping
Avon had problems with their image borders, but it seems likely that the email was also missing an image.
JC Whitney, 10/24 — 25% Off 100s of Items, Free Shipping - Limited Time!
Image alignment problem with header and call-to-action button.
Lands’ End, 8/15 — Mix, match and save: the one-stop top shop
Lands’ End has been doing a great job with using HTML text instead of text imbedded in images. But in this email they get into a bit of trouble as the descenders on the “Save $7.50…” line gets obscured by the line of text beneath it. The message still makes sense, but it doesn’t look professional.
Staples, 7/4 — Incredible 1 cent deals for a limited time! Plus, preview our July 6th weekly ad.
All the HTML text in this email is all a little too high and a little too far to the left.
SPELLING, GRAMMAR & CONTEXTUAL MISTAKES
Misspelling words and using poor grammar make you look foolish and distracts from what you’re trying to say.
TigerDirect, 4/25 — LG 42" HDTV $999...Laptop $399...P4 Desktop $249 & More
Missing “L” from second “low” in deck.
Sports Authority, 8/14 — Save 25% On Any Item - 4 Days Only
They wrote “College Color Day” instead of “College Colors Day,” as it says in the logo.
Brookstone, 1/2 — Get a better body in just 15 minutes a day!
Misspelled “equipment” in this subhead.
Lands’ End, 7/27 — Free Shipping ends soon! Save on women's tops and swim
The growing use of preheader messages increases the chance of a mistake there—in this case, the misspelling of “shipping.”
NFLshop, 7/8 — NFL Auction - Bid on unique items from the Pro Bowl and NFL Draft!
Personalized greetings are a breeding ground for mistakes. In this email, NFLshop makes two of them: (1) NFLshop’s default greeting is “Nfl Fan.” Why the lower case “f” and “l”? The proper style for their brand is all caps: “NFL.” And (2) the greeting isn’t grammatically correct. There should be a comma after “Hi” and a period after “Fan”: “Hi, NFL Fan.”
Sephora, 7/17 — New! 6 life-changing beauty innovations
Despite what the subject line says, this email has only 5 life-changing beauty innovations. They got it right in the preheader message. It’s good to spot check your subject lines and preheader messages to make sure they’re in sync.
Sephora, 7/20 — You 5 top eye questions, answered!
In addition to leaving the “r” off of “Your” in the subject line, Sephora says in the subject line and in the preheader message that they answer 5 eye questions when 6 are actually answered in the email.
HOW TO AVOID & RESPOND TO OOPSIES
Mistakes are unavoidable, but you can put processes in place to minimize them and to respond appropriately when they occur. Some tips:
1. Develop a pre-flight checklist and follow it every time. Check out the Email Experience Council’s collection of email checklists.
2. One word: Spell-check.
3. Check all the links in the email, especially key calls-to-action.
4. View a test send in accounts from all the major email clients, or use a rendering tool, to ensure consistent rendering across platforms.
5. Have someone else look over the email before it goes out. It's difficult to catch your own errors.
6. If you make a mistake in an image, simply correct the source file.
7. Don’t resend emails that contain minor mistakes. Only resend those where the mistake has significantly impaired the message.
8. If the error is significant, see if you can halt the send. You may be able to stop your entire list from receiving the erroneous email.
9. Develop a protocol for your apology emails so you can respond quickly when serious mistakes happen.
10. Consider holding periodic post-deployment debriefings to review what went right and wrong during the email development and deployment.
To learn more from other people’s mistakes, check out the 2007 and 2006 inductees into the Oopsy Hall of Fame.
_____________________
SEARCH... By Post Category / By Selling Season / By Retailer / By Topic / Monthly Archive
SUBJECT LINE SLIPS
Subject lines once again proved to be fertile ground for oopsies, which is unfortunate since they play such a strong role in determining whether the recipient goes on to open and engage with the email. Errors ranged from errant spaces and misspellings to total FAILS.
Target, 9/22 — subject line
The Subject Line Slip crown goes to this Target subject line, which might even be worse than HPshopping’s “TBD” subject line from the 2006 Oopsy Hall of Fame—TBD *could* stand for something else after all. If you’re going to use a placeholder subject line, use one you can live with slipping by, like “Great savings from Target.”
Oriental Trading, 9/2 — Create the ultimate Halloween haunt & get fee shipping
If you leave the “r” out of “free,” you get the exact opposite of what you intended to offer.
RedEnvelope, 2/2 — ENTER FOR A CHANCE TO WIN A $500 RED ENVELOPE GIFT CERTIFICATE
They misspelled their own brand name. It probably looked strange in all caps as a single word but the solution is not to break it in two; it’s to stop screaming in full caps.
CompUSA, 5/26 — Memoiral Day Only - Acer 22" LCD $219 - Lenovo Dual-Core Laptop $499 & More
Misspelled “Memorial.”
TigerDirect, 11/28 — 72hr After Thanksgivinig SALE w/ $1.99 Shipping
Misspelled “Thanksgiving.”
Frederick’s of Hollywood, 2/10 — Make Valentine's Day unforgettable. Free shipping upgade on $75 orders.
Misspelled “upgrade.”
Bluefly, 7/16 — Its Time To Think About Cashmere...
It’s time to think about spelling “it’s” correctly in subject lines.
Sephora, 9/24 — Guess who's coming to Sephora?
This is a statement, not a question.
Road Runner Sports, 3/3 — What are you waiting for Runner? FREE SHIPPING ends today!
Plenty of retailers mess up greetings. There should be a comma after “for.”
Spiegel, 10/14 — The NEW Take on Tweeds Spiegel Shows You How To Make the Look Your Own + 20% OFF
Missing punctuation after “Tweeds.”
J. Crew, 3/17 — As seen in the the New York Times...
Repeated the “the.”
Ross-Simons, 7/4 — Estate Jewelry: 100's of NEW items - on Sale TODAY! (FREE Shipping included)
Sears, 3/3 — 1000's of Tools on Sale + Big Savings on Electronics
The apostrophes after “100” and “1000” are unnecessary. Proper spelling is “100s” and “1000s.”
B&H Photo Video, 12/23 — Last minute rush! Order before 3 PM (EST) and recieve FREE OVERNIGHT
In addition to leaving the hyphen out of “last-minute” they misspelled “receive.”
Target, 12/21 — Last-minute IN-STORE DEALS, plus FREE 2-DAY SHIPPNG on 100+ top gifts.
I really appreciate that Target correctly hyphenated “last-minute,” “in-store” and “2-day”—a lot of retailers leave those out for some reason. Unfortunately Target misspelled “shipping.”
Road Runner Sports, 2/29 — You want it.. you got it! FREE Shipping on NEW Arrivals!
One dot is a period. Three dots is an ellipsis. Two dots is nothing.
eBags, 11/18 — It?s back: 4 more days of EXTRA 20% Holiday Savings
Diamond.com, 1/14 — Spoil Yourself with Life�s Luxuries. Save 20% + Free Shipping
1-800-Flowers, 2/12 — Save $10 + we値l hand-deliver your Valentines Flowers!
There were a bunch of apostrophes and other special characters that were converted into question marks and—bizarrely—Chinese characters.
DEPLOYMENT MISHAPS
Oopsies in the deployment sphere ranged from duplicate emails to empty emails.
Sephora, 2/2 — Beauty blitz! Free shipping over $25 during the big game
The crown here goes to Sephora, which apparently had a problem with their email image map or forgot to include the code for the HTML portion of this email. When I first viewed the above-the-fold portion of the email, I thought they’d left the unsubscribe link and mailing address off the email and therefore weren’t in compliance with CAN-SPAM.
Ann Taylor, 9/26 — Unbelievable Savings: Fall's Hottest Tops $19.99
Bass Pro Shops, 9/2 — Last Week for 6-Pay - Shop Our Greatest Hunting Sale
Drs. Foster & Smith, 6/26 — Our Biggest Sale Ever on Dog and Cat Supplies
Kmart, 3/18 — Spring Fashions up to 70% off
Macy’s, 5/11 — Spring Home Sale + free shipping ends today!
Newegg.com, 4/1 — Only at Newegg: 640GB HDD $119.99, SanDisk 2GB MP3 $29.99!
Norm Thompson, 11/24 — OUR GIFT TO YOU, TODAY ONLY!
Overstock, 5/9 — 7% OFF COUPON
Sephora, 11/12 — Now open: Dylan's Candy Bar
Tiffany, 12/2 — Tiffany Silver Favorites
Toys “R” Us, 6/10 — Be The First to Play Guitar Hero On Tour for Nintendo DS!
All of those emails were sent twice, most of them in rapid succession.
