AM Inbox: Do your emails speak in your brand voice?

The Retail Email Blog monitors the email marketing campaigns of more than 100 top online retailers. Here are highlights from my inbox this morning:

Newegg, 6/28 — Hit the ground running this week with 5 fabulous Guerrilla Deals!
Newegg sells stuff that lots of other retailers sell, so they have to differentiate themselves through their pricing, service and brand voice. Newegg has been sending these Guerrilla Deals emails for a little while now, but the language in this one really caught my attention for being fun but still expressive. “…Regenerate like zombie hydra heads.” “Zombie Price Regeneration…” This wording is sure to resonate with their core male 20-something shoppers.



Toys “R” Us, 6/28 — Free $10 Gift Card with The Last Airbender! Plus, Special Wii Edition, Only at TRU!‏
Just like Twitter’s character limit sometimes causes folks to use abbreviations that are unknown to some readers, subject lines also sometimes lead to alienating abbreviations—like TRU in this email’s subject line. When I saw that I immediately thought of TruTV, which of course made no sense. After thinking about it for a minute I figured out it’s short for Toys “R” Us, but I’ve never seen then use that shorthand before. Their corporate website is tru.com, but I don’t think there’s much awareness of that. Maybe I’m wrong here and not up on my Toys “R” Us-speak, but the point is to avoid insider-speak and use words that your average subscriber will easily understand.

SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Sam’s Club, 6/28 — Celebrate July 4th with sweet summer savings.
Cooking.com, 6/28 — Fourth of July Recipes: Potato Salads, Cole Slaws + Bean Salads‏
Lane Bryant, 6/28 — Last Day For $1.99 Shipping + 4 Hot Looks For The 4th Of July‏
Diamond.com, 6/28 — Enchanted Rubies - July Birthstone‏
Toys “R” Us, 6/28 — Our Best Deal just got Better! Now Free Shipping on orders of only $49 or more at Toysrus.com & Babiesrus.com!
Bloomingdale’s, 6/28 — Save NOW Until 4AM: Time Is Ticking!‏
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AM Inbox: Alibris continues template testing

The Retail Email Blog monitors the email marketing campaigns of more than 100 top online retailers. Here are highlights from my inbox this morning:

Alibris, 6/25 — AHA! Book Lover, you've finally found it at Alibris‏
Alibris continues to test new email designs (see June 10 AM Inbox). This one ditches the traditional navigation bar in favor of a smaller one that runs in the upper right-hand position in the header area. It’s less prominent there and likely to be missed by subscribers scanning down the left side of the email. This design also uses a background color to frame the entire email, which is a tactic that’s growing in popularity. Using wooden shelves in their product grid is a fun touch, although it looks like there’s space to highlight three books per row in most cases. You don’t want it to be cramped, but it seems a little airy currently.



Neiman Marcus, 6/26 — A STEP AHEAD: Stay front & center with ankle boots‏
Neiman Marcus is the master of serialized content in the retail world, but they’ve deviated from their usual formula with this “A Step Ahead” campaign but having the emails in the series too spaced out. Typically they send all or most of the emails in a series consecutively, but Neiman Marcus sent nine other emails between the first and second emails in this series. It’s a bit jarring and made me think that I’d missed something. Neiman Marcus has been running an “Art of Fashion” series for a few months now and while they only send them occasionally now, they started by sending several of them consecutively to cement the series in subscribers’ minds (see Mar. 5 AM Inbox).