NFLshop, 11/30 — Today Only - 20% Off Your Entire Order
NFLshop, 11/30 — 20% Off Your Entire Order - Hurry, Only A Few Hours Left - Ends Tonight
Flubbed subject line A/B split tests also resulted in duplicate emails being sent.
IMAGE & CODING ERRORS
Mistakes in coding and image formatting made for some of the most spectacular errors of 2008. There’s no missing these.
Newegg, 9/9 — Last Chance for Back-to-School Bargains, plus our External Hard Drive Giveaway!
Newegg wins the crown for the most unfortunate coding error. When subscribers tried to open this email, an account log-in screen popped up. However, it wasn’t for you to log-in to your Newegg account. Rather, it was to log into the password-protected server that was storing the source files for the main images in this email. Most likely the tech team previewing the email didn’t notice the problem because they were logged in to their server already. Now that wouldn’t have been so awful if you could have closed that pop-up and moved on to other emails in your inbox, but I heard from several people that opening the Newegg email eventually crashed their browser or froze it to the point that they had to reboot their computer.
Newegg very wisely sent an apology email to everyone who opened this email, explaining that the issue was caused by a server outage:
*Tip of the hat to Andrew Kordek over at Sears, DJ Waldow over at Bronto and Smith-Harmon’s own Aaron Smith for their assistance on figuring this oopsy out.
Sharper Image, 3/4 — Up to 60% off - Save now on hot products!
Although not as bad as Apple’s oopsy in early 2007 where their email arrived as raw code (see Feb. 2, 2007 AM Inbox), this text-only Sharper Image email arrived without line breaks or clickable links in some cases depending on your email client. Check out the Feb. 28 AM Inbox to see what it was supposed to look like.
Sports Authority, 4/8 — SportsAuthority.com: Get Kansas Jayhawks Champions Gear
Sports Authority suffered a coding error that scrambled part of their message and wiped out all the legalese at the bottom of their email—including their mailing address and unsubscribe link—making this email in violation of CAN-SPAM. TigerDirect suffered a similar coding error in 2007 that put them in violation of CAN-SPAM as well (see July 9, 2007 AM Inbox).
CompUSA, 4/11 — 3.5-inch GPS $99...Logitech VX Mouse $19...4gb SD Memory $24
While introducing a new logo and navigation bar, CompUSA made a coding error that causes neither of them to appear in the email. The preheader loaded but after that you jump right into the body of the email.
Alibris, 8/24 — Only hours left to spend your $10 coupon!
Nearly a dozen times last year, Alibris had alignment problems with their emails that resulted in large white spaces in one of the two columns in their emails (whichever had less content). Thankfully Alibris saw my posts and was able to add the needed valign="top" coding to fix the problem.
Cooking.com, 1/18 — Big Game Day Essentials + Shipping Offers
In this email there’s a coding or rendering problem that pushes the main body down, making it appear in the preview pane that the email is blank. On the upside, Cooking.com thankfully has a preheader message that includes “Can’t see the image? Click here.”
Bloomingdale’s, 10/30 — Extra 30-50% Off Already Reduced Sale Items
Just like you should be careful with your placeholder subject lines (if you use them), you should also be careful with your placeholder alt text. In this email, Bloomingdale’s uses “Name Of Image” as their placeholder alt text…which never got replaced. For non-product images like this one, you might be better off with no alt text by default or simply using your brand name.
CompUSA, 7/2 — Exclusive Offer: Save $100 & Say Goodbye to Typing! Details Inside...
Used in the right circumstances, personalized greetings can give your emails a lift. But they can also trip you up. Personalized greeting errors helped get a March 18, 2007 Crutchfield email inducted into the 2007 Oopsy Hall of Fame and an Oct. 11, 2006 Overstock email inducted into the 2006 Oopsy Hall of Fame. In this CompUSA email, my name failed to load properly—but on the plus-side, the email didn’t display a null set message as these errors often do. Usually these errors happen because the marketer doesn’t have the subscriber’s name on file, because they didn’t ask for it during the email sign-up process and didn’t get it through an order. That’s not the case with CompUSA, which does ask for subscribers’ names during email sign-up. So something else went awry during this personalization.
Tiffany, 7/29 — Tiffany Effortless Chic
I don’t talk about broken links very often but is probably the No. 1 error that I encounter. In this email, the “If you can't view this e-mail, please click here.” link took you to a different email.
Road Runner Sports, 1/25 — Just because we love you ... Valentine's Special Offer!
In this email, clicking both the primary calls-to-action generated “HTTP Status 404 – Could not find the requested link” errors.
ShopNBC, 12/14 — Exciting & new @ ShopNBC Free Shipping inside
When your email is one big image—and you don’t use any alt text—your email is pretty much ruined by a broken image source code or other issue. Exhibit A:
Staples, 11/21 — Win your entire purchase! Plus, over $650 in savings!
I think there was supposed to be a banner image following the primary image, but instead a portion of the primary image is repeated.
Lillian Vernon, 2/13 — $9.99 or Less Sale + Take an Additional 20% Off
Similar to what happened to the Staples email above, this email repeats a portion of the primary image. Unfortunately, the repetition of that image obscures the HTML text “Shop Now” call-to-action.
Hanna Andersson, 10/7 — Picture Perfect New Holiday Hannas For The Whole Family
Hanna Andersson is our winner for the most ironic image alignment problem. (It’s just a few pixels to the left of “picture perfect.”)
Toys “R” Us, 6/10 — Be The First to Play Guitar Hero On Tour for Nintendo DS!
This is one of the many Toys “R” Us emails that has suffered an alignment problem with the images making up the logo.
Avon, 11/22 — Weekend CLEARANCE SALE: Up To 75% SAVINGS + FREE Shipping
Avon had problems with their image borders, but it seems likely that the email was also missing an image.
JC Whitney, 10/24 — 25% Off 100s of Items, Free Shipping - Limited Time!
Image alignment problem with header and call-to-action button.
Lands’ End, 8/15 — Mix, match and save: the one-stop top shop
Lands’ End has been doing a great job with using HTML text instead of text imbedded in images. But in this email they get into a bit of trouble as the descenders on the “Save $7.50…” line gets obscured by the line of text beneath it. The message still makes sense, but it doesn’t look professional.
Staples, 7/4 — Incredible 1 cent deals for a limited time! Plus, preview our July 6th weekly ad.
All the HTML text in this email is all a little too high and a little too far to the left.
SPELLING, GRAMMAR & CONTEXTUAL MISTAKES
Misspelling words and using poor grammar make you look foolish and distracts from what you’re trying to say.
TigerDirect, 4/25 — LG 42" HDTV $999...Laptop $399...P4 Desktop $249 & More
Missing “L” from second “low” in deck.
Sports Authority, 8/14 — Save 25% On Any Item - 4 Days Only
They wrote “College Color Day” instead of “College Colors Day,” as it says in the logo.
Brookstone, 1/2 — Get a better body in just 15 minutes a day!
Misspelled “equipment” in this subhead.
Lands’ End, 7/27 — Free Shipping ends soon! Save on women's tops and swim
The growing use of preheader messages increases the chance of a mistake there—in this case, the misspelling of “shipping.”
NFLshop, 7/8 — NFL Auction - Bid on unique items from the Pro Bowl and NFL Draft!
Personalized greetings are a breeding ground for mistakes. In this email, NFLshop makes two of them: (1) NFLshop’s default greeting is “Nfl Fan.” Why the lower case “f” and “l”? The proper style for their brand is all caps: “NFL.” And (2) the greeting isn’t grammatically correct. There should be a comma after “Hi” and a period after “Fan”: “Hi, NFL Fan.”
Sephora, 7/17 — New! 6 life-changing beauty innovations
Despite what the subject line says, this email has only 5 life-changing beauty innovations. They got it right in the preheader message. It’s good to spot check your subject lines and preheader messages to make sure they’re in sync.
Sephora, 7/20 — You 5 top eye questions, answered!
In addition to leaving the “r” off of “Your” in the subject line, Sephora says in the subject line and in the preheader message that they answer 5 eye questions when 6 are actually answered in the email.
HOW TO AVOID & RESPOND TO OOPSIES
Mistakes are unavoidable, but you can put processes in place to minimize them and to respond appropriately when they occur. Some tips:
1. Develop a pre-flight checklist and follow it every time. Check out the Email Experience Council’s collection of email checklists.
2. One word: Spell-check.
3. Check all the links in the email, especially key calls-to-action.
4. View a test send in accounts from all the major email clients, or use a rendering tool, to ensure consistent rendering across platforms.
5. Have someone else look over the email before it goes out. It's difficult to catch your own errors.
6. If you make a mistake in an image, simply correct the source file.
7. Don’t resend emails that contain minor mistakes. Only resend those where the mistake has significantly impaired the message.
8. If the error is significant, see if you can halt the send. You may be able to stop your entire list from receiving the erroneous email.
9. Develop a protocol for your apology emails so you can respond quickly when serious mistakes happen.
10. Consider holding periodic post-deployment debriefings to review what went right and wrong during the email development and deployment.
To learn more from other people’s mistakes, check out the 2007 and 2006 inductees into the Oopsy Hall of Fame.
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AM Inbox: 3 preheader message tactics
>>Share this post with any of 20 social networks. Just click on the ShareThis link at the bottom of every post.
The Retail Email Blog monitors the email marketing campaigns of more than 100 top online retailers. Here are highlights from my inbox this morning:
Gap, 1/27 — Our New Button-Down Shirts, Starting at $34.50
From what I’ve seen there are three preheader message tactics being used by retailers. In order of popularity, they are:
(1) Using the preheader message to reinforce the subject line and highlight the primary message of the email.
(2) Using the preheader message to extend the subject line and highlight secondary messages in the email.
(3) Using the preheader message for calls-to-action not present anywhere else in the email. Sometimes these are ads or messages from sponsors.
This email from Gap is a good example of tactic #2. The preheader message calls out the content of the banner at the bottom of the email and is written assuming that you’ll be reading it right after you read the subject line.
Spiegel, 1/27 — VOTE for Your Favorite New Spring Collection Look!
Spiegel’s “Vote” call-to-action is a softer sell than a “Buy Now” button, while also being more participatory and interactive. Given the current state of the economy, subscribers may also appreciate and respond better to a less demanding CTA. Spiegel may also use the clickthrough data from this email to inform their decisions on which outfits (and models) to feature in their catalog, advertising, etc.
Sam’s Club, 1/27 — Save time. Shop ahead with Click 'n' Pull
Looking for ways to break up your stream of promotional messages? Consider highlighting an online or in-store service such as an email reminder service or in-store pickup, as Sam’s Club does in this email.
SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Dick’s Sporting Goods, 1/27 — Champions Collide - Shop Steelers and Cardinals Gear
Montgomery Ward, 1/27 — Get Ready for Game Day ~ Wards Credit Makes it Easy
Costco, 1/27 — Pre-Order Her Flowers Today! 35 Long-Stem Red Roses $64.99 Delivered.
Lands’ End, 1/27 — 2009 Swimwear (you'll be swimming in compliments)
Urban Outfitters, 1/27 — Spring Forward (For Under $50)
Ralph Lauren, 1/27 — New Big Pony Styles And Colors For Spring, Plus The Create Your Own Collection
Banana Republic, 1/27 — This shirt will change your life [promoting non-iron shirts]
OfficeMax, 1/27 — Save up to 50% on Printers during HP Week
_____________________
SEARCH... By Post Category / By Selling Season / By Retailer / By Topic / Monthly Archive
The Retail Email Blog monitors the email marketing campaigns of more than 100 top online retailers. Here are highlights from my inbox this morning:
Gap, 1/27 — Our New Button-Down Shirts, Starting at $34.50
From what I’ve seen there are three preheader message tactics being used by retailers. In order of popularity, they are:
(1) Using the preheader message to reinforce the subject line and highlight the primary message of the email.
(2) Using the preheader message to extend the subject line and highlight secondary messages in the email.
(3) Using the preheader message for calls-to-action not present anywhere else in the email. Sometimes these are ads or messages from sponsors.
This email from Gap is a good example of tactic #2. The preheader message calls out the content of the banner at the bottom of the email and is written assuming that you’ll be reading it right after you read the subject line.
Spiegel, 1/27 — VOTE for Your Favorite New Spring Collection Look!
Spiegel’s “Vote” call-to-action is a softer sell than a “Buy Now” button, while also being more participatory and interactive. Given the current state of the economy, subscribers may also appreciate and respond better to a less demanding CTA. Spiegel may also use the clickthrough data from this email to inform their decisions on which outfits (and models) to feature in their catalog, advertising, etc.
Sam’s Club, 1/27 — Save time. Shop ahead with Click 'n' Pull
Looking for ways to break up your stream of promotional messages? Consider highlighting an online or in-store service such as an email reminder service or in-store pickup, as Sam’s Club does in this email.
SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Dick’s Sporting Goods, 1/27 — Champions Collide - Shop Steelers and Cardinals Gear
Montgomery Ward, 1/27 — Get Ready for Game Day ~ Wards Credit Makes it Easy
Costco, 1/27 — Pre-Order Her Flowers Today! 35 Long-Stem Red Roses $64.99 Delivered.
Lands’ End, 1/27 — 2009 Swimwear (you'll be swimming in compliments)
Urban Outfitters, 1/27 — Spring Forward (For Under $50)
Ralph Lauren, 1/27 — New Big Pony Styles And Colors For Spring, Plus The Create Your Own Collection
Banana Republic, 1/27 — This shirt will change your life [promoting non-iron shirts]
OfficeMax, 1/27 — Save up to 50% on Printers during HP Week
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Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Bird Watching: A Twitter discussion about DoNotReply Addresses
If you’re not on Twitter yet, here are the kinds of conversations that you’re missing:
@RetailEmailBlog >> Which welcome email sender address makes a better first impression: ContactUs@jcrew.com or DoNotReply@SonyStyle.com?
@djwaldow >> RT @RetailEmailBlog: Which welcome email sender address makes a better first impression: ContactUs@jcrew.com or DoNotReply@SonyStyle.com?
@mihaisecasiu >> @RetailEmailBlog having a donotreply address in any email message is just rude. If you don’t want me to reply don’t send me an email.
@mailvivo >> @RetailEmailBlog DoNotReply? Why can you send to me but I can’t send to you?! Engage, Relate, Win.
@tbuchok >> @RetailEmailBlog donotreply has that special, impersonal and robotic touch. i’ll go with contactus[at]jcrew.com...
@justinpremick >> @RetailEmailBlog c’mon Chad, it’s Monday morning! Too early for trick questions like that ;-) RT http://idek.net/1l6
@RetailEmailBlog>> “Donotreply” addresses are evil in general, but they’re particularly bad for welcome emails. That’s when folks are more likely to have Q’s.
@Dunkndisorderly >> @RetailEmailBlog I agree really don’t like “noreply” addresses. Puts up an instant barrier e,g don’t contact us we are not interested. B ...
@bronto >> RT @RetailEmailBlog “Donotreply” addresses are evil in general, but particularly bad for welcome emails...(Bronto: Agree http://idek.net/Tq)
@LorenMcDonald >> RT @RetailEmailBlog: “Donotreply” addresses are evil in general, but they’re particularly bad for welcome emails...more likely to have Q’s.
@RetailEmailBlog >> Working on Retail Welcome Email Benchmark Study. Thankfully only 2% of retailers use “donotreply” addresses for welcomes.
@Roxyyo >> @retailemailblog I don't mind donotreply, it's cold but I appreciate the frankness of "don't bother no one will follow up" if thats the case
@RetailEmailBlog >>@Roxyyo DoNotReply addresses don't stop folks from still replying to them, so why not just monitor/forward those addresses?
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@RetailEmailBlog >> Which welcome email sender address makes a better first impression: ContactUs@jcrew.com or DoNotReply@SonyStyle.com?
@djwaldow >> RT @RetailEmailBlog: Which welcome email sender address makes a better first impression: ContactUs@jcrew.com or DoNotReply@SonyStyle.com?
@mihaisecasiu >> @RetailEmailBlog having a donotreply address in any email message is just rude. If you don’t want me to reply don’t send me an email.
@mailvivo >> @RetailEmailBlog DoNotReply? Why can you send to me but I can’t send to you?! Engage, Relate, Win.
@tbuchok >> @RetailEmailBlog donotreply has that special, impersonal and robotic touch. i’ll go with contactus[at]jcrew.com...
@justinpremick >> @RetailEmailBlog c’mon Chad, it’s Monday morning! Too early for trick questions like that ;-) RT http://idek.net/1l6
@RetailEmailBlog>> “Donotreply” addresses are evil in general, but they’re particularly bad for welcome emails. That’s when folks are more likely to have Q’s.
@Dunkndisorderly >> @RetailEmailBlog I agree really don’t like “noreply” addresses. Puts up an instant barrier e,g don’t contact us we are not interested. B ...
@bronto >> RT @RetailEmailBlog “Donotreply” addresses are evil in general, but particularly bad for welcome emails...(Bronto: Agree http://idek.net/Tq)
@LorenMcDonald >> RT @RetailEmailBlog: “Donotreply” addresses are evil in general, but they’re particularly bad for welcome emails...more likely to have Q’s.
@RetailEmailBlog >> Working on Retail Welcome Email Benchmark Study. Thankfully only 2% of retailers use “donotreply” addresses for welcomes.