J&R, 6/25 — Weekend Sale - Biggest Savings of the Week!‏
J&R has had image alignment issues in their header for a couple of weeks now. Definitely not the best brand impression. A reminder to check how your emails render across email client and browser combinations. It’s also probably a good idea not to cut your logo into multiple pieces.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Furniture.com, 6/25 — Red, White and Green: 4th of July Celebration starts today!
Orvis, 6/25 — 25 patriotic styles to demonstrate your pride this Fourth of July.
HP, 6/26 — HP's Fourth of July Sale STARTS NOW!‏
Home Depot, 6/26 — Stay Cool With a $99 Ceiling Fan: Styles to Fit Any Budget‏
eBags, 6/25 — Save $25 Off New Summer Styles - This Weekend Only‏
Barnes & Noble, 6/25 — Express Yourself! Enjoy FREE Express Shipping All Weekend‏
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Week-End Trends: Fireworks to announce quiet summer period

Email activity and seasonal trends during the past week:

The Retail Email Index: Top online retailers sent each of their subscribers 2.6 promotional emails on average during the week ending June 25, 2010. That’s down 8% week-over-week, down 4% from where it was four weeks ago, and up 9% year-over-year. With the summer months now here, we should be entering a period of relatively flat retail email volume.



The Retail Email Participation Rate: Friday was the most popular day to send retail emails last week.



The Retail Email Seasonality Meter: 4th of July messaging will dominate seasonal themes this week and next, but then back-to-school messaging will take off, peaking in mid August.



Selling Seasons on the Horizon:
Back to School (June-September): Back-to-School 2009 Season Finale
Independence Day (7/4): 4th of July 2009 Season Finale
Labor Day (9/6): Labor Day 2009 Season Finale
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Ping Time: #emailisdeadanalogy, share link positioning, etc.

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

>>Loren McDonald of Silverpop takes on Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s twisted logic about email dying and starts a Twitter conversation, asking folks for their best #emailisdeadanalogy based on Sandberg’s logic. >>Follow the ping

>>Kristina Schott of ExactTarget explains how repositioning the share links in Florida Power & Light’s emails increased sharing by 42%. >>Follow the ping and then share it

>>Ros Hodgekiss of Campaign Monitor explains how to add background images so that they won’t break in Outlook and Gmail. >>Follow the ping

>>Amy Hamilton of Smith-Harmon rounds up some birthday emails and critiques them. >>Follow the ping

>>Cynthia Edwards of Razorfish shares some ideas for spicing up your email sign-up forms. >>Follow the ping

>>In my latest Email Insider column, I discuss ways to cross-promote sister brands within your email program. >>Follow the ping
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AM Inbox: Bright animation idea + sender name tests

The Retail Email Blog monitors the email marketing campaigns of more than 100 top online retailers. Here are highlights from my inbox this morning:

Banana Republic, 6/24 — 25% off plus free shipping! Online only!‏
I really like the minimalism in this animated gif. They do a lot with a circle, a curved line and a little color. They protect themselves from Outlook 2007 (and 2010) blocking the animation by including all of the promotional copy on the first frame. They also make the copy easy to read by only showing the animation once, so it grabs subscribers’ attention and then allows them to read it without the animation looping.

The other interesting thing in this email is that Banana Republic uses the sender name “Banana Republic Promotions” instead of their usual “BananaRepublic.com.” The Gap Inc. brands certainly have a history of experimenting with sender names so perhaps this is just another in a long line of tests.



Old Navy, 6/24 — Wholey Moley! Save 30% Off the WHOLE Site‏
And speaking of sender name tests among the Gap Inc. brands, for this email Old Navy uses the sender name “Old Navy Deal Alert.” They normally use “Old Navy,” although in late May they tried “Old Navy Email Exclusive” as the sender name for a couple of emails.

Urban Outfitters, 6/24 — You're the first to know! (Details inside)‏
Since moving to the “UO” logo a while back, Urban Outfitters has periodically experimented with using the space directly to the right of their logo. In this email, they’ve inserted what I would usually call a preheader header message—except that they already have one in this email. So in this email, Urban Outfitters has the subject line, preheader message and this, let’s call it a header message, all working to convey the subject of the email before you even get to the primary message.