@Roxyyo >> @retailemailblog I don't mind donotreply, it's cold but I appreciate the frankness of "don't bother no one will follow up" if thats the case
@RetailEmailBlog >>@Roxyyo DoNotReply addresses don't stop folks from still replying to them, so why not just monitor/forward those addresses?
_____________________
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AM Inbox: First reference to Mother's Day
>>Share this post with any of 20 social networks. Just click on the ShareThis link at the bottom of every post.
The Retail Email Blog monitors the email marketing campaigns of more than 100 top online retailers. Here are highlights from my inbox this morning:
Williams-Sonoma, 1/26 — Three Gifts In One!
Williams-Sonoma gives us our first reference to Mother’s Day in this email that promotes a three months of wreaths offering that cleverly addresses three gift occasions: Valentine’s Day, Easter and Mother’s Day. During the holiday season, Williams-Sonoma promoted a three months of cheese and a three months of chocolate offering, using an animated hero image to highlight the offerings of the three months. In this email, they decided to forgo the animation, likely because of the need to clearly convey the particular delivery windows for each wreath. The email also includes a video that tells the story of the farm that grows the flowers and herbs and shows how they make the wreaths. The video had some personal interest to the product and also addresses any sourcing questions that customers might have. To help plan your Mother’s Day campaigns, check out the Mother’s Day 2008 Season Finale.
SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Cooking.com, 1/26 — Football Sunday: Recipes for Finger Foods, Easy Dips and Hot Wings
Sears, 1/26 — Big Game Sale: Save On Appliances, Fitness, HDTVs and More
NFLshop, 1/26 — Get Your Gear in Time for the Super Bowl - 50% Off Express Shipping
Harry & David, 1/26 — Perfect match: Gifts as extraordinary as your Valentine.
Kmart, 1/26 — Save on Gifts for Your Valentine
Chadwick’s, 1/26 — We're celebrating 25 years with $25 off!
Norm Thompson, 1/26 — Deeper clearance discounts! Save up to 91%.
_____________________
SEARCH... By Post Category / By Selling Season / By Retailer / By Topic / Monthly Archive
The Retail Email Blog monitors the email marketing campaigns of more than 100 top online retailers. Here are highlights from my inbox this morning:
Williams-Sonoma, 1/26 — Three Gifts In One!
Williams-Sonoma gives us our first reference to Mother’s Day in this email that promotes a three months of wreaths offering that cleverly addresses three gift occasions: Valentine’s Day, Easter and Mother’s Day. During the holiday season, Williams-Sonoma promoted a three months of cheese and a three months of chocolate offering, using an animated hero image to highlight the offerings of the three months. In this email, they decided to forgo the animation, likely because of the need to clearly convey the particular delivery windows for each wreath. The email also includes a video that tells the story of the farm that grows the flowers and herbs and shows how they make the wreaths. The video had some personal interest to the product and also addresses any sourcing questions that customers might have. To help plan your Mother’s Day campaigns, check out the Mother’s Day 2008 Season Finale.
SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Cooking.com, 1/26 — Football Sunday: Recipes for Finger Foods, Easy Dips and Hot Wings
Sears, 1/26 — Big Game Sale: Save On Appliances, Fitness, HDTVs and More
NFLshop, 1/26 — Get Your Gear in Time for the Super Bowl - 50% Off Express Shipping
Harry & David, 1/26 — Perfect match: Gifts as extraordinary as your Valentine.
Kmart, 1/26 — Save on Gifts for Your Valentine
Chadwick’s, 1/26 — We're celebrating 25 years with $25 off!
Norm Thompson, 1/26 — Deeper clearance discounts! Save up to 91%.
_____________________
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Monday, January 26, 2009
AM Inbox: Inviting CAN-SPAM and SWYN to the party
>>Share this post with any of 20 social networks. Just click on the ShareThis link at the bottom of every post.
The Retail Email Blog monitors the email marketing campaigns of more than 100 top online retailers. Here are highlights from my inbox this morning:
Oriental Trading, 1/23 — Sit back, enjoy the show + get free shipping
This email from Oriental Trading promotes party goods for Academy Awards parties and has a prominent “forward with a friend” call-to-action toward the bottom of the email. There are two things to consider here: (1) Be aware that any time you incentivize forwards those resulting emails have to be CAN-SPAM compliant. And (2) I wonder if FTAF is the best way to facilitate party planning. “Share with you network” (SWYN) functionality might better allow people to congregate on Facebook or elsewhere and plan their get-together.
Etronics, 1/23 — Etronics.com is your one stop destination to make your Super Bowl party memorable.
Etronics is all over the place with their preheaders—they have one right justified, one left justified and one centered. Although I don’t think it necessary, I can see why you might want to give a different alignment to your administrative preheader text (“click to view online” and whitelisting instructions) than you do your preheader messaging highlighting the content of the email. But it just seems random to treat all three pieces of information differently. Mark Brownlow of Email Marketing Reports has write a couple of good posts recently about preheader alignment (here and here) that are worth considering if you’re trying to decide how to align your preheaders.
Saks Fifth Avenue, 1/23 — 15% Off - Start Your Spring with Savings!
When including links to video content in your emails, it’s best to use images of video consoles and play arrow buttons. These images instantly communicate that the content is video. In this email, Saks ditches the console in favor of an image of film. It’s a refreshing variation that’s well-suited to the banner treatment.
SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Kmart, 1/23 — Big Game Savings at Kmart
Tiffany, 1/23 — Love at First Sight, Plus Complimentary Shipping
Frederick’s of Hollywood, 1/23 — Heart-stopping Valentine’s styles + free shipping.
Lillian Vernon, 1/25 — You'll Fall in Love with These Valentine's Day Ideas! Plus, Save 15%
FTD, 1/24 — Valentine's Day Sale - Last Day to Save Up to 50%
Walgreens, 1/25 — Get 50 Prints for $5 + More Valentine Gift Ideas
Sam’s Club, 1/25 — Valued Member, Order your Valentine's Day flowers today for February 14th
Hallmark, 1/23 —Tune in to the new Hallmark Hall of Fame this Sunday on CBS!
Ralph Lauren, 1/24 — Warm Up In Cold-Weather Styles At Irresistible Prices
DisneyShopping, 1/23 — 15% Off - Start Your Spring with Savings!
Chadwick’s, 1/23 — Spring's here early! Be the first to preview the new collection
_____________________
SEARCH... By Post Category / By Selling Season / By Retailer / By Topic / Monthly Archive
The Retail Email Blog monitors the email marketing campaigns of more than 100 top online retailers. Here are highlights from my inbox this morning:
Oriental Trading, 1/23 — Sit back, enjoy the show + get free shipping
This email from Oriental Trading promotes party goods for Academy Awards parties and has a prominent “forward with a friend” call-to-action toward the bottom of the email. There are two things to consider here: (1) Be aware that any time you incentivize forwards those resulting emails have to be CAN-SPAM compliant. And (2) I wonder if FTAF is the best way to facilitate party planning. “Share with you network” (SWYN) functionality might better allow people to congregate on Facebook or elsewhere and plan their get-together.
Etronics, 1/23 — Etronics.com is your one stop destination to make your Super Bowl party memorable.
Etronics is all over the place with their preheaders—they have one right justified, one left justified and one centered. Although I don’t think it necessary, I can see why you might want to give a different alignment to your administrative preheader text (“click to view online” and whitelisting instructions) than you do your preheader messaging highlighting the content of the email. But it just seems random to treat all three pieces of information differently. Mark Brownlow of Email Marketing Reports has write a couple of good posts recently about preheader alignment (here and here) that are worth considering if you’re trying to decide how to align your preheaders.
Saks Fifth Avenue, 1/23 — 15% Off - Start Your Spring with Savings!
When including links to video content in your emails, it’s best to use images of video consoles and play arrow buttons. These images instantly communicate that the content is video. In this email, Saks ditches the console in favor of an image of film. It’s a refreshing variation that’s well-suited to the banner treatment.
SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Kmart, 1/23 — Big Game Savings at Kmart
Tiffany, 1/23 — Love at First Sight, Plus Complimentary Shipping
Frederick’s of Hollywood, 1/23 — Heart-stopping Valentine’s styles + free shipping.
Lillian Vernon, 1/25 — You'll Fall in Love with These Valentine's Day Ideas! Plus, Save 15%
FTD, 1/24 — Valentine's Day Sale - Last Day to Save Up to 50%
Walgreens, 1/25 — Get 50 Prints for $5 + More Valentine Gift Ideas
Sam’s Club, 1/25 — Valued Member, Order your Valentine's Day flowers today for February 14th
Hallmark, 1/23 —Tune in to the new Hallmark Hall of Fame this Sunday on CBS!
Ralph Lauren, 1/24 — Warm Up In Cold-Weather Styles At Irresistible Prices
DisneyShopping, 1/23 — 15% Off - Start Your Spring with Savings!
Chadwick’s, 1/23 — Spring's here early! Be the first to preview the new collection
_____________________
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Sunday, January 25, 2009
Week-End Trends: Retail Email Index gets Obama bounce
Email activity and promotional trends during the past week:
The Retail Email Index rose 6% to 225 during the week ending Jan. 23, 2009, and is down 25% from where it was four weeks ago. The Index score indicates that the top 100 online retailers sent more than 2.2 promotional emails each on average last week.
The Retail Email Participation Rate: Tuesday, Inauguration Day, was the most popular day to send retail emails last week. For a look at the different approaches retailers took to leveraging the inauguration in their promotional emails, check out AM Inbox: Commemorative President Barack Obama edition.
The Retail Email Seasonality Meter: Valentine’s Day will dominate the seasonal calendar for the next few weeks. Last week we saw our first references to St. Patrick’s Day and Easter. However, only when Valentine’s Day is out of the way will references to St. Patrick’s Day and, more importantly, Easter start to build.
Other things referenced by retailers: the presidential inauguration, “the big game,” spring, winter, tax season
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The Retail Email Index rose 6% to 225 during the week ending Jan. 23, 2009, and is down 25% from where it was four weeks ago. The Index score indicates that the top 100 online retailers sent more than 2.2 promotional emails each on average last week.
The Retail Email Participation Rate: Tuesday, Inauguration Day, was the most popular day to send retail emails last week. For a look at the different approaches retailers took to leveraging the inauguration in their promotional emails, check out AM Inbox: Commemorative President Barack Obama edition.
The Retail Email Seasonality Meter: Valentine’s Day will dominate the seasonal calendar for the next few weeks. Last week we saw our first references to St. Patrick’s Day and Easter. However, only when Valentine’s Day is out of the way will references to St. Patrick’s Day and, more importantly, Easter start to build.
Other things referenced by retailers: the presidential inauguration, “the big game,” spring, winter, tax season
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Friday, January 23, 2009
Ping Time: Email append, Yahoo feedback loop, etc.
Our latest spin around the mediasphere turned up the following nuggets:
>>Derek Harding of Innovyx triggered an avalanche of agreement on Twitter with this article about how email appending—in his words—“sucks.” >>Follow the ping
>>Alex Rubin of Return Path shares the news that Yahoo! has launched a feedback loop. >>Follow the ping!
>>Morgan Stewart of ExactTarget tells you how to make the case to cut inactive subscribers. >>Follow the ping
>>Ben Chestnut of MailChimp reminds us that people do interact with the footer info and links. (Check out how many people clicked on the subscribe link.) >>Follow the ping
>>Michael Arrington of TechCrunch confirms that MySpace is working on a webmail product. >>Follow the ping
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>>Derek Harding of Innovyx triggered an avalanche of agreement on Twitter with this article about how email appending—in his words—“sucks.” >>Follow the ping
>>Alex Rubin of Return Path shares the news that Yahoo! has launched a feedback loop. >>Follow the ping!
>>Morgan Stewart of ExactTarget tells you how to make the case to cut inactive subscribers. >>Follow the ping
>>Ben Chestnut of MailChimp reminds us that people do interact with the footer info and links. (Check out how many people clicked on the subscribe link.) >>Follow the ping
>>Michael Arrington of TechCrunch confirms that MySpace is working on a webmail product. >>Follow the ping
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AM Inbox: Messaging for hard times
>>Design Hall of Fame. See who earned a spot in the class of 2008.
The Retail Email Blog monitors the email marketing campaigns of more than 100 top online retailers. Here are highlights from my inbox this morning:
Home Depot, 1/22 — Easy & Affordable Updates Including Kitchen, Bath & Home Entertainment
While the message doesn’t directly acknowledge the hard times we’re suffering, the messaging definitely speaks to the times. The word “affordable” is used five times, and the banner about tool rental will speak to people looking to complete projects without buying expensive tools they won’t use often. The email also connects with the tendency of people to spend more time at home during recessions with the messaging about home entertainment and products to make your home better. And lastly, the calls-to-action are a fairly even mix of educational and promotional, which budget-minded subscribers and those looking for help might be more responsive to.
J. Jill, 1/22 — Pure Jill: so versatile, so comfortable… tell us where you wear it!
J. Jill doesn’t offer product reviews but is looking to get customer quotes to use in its promotional efforts so they’re asking subscribers to email them feedback on their PureJill line. With product reviews, blogs and microsites now fairly common, this approach seems pretty dated. If the don’t want to add product review functionality, how about creating a new page branching off their PureJill splash page that would allow people to comment publicly.
NFLshop, 1/22 — Get Ready for the Superbowl - Conference Champs Gear - Now Available
If you don’t respect the spelling of your own brands, no one will. It’s “Super Bowl”—two words.
Urban Outfitters, 1/22 — Skirts + Girls & New Tees
Urban Outfitters’ tendency to pen overly cryptic and inane subject lines earned them a spot in the Hall of Shame portion of my Subject Line Hall of Fame, but I rather like this one. The use of the plus-sign and the ampersand make the pairings ambiguous—Is it skirts and girls AND new tees, or skirts AND girls and new tees?—which is interesting. So this subject line has UO’s artistic bent while still communicating that the email is about skirts and new tees…and has something to do with girls. A big step in the right direction.
NikeStore, 1/22 — The Evolution of an Icon Continues
I was happy to see that Nike fixed their preference update requests in their emails; previously the options highlighted in their emails weren’t available on their preference page (see Jan. 19 AM Inbox).
SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Lane Bryant, 1/22 — $50 Gift Cheque For Your Valentine Lingerie
Eddie Bauer, 1/22 — NEW! Yoga Collection + Free Water Bottle
Spiegel, 1/22 — Fabulous NEW Pieces + Expert Styling Ideas... Only Spiegel Helps You Put It All Together!
Hallmark, 1/22 — Enter & Win: Use Your Photo & Make a Funny Card
CB2 (Crate & Barrel), 1/22 — wow, wow, now...up to 75% off Sale
Kohl’s, 1/22 — 5 Hours Only! 15% off everything at Kohls.com, 11am-4pm EST
_____________________
SEARCH... By Post Category / By Selling Season / By Retailer / By Topic / Monthly Archive
The Retail Email Blog monitors the email marketing campaigns of more than 100 top online retailers. Here are highlights from my inbox this morning:
Home Depot, 1/22 — Easy & Affordable Updates Including Kitchen, Bath & Home Entertainment
While the message doesn’t directly acknowledge the hard times we’re suffering, the messaging definitely speaks to the times. The word “affordable” is used five times, and the banner about tool rental will speak to people looking to complete projects without buying expensive tools they won’t use often. The email also connects with the tendency of people to spend more time at home during recessions with the messaging about home entertainment and products to make your home better. And lastly, the calls-to-action are a fairly even mix of educational and promotional, which budget-minded subscribers and those looking for help might be more responsive to.
J. Jill, 1/22 — Pure Jill: so versatile, so comfortable… tell us where you wear it!
J. Jill doesn’t offer product reviews but is looking to get customer quotes to use in its promotional efforts so they’re asking subscribers to email them feedback on their PureJill line. With product reviews, blogs and microsites now fairly common, this approach seems pretty dated. If the don’t want to add product review functionality, how about creating a new page branching off their PureJill splash page that would allow people to comment publicly.
NFLshop, 1/22 — Get Ready for the Superbowl - Conference Champs Gear - Now Available
If you don’t respect the spelling of your own brands, no one will. It’s “Super Bowl”—two words.
Urban Outfitters, 1/22 — Skirts + Girls & New Tees
Urban Outfitters’ tendency to pen overly cryptic and inane subject lines earned them a spot in the Hall of Shame portion of my Subject Line Hall of Fame, but I rather like this one. The use of the plus-sign and the ampersand make the pairings ambiguous—Is it skirts and girls AND new tees, or skirts AND girls and new tees?—which is interesting. So this subject line has UO’s artistic bent while still communicating that the email is about skirts and new tees…and has something to do with girls. A big step in the right direction.
NikeStore, 1/22 — The Evolution of an Icon Continues
I was happy to see that Nike fixed their preference update requests in their emails; previously the options highlighted in their emails weren’t available on their preference page (see Jan. 19 AM Inbox).
SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Lane Bryant, 1/22 — $50 Gift Cheque For Your Valentine Lingerie
Eddie Bauer, 1/22 — NEW! Yoga Collection + Free Water Bottle
Spiegel, 1/22 — Fabulous NEW Pieces + Expert Styling Ideas... Only Spiegel Helps You Put It All Together!