Cooking.com, 6/24 — Classic Cookout: Recipes for Easy Baked Beans & BBQ Faves‏
I’m a big proponent of polls in emails, especially when they’re used for progressive profiling. So I was excited to see this “Yum/Yuck” poll in this email. But the experience quickly let me down. First, you have to click through to the landing page to indicate your choice. That really could have been handled in the email itself, saving Cooking.com some drop-off in respondents. And second, when you vote on the landing page, a window pops up with the results, but it’s almost instantly replaced with an ad. So you click through the email, cast your vote, and you don’t even get to see the results. It’s a frustrating experience that’s like to depress the response to future “Yum/Yuck” polls, which deprives Cooking.com of important affinity information that could be used to decide which recipes and products to pitch to individual subscribers.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Sports Authority, 6/24 — Stock Up for the 4th Sale - Save 20% on Thursday & Friday!‏
Coldwater Creek, 6/24 — Save $20...Summer's here! Jackets required. Sleeves optional.
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AM Inbox: Virtuous circle between social and email

The Retail Email Blog monitors the email marketing campaigns of more than 100 top online retailers. Here are highlights from my inbox this morning:

Crutchfield, 6/23 — Save up to 40% at the Crutchfield Outlet Store‏
The promotion was clearly a last-minute addition, but in this email Crutchfield promotes in the preheader an opportunity to “pick the next deal.” That message is fairly cryptic and it appears that the deal is chosen on Facebook and announced on Facebook. A few months ago, Fairytale Brownies took this same concept and put a more channel-integrated spin on it, sending an email offer for free shipping, telling subscribers that they made that offer based on feedback from their Facebook community, and then asking subscribers to join them on Facebook to help chose future email offers. It helped that the messaging in Fairytale’s email was much clearer than in the Crutchfield email, but the cross-channel messaging is also more innovative.



Overstock.com, 6/23 — 70% OFF SALE‏
Overstock tells subscribers about their new Visual Search functionality on their website.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Bass Pro Shops, 6/23 — 4th of July Savings at BassPro.com‏
Fingerhut, 6/23 — Fingerhut: Stay COOL + Take 10% OFF Home Cooling! Email ONLY!
Toys “R” Us, 6/23 — Check out the Top 10 Hottest Toys of the Summer!
Linens ’n Things, 6/23 — Top Secret Sale Email Exclusive!‏
Diamond.com, 6/23 — Get a Free Gift For Shopping With us!‏
Sephora, 6/23 — The gadget we all want‏
Dell, 6/23 — Introducing the Inspiron R Family‏
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Season Finale: Mother's Day 2010

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

Start to finish: The first reference to Mother’s Day was on Mar. 26. The final reference was on May 10.

The biggest day for Mother’s Day emails was Sunday, May 2, followed by Monday, May 3. Retailers sent the majority of their Mother’s Day-themed emails after Apr. 27.



Most interesting emails: Following up on an Apr. 5 email (see Apr. 6 AM Inbox), Urban Outfitters sent a May 9 email announcing the winners of their Original Icons contest, which sought the best vintage pictures of subscribers’ mothers. It was a great contest that was totally on-brand for UO and this email really celebrated the winners.



Shop by persona messaging is always popular, but this Apr. 29 email from eBags used this tactic very well.



Email 2.0 angle: I’ve really enjoyed how Overstock uses their email channel to prompt seasonal conversations on Twitter, as they do in this Apr. 30 email.



Standout subject lines:
Harry & David, 4/19 — Secure your Place as Mom's Favorite + Enter our Sweepstakes + Offer Inside
Harry & David, 4/26 — Mother's Day gifts she'll tell everyone about + Offer Inside
Urban Outfitters, 5/9 — Call Your Mother
Sports Authority, 5/7 — As Seen On Oprah, Gift For Mom + Get $25 Cash Card
Barnes & Noble, 4/21 — Love Mom and Love to Save? Get 50% Off the Perfect Mother's Day Gift!
Linens ’n Things, 5/2 — LUV MOM? Shop Now, Save 10% & Ship Free!
Sephora, 5/2 — #1 Mom's Day Gift, Ships Free‏
Dell