Hallmark, 1/22 — Enter & Win: Use Your Photo & Make a Funny Card
CB2 (Crate & Barrel), 1/22 — wow, wow, now...up to 75% off Sale
Kohl’s, 1/22 — 5 Hours Only! 15% off everything at Kohls.com, 11am-4pm EST
_____________________
SEARCH... By Post Category / By Selling Season / By Retailer / By Topic / Monthly Archive
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Bird Watching: A Twitter discussion about providing sample emails
If you’re not on Twitter yet, here are the kinds of conversations that you’re missing:
@RetailEmailBlog >> Does your sign-up form include sample emails? It should. Also be sure to update your samples with top-performing emails.
@jbillingsley >> RT @RetailEmailBlog: Does your sign-up form include sample emails? It should. Also be sure to update your samples with top-performing emails
@RobOwen >> RT @RetailEmailBlog Does your sign-up form include sample emails? It should. Also be sure to update your samples with top-performing emails
@dtboyd >> @RetailEmailBlog What do you think? Enough Sample emails on sub page? http://idek.net/1e1 - Need to Add Nov/Dec and the Jan one for the AM
@emailstrategy >> RT @RetailEmailBlog Does your sign-up form include sample emails? It should. (es: also clearly articulate frequency & value)
@RetailEmailBlog >> @dtboyd Providing a full archive is an alternative to providing a few choice sample emails, although I wonder if that might overwhelm some.
@dtboyd >> @RetailEmailBlog Rather be transparent than to not set expectations of the new relationship. But retail would be hard to show more
@RetailEmailBlog >> @dtboyd Email archives probably best for B2B as content has longer shelf life. Samples probably best for B2C.
@Juvieshop >> @RetailEmailBlog Great idea. Wondering how to implement...
@RetailEmailBlog >> @Juvieshop Some retailers simply include images of past emails, while others include a link to the web-hosted version of a recent email.
@RobOwen >> @ RetailEmailBlog RE: sample emails. What if your emails are derived mainly from dynamic content? Trying to think of how I can work this.
@RetailEmailBlog >> @RobOwen If most of your emails are dynamic or triggered (a la Netflix), then just show representative emails (i.e., movie review email)
@RobOwen >> @retailemailblog I guess I could just do mock-ups.
@RetailEmailBlog >> @RobOwen The point of samples is to set expectations. There's no reason a representative mock-up wouldn't suffice.
_____________________
SEARCH... By Post Category / By Selling Season / By Retailer / By Topic / Monthly Archive
@RetailEmailBlog >> Does your sign-up form include sample emails? It should. Also be sure to update your samples with top-performing emails.
@jbillingsley >> RT @RetailEmailBlog: Does your sign-up form include sample emails? It should. Also be sure to update your samples with top-performing emails
@RobOwen >> RT @RetailEmailBlog Does your sign-up form include sample emails? It should. Also be sure to update your samples with top-performing emails
@dtboyd >> @RetailEmailBlog What do you think? Enough Sample emails on sub page? http://idek.net/1e1 - Need to Add Nov/Dec and the Jan one for the AM
@emailstrategy >> RT @RetailEmailBlog Does your sign-up form include sample emails? It should. (es: also clearly articulate frequency & value)
@RetailEmailBlog >> @dtboyd Providing a full archive is an alternative to providing a few choice sample emails, although I wonder if that might overwhelm some.
@dtboyd >> @RetailEmailBlog Rather be transparent than to not set expectations of the new relationship. But retail would be hard to show more
@RetailEmailBlog >> @dtboyd Email archives probably best for B2B as content has longer shelf life. Samples probably best for B2C.
@Juvieshop >> @RetailEmailBlog Great idea. Wondering how to implement...
@RetailEmailBlog >> @Juvieshop Some retailers simply include images of past emails, while others include a link to the web-hosted version of a recent email.
@RobOwen >> @ RetailEmailBlog RE: sample emails. What if your emails are derived mainly from dynamic content? Trying to think of how I can work this.
@RetailEmailBlog >> @RobOwen If most of your emails are dynamic or triggered (a la Netflix), then just show representative emails (i.e., movie review email)
@RobOwen >> @retailemailblog I guess I could just do mock-ups.
@RetailEmailBlog >> @RobOwen The point of samples is to set expectations. There's no reason a representative mock-up wouldn't suffice.
_____________________
SEARCH... By Post Category / By Selling Season / By Retailer / By Topic / Monthly Archive
AM Inbox: First references to St. Patrick's Day and Easter
>>Design Hall of Fame. See who earned a spot in the class of 2008.
The Retail Email Blog monitors the email marketing campaigns of more than 100 top online retailers. Here are highlights from my inbox this morning:
Lillian Vernon, 1/20 — Hearts, Clovers & Bunnies, Oh My - Plus $10 Off in the New Catalog
On Tuesday during all the inauguration buzz, Lillian Vernon gave us our first reference to St. Patrick’s Day and Easter. To help plan your campaigns, check out the St. Patrick’s Day 2008 Season Finale and the Valentine’s Day 2008 Season Finale.
Bed Bath & Beyond, 1/21 — Getting married? Know someone engaged?
While this email is written for both those who are engaged and those who know someone who is engaged, the call-to-actions do not support this two-level conversation. The first four CTAs speak to people who are engaged, while only the fifth and final CTA speaks to those who know someone who’s engaged—which is assuredly the larger of the two audiences. To me, the forward-to-a-friend link should be at the top rather than the bottom. It should be right up there with the “Learn More” button. I’d also change that call-to-action so that it said “Forward to a Bride,” to get in another keyword very prominently.
Overstock, 1/21 — HALF-OFF SALE
Overstock has updated their header, making largely cosmetic changes. The new design features rules to help break up content and draws more attention to the search box by putting it on a grey background and adding a text link to search on their website (to circumvent email clients that block forms). The navigation bar changes are minimal—just a couple of name changes—and they keep the “update preferences” and shopping cart links. They kept both the “click to view online” and whitelisting instructions in the preheader, but they tweaked the reason for whitelisting; they now say “To ensure savings…” rather than “To ensure delivery to your inbox…” I’d be interested to learn if that improves whitelisting over time, but it seems like a good recasting to me. Now it’s worded as a customer benefit—customers want savings—whereas before it was a benefit for Overstock, which would very much like to ensure delivery to their subscribers’ inboxes. Here’s the new design:
And here’s the old design from a Jan. 19 email:
SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Frederick’s, 1/21 — Set hearts aflame + free shipping.
Sony, 1/21 — Score a touchdown with $400 savings and free shipping from Sony
Costco, 1/21 — Save Money Using Costco Services
Saks Fifth Avenue, 1/21 — Alexander Wang TALKS SPRING
_____________________
SEARCH... By Post Category / By Selling Season / By Retailer / By Topic / Monthly Archive
The Retail Email Blog monitors the email marketing campaigns of more than 100 top online retailers. Here are highlights from my inbox this morning:
Lillian Vernon, 1/20 — Hearts, Clovers & Bunnies, Oh My - Plus $10 Off in the New Catalog
On Tuesday during all the inauguration buzz, Lillian Vernon gave us our first reference to St. Patrick’s Day and Easter. To help plan your campaigns, check out the St. Patrick’s Day 2008 Season Finale and the Valentine’s Day 2008 Season Finale.
Bed Bath & Beyond, 1/21 — Getting married? Know someone engaged?
While this email is written for both those who are engaged and those who know someone who is engaged, the call-to-actions do not support this two-level conversation. The first four CTAs speak to people who are engaged, while only the fifth and final CTA speaks to those who know someone who’s engaged—which is assuredly the larger of the two audiences. To me, the forward-to-a-friend link should be at the top rather than the bottom. It should be right up there with the “Learn More” button. I’d also change that call-to-action so that it said “Forward to a Bride,” to get in another keyword very prominently.
Overstock, 1/21 — HALF-OFF SALE
Overstock has updated their header, making largely cosmetic changes. The new design features rules to help break up content and draws more attention to the search box by putting it on a grey background and adding a text link to search on their website (to circumvent email clients that block forms). The navigation bar changes are minimal—just a couple of name changes—and they keep the “update preferences” and shopping cart links. They kept both the “click to view online” and whitelisting instructions in the preheader, but they tweaked the reason for whitelisting; they now say “To ensure savings…” rather than “To ensure delivery to your inbox…” I’d be interested to learn if that improves whitelisting over time, but it seems like a good recasting to me. Now it’s worded as a customer benefit—customers want savings—whereas before it was a benefit for Overstock, which would very much like to ensure delivery to their subscribers’ inboxes. Here’s the new design:
And here’s the old design from a Jan. 19 email:
SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Frederick’s, 1/21 — Set hearts aflame + free shipping.
Sony, 1/21 — Score a touchdown with $400 savings and free shipping from Sony
Costco, 1/21 — Save Money Using Costco Services
Saks Fifth Avenue, 1/21 — Alexander Wang TALKS SPRING
_____________________
SEARCH... By Post Category / By Selling Season / By Retailer / By Topic / Monthly Archive
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Design Hall of Fame: 2008 Inductees
Welcome to the Retail Email Blog’s second annual inductions into the Design Hall of Fame, which recognizes standout examples of email design. With the number of permission-based emails sent every year climbing, design is one of the key ways you can stand out in the inbox. After reading more than 12,000 retail emails during 2008, here are my picks for the most inspiring uses of visual design, calls-to-action, FTAF and SWYN, animated gifs, video and web 2.0 in emails:
MOST EYE-CATCHING DESIGN
Great eye-catching design transcends great photography. Here are my picks for standout design from 2008:
HPshopping, 12/4 — Stay Connected on the Go! Check out the NEW HP Mini 1000!
Having the image of the laptop break the box of the email and stick out on either side really makes it stand out. And showing the laptop at its actual size invites you to reach out and put your hands “around it” or hold up your existing laptop to it to compare sizes, which gives it an interactive edge.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Norm Thompson, 12/8 — Bonus Days - 20% OFF extended thru Tuesday.
Considerably narrower (only 400 pixels) than your average email, this email immediately stands out as different. It’s long, skinny design encourages scrolling—and the gingerbread man at the end is a great finishing touch.
Urban Outfitters, 10/6 — Right On.
I don’t know that the content of this email screams out for a side-scrolling treatment (Bluefly’s birthday timeline email and Dell’s widescreen monitor email seem like better candidates), but I give Urban Outfitters props for trying this alternative format. Side-scrollers are extremely rare, and therefore automatically different. UO has the additional benefit in that the readers of their blog will be familiar with side-scrolling.
JC Whitney, 8/1 — Save Fuel, Cash And Up To 15% Off Your Order!
Back when gas prices were breaking records, JC Whitney sent this timely email about products to help subscribers save gas. The Photoshopped image was eye-catching, humorous and well-designed so that it appeared in preview panes.
MOST INTRIGUING CALL-TO-ACTION
You should be testing calls-to-action in the same way that you do subject lines. Depending on your customer base, subscribers may respond better to something other than the oft-used “Buy Now.” Softening the sell, injecting humor or using a benefits-related CTA may be more enticing in the end. Here are some standout CTAs from last year:
Bluefly, 12/17 — 2 Hours Only - PRADA Wallets $169!
Bluefly’s new email featuring very limited time only deals had a very sexy, on brand name: The Quickie. It also had an on brand call-to-action: “Do It Now.” This is a great case of the CTA working well with the vibe of the headline, deck and other body copy.
Old Navy, 1/14 — New Loungewear and Intimates, Plus Clearance Online & In-Store
“Break Hearts” is a great call-to-action for a Valentine’s Day email—succinct, active, seasonal, encouraging and aspirational.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
SmartBargains, 8/14 — Get our fave furniture find for $200 off - plus save 10% more
When many retailers still rely on “Shop Now” and “Buy Now” calls-to-action, SmartBargains’ approach to CTAs is refreshing. As demonstrated in this email, they use a mix of CTAs that are humorous or contain lifestyle or value messaging.
BEST USE OF FTAF & SWYN
If your deals are enticing or content interesting, your emails are regularly shared by your subscribers. Providing forward-to-a-friend and share-with-your-network functionality reminds and encourages subscribers to share your emails and organically expands the reach of your messaging. Here are some standout uses of FTAF and SWYN functionality from 2008:
AbeBooks, 7/18 — Textbooks: Give a Student the Gift of Savings!
This is a compelling use of forward to a friend. They’ve made it the primary call-to-action of this email and instead of saying “Forward to a Student,” they used a much more compelling “Help a Student Save” call-to-action. Hitting the button takes you to a special forward-to-a-friend form with the student language on it. They wisely didn’t use their standard FTAF landing page. Sometimes I hear marketers saying that they only see forward rates of less than 1% and I always ask, “What have you done to try to boost that? Do you ever incorporate the forward-to-a-friend request into your primary message?” This is the kind of treatment I’m referring to. I’m sure they saw much more than a 1% forward rate from this (and that’s not including folks that forwarded it via their email client).
Ralph Lauren, 6/18 — Explore The World Of Wimbledon
Ralph Lauren was the first major retailer to embrace SWYN functionality and in this email they pair a strong “Share This Email” call-to-action with video and article content about Wimbledon.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Hallmark, 1/28 — FREE SHIPPING plus $10 off roses--last chance!
In this email, Hallmark uses a “Shop Now” call-to-action to appeal to their male subscribers and uses their forward-to-a-friend functionality to appeal to female subscribers, urging them to forward this Valentine’s Day email to their “wonderful guy.” If Hallmark had been able to gender segment their list, they could have sent a more focused email to their female subscribers using the FTAF link as the primary call-to-action. But without that segmentation ability, this email is a nice compromise.
BEST USE OF ANIMATION
Animated gifs can amuse, extend screen real estate and draw attention to a message. Here are some standout examples from last year:
HPshopping, 4/28 — Get Down & Dirty With Mike Rowe and HP's New tx2000z Notebook
My favorite use of animation is to demonstrate product functions and this is a great example of that. The first animated gif shows you how the screen of the laptop can pivot and the second shows you how the printer folds up. You have to be careful not to overdo animation, but I think that the two animated gifs are far enough apart that it’s not an issue in this email.
Here are the animated portions of this email:
TigerDirect, 11/11 — 8gb USB $15...Samsung 61" HDTV $1099...4gb HP Touchscreen
This is another example of animation used for demonstration. The animation here shows you how you can use the touchscreen on this HP computer to interact with the images. This is a great “show, don’t tell” example.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
SmartBargains, 12/11 — Get an Extra 25% Off Your Entire Order!
SmartBargains gives us what I believe is a first—the first animated call-to-action button. Simple and very clever, it draws the eye right to where you want subscribers to click.
Here’s the animated portion of this email:
Harry & David, 12/3 — TAKE 20% OFF your $125 order!
Animated gifs don’t have to beat subscribers over the head. Here’s a great subtle application, one that helps draw the eye down the email and encourage scrolling.
And here’s the animated portion of that email:
BEST USE OF VIDEO
A new category this year, video is becoming a more important element in email—especially since it looks like embedded video will finally become a reality this year. Here are some standout examples of video content usage during 2008:
Sears, 12/13 — Say Thank You to a Hero
This email sparked a huge debate about whether the VHD Technology solution used by Sears for this email was truly embedded video or just a streaming gif. (You can read more about the debate in the Dec. 15 AM Inbox.) Regardless of how it works, what’s undeniable is that the email contained the most impressive video quality ever seen in a retail email—and it’s just the beginning. With Goodmail Systems readying to launch its embedded video solution, this Sears email has set the stage for lots of experimentation with embedded video this year. (See the video in this email in action here.)
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Apple, 7/1 — iPhone 3G is coming July 11. Watch the guided tour.
This was the first retail email I’d seen where the main call-to-action was a video—in this case a 30-minute video tour of the iPhone 3G. The email’s design is very simple and to the point, with a clear call-to-action.
OfficeMax, 8/14 — Exclusive Penny Deals for Back to School
OfficeMax’ Penny Prank Videos areawesome!!! and a great compliment to their Penny Deals campaign. They are videos of a guy trying to buy things with pennies—sometimes hundreds and sometimes thousands of them. After being criticized for the very viral but not very OfficeMax-relevant ElfYourself microsite, this looked much more relevant because it dovetailed with their Penny Deals promotional campaign so well.
BEST USE OF WEB 2.0
In addition to video, the other tools in the web 2.0 toolbox are also becoming more important elements of email design. Here are some notable examples from last year:
Urban Outfitters, 2/1 — All New: Skull Set + Urban Outfitters
In this email Urban Outfitters promoted a Flickr group where people can upload pictures of themselves styling Urban Outfitters clothing. It’s a novel community-building idea that I haven’t seen any other retailer attempt—and fits into UO’s artsy, indie image. Besides giving customers an outlet to imitate the photographic style of UO, I wonder if would be a fertile ground to find modeling talent. The Flickr group only has a little more than 1,400 members (compared to their 70,000 Facebook fans), but it’s novel and totally on brand for them.
On the downside, in this email, when you clicked through the Flickr banner you were dropped off on the Urban Outfitters site first and you had to locate and click on a small banner for the Flickr pool at the bottom of the page to actually get there. So it wasn’t very user-unfriendly.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Neiman Marcus, 3/18 — Where to go for insider fashion & beauty news
While most retailers rarely if ever mention their blogs in their emails (if they indeed even have a blog), here’s Neiman Marcus dedicating an entire email to promoting their NM Insite blog with a mock magazine cover creative. Very chic.
Want more design inspiration? Check out the 2007 inductees into the Design Hall of Fame.
_____________________
SEARCH... By Post Category / By Selling Season / By Retailer / By Topic / Monthly Archive
MOST EYE-CATCHING DESIGN
Great eye-catching design transcends great photography. Here are my picks for standout design from 2008:
HPshopping, 12/4 — Stay Connected on the Go! Check out the NEW HP Mini 1000!
Having the image of the laptop break the box of the email and stick out on either side really makes it stand out. And showing the laptop at its actual size invites you to reach out and put your hands “around it” or hold up your existing laptop to it to compare sizes, which gives it an interactive edge.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Norm Thompson, 12/8 — Bonus Days - 20% OFF extended thru Tuesday.
Considerably narrower (only 400 pixels) than your average email, this email immediately stands out as different. It’s long, skinny design encourages scrolling—and the gingerbread man at the end is a great finishing touch.
Urban Outfitters, 10/6 — Right On.
I don’t know that the content of this email screams out for a side-scrolling treatment (Bluefly’s birthday timeline email and Dell’s widescreen monitor email seem like better candidates), but I give Urban Outfitters props for trying this alternative format. Side-scrollers are extremely rare, and therefore automatically different. UO has the additional benefit in that the readers of their blog will be familiar with side-scrolling.
JC Whitney, 8/1 — Save Fuel, Cash And Up To 15% Off Your Order!
Back when gas prices were breaking records, JC Whitney sent this timely email about products to help subscribers save gas. The Photoshopped image was eye-catching, humorous and well-designed so that it appeared in preview panes.
MOST INTRIGUING CALL-TO-ACTION
You should be testing calls-to-action in the same way that you do subject lines. Depending on your customer base, subscribers may respond better to something other than the oft-used “Buy Now.” Softening the sell, injecting humor or using a benefits-related CTA may be more enticing in the end. Here are some standout CTAs from last year:
Bluefly, 12/17 — 2 Hours Only - PRADA Wallets $169!
Bluefly’s new email featuring very limited time only deals had a very sexy, on brand name: The Quickie. It also had an on brand call-to-action: “Do It Now.” This is a great case of the CTA working well with the vibe of the headline, deck and other body copy.
Old Navy, 1/14 — New Loungewear and Intimates, Plus Clearance Online & In-Store
“Break Hearts” is a great call-to-action for a Valentine’s Day email—succinct, active, seasonal, encouraging and aspirational.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
SmartBargains, 8/14 — Get our fave furniture find for $200 off - plus save 10% more
When many retailers still rely on “Shop Now” and “Buy Now” calls-to-action, SmartBargains’ approach to CTAs is refreshing. As demonstrated in this email, they use a mix of CTAs that are humorous or contain lifestyle or value messaging.
BEST USE OF FTAF & SWYN
If your deals are enticing or content interesting, your emails are regularly shared by your subscribers. Providing forward-to-a-friend and share-with-your-network functionality reminds and encourages subscribers to share your emails and organically expands the reach of your messaging. Here are some standout uses of FTAF and SWYN functionality from 2008:
AbeBooks, 7/18 — Textbooks: Give a Student the Gift of Savings!
This is a compelling use of forward to a friend. They’ve made it the primary call-to-action of this email and instead of saying “Forward to a Student,” they used a much more compelling “Help a Student Save” call-to-action. Hitting the button takes you to a special forward-to-a-friend form with the student language on it. They wisely didn’t use their standard FTAF landing page. Sometimes I hear marketers saying that they only see forward rates of less than 1% and I always ask, “What have you done to try to boost that? Do you ever incorporate the forward-to-a-friend request into your primary message?” This is the kind of treatment I’m referring to. I’m sure they saw much more than a 1% forward rate from this (and that’s not including folks that forwarded it via their email client).
Ralph Lauren, 6/18 — Explore The World Of Wimbledon
Ralph Lauren was the first major retailer to embrace SWYN functionality and in this email they pair a strong “Share This Email” call-to-action with video and article content about Wimbledon.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Hallmark, 1/28 — FREE SHIPPING plus $10 off roses--last chance!
In this email, Hallmark uses a “Shop Now” call-to-action to appeal to their male subscribers and uses their forward-to-a-friend functionality to appeal to female subscribers, urging them to forward this Valentine’s Day email to their “wonderful guy.” If Hallmark had been able to gender segment their list, they could have sent a more focused email to their female subscribers using the FTAF link as the primary call-to-action. But without that segmentation ability, this email is a nice compromise.
BEST USE OF ANIMATION
Animated gifs can amuse, extend screen real estate and draw attention to a message. Here are some standout examples from last year:
HPshopping, 4/28 — Get Down & Dirty With Mike Rowe and HP's New tx2000z Notebook
My favorite use of animation is to demonstrate product functions and this is a great example of that. The first animated gif shows you how the screen of the laptop can pivot and the second shows you how the printer folds up. You have to be careful not to overdo animation, but I think that the two animated gifs are far enough apart that it’s not an issue in this email.
Here are the animated portions of this email:
TigerDirect, 11/11 — 8gb USB $15...Samsung 61" HDTV $1099...4gb HP Touchscreen
This is another example of animation used for demonstration. The animation here shows you how you can use the touchscreen on this HP computer to interact with the images. This is a great “show, don’t tell” example.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
SmartBargains, 12/11 — Get an Extra 25% Off Your Entire Order!
SmartBargains gives us what I believe is a first—the first animated call-to-action button. Simple and very clever, it draws the eye right to where you want subscribers to click.
Here’s the animated portion of this email:
Harry & David, 12/3 — TAKE 20% OFF your $125 order!
Animated gifs don’t have to beat subscribers over the head. Here’s a great subtle application, one that helps draw the eye down the email and encourage scrolling.
And here’s the animated portion of that email:
BEST USE OF VIDEO
A new category this year, video is becoming a more important element in email—especially since it looks like embedded video will finally become a reality this year. Here are some standout examples of video content usage during 2008:
Sears, 12/13 — Say Thank You to a Hero
This email sparked a huge debate about whether the VHD Technology solution used by Sears for this email was truly embedded video or just a streaming gif. (You can read more about the debate in the Dec. 15 AM Inbox.) Regardless of how it works, what’s undeniable is that the email contained the most impressive video quality ever seen in a retail email—and it’s just the beginning. With Goodmail Systems readying to launch its embedded video solution, this Sears email has set the stage for lots of experimentation with embedded video this year. (See the video in this email in action here.)
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Apple, 7/1 — iPhone 3G is coming July 11. Watch the guided tour.
This was the first retail email I’d seen where the main call-to-action was a video—in this case a 30-minute video tour of the iPhone 3G. The email’s design is very simple and to the point, with a clear call-to-action.
OfficeMax, 8/14 — Exclusive Penny Deals for Back to School
OfficeMax’ Penny Prank Videos areawesome!!! and a great compliment to their Penny Deals campaign. They are videos of a guy trying to buy things with pennies—sometimes hundreds and sometimes thousands of them. After being criticized for the very viral but not very OfficeMax-relevant ElfYourself microsite, this looked much more relevant because it dovetailed with their Penny Deals promotional campaign so well.
BEST USE OF WEB 2.0
In addition to video, the other tools in the web 2.0 toolbox are also becoming more important elements of email design. Here are some notable examples from last year:
Urban Outfitters, 2/1 — All New: Skull Set + Urban Outfitters
In this email Urban Outfitters promoted a Flickr group where people can upload pictures of themselves styling Urban Outfitters clothing. It’s a novel community-building idea that I haven’t seen any other retailer attempt—and fits into UO’s artsy, indie image. Besides giving customers an outlet to imitate the photographic style of UO, I wonder if would be a fertile ground to find modeling talent. The Flickr group only has a little more than 1,400 members (compared to their 70,000 Facebook fans), but it’s novel and totally on brand for them.
On the downside, in this email, when you clicked through the Flickr banner you were dropped off on the Urban Outfitters site first and you had to locate and click on a small banner for the Flickr pool at the bottom of the page to actually get there. So it wasn’t very user-unfriendly.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Neiman Marcus, 3/18 — Where to go for insider fashion & beauty news
While most retailers rarely if ever mention their blogs in their emails (if they indeed even have a blog), here’s Neiman Marcus dedicating an entire email to promoting their NM Insite blog with a mock magazine cover creative. Very chic.
Want more design inspiration? Check out the 2007 inductees into the Design Hall of Fame.
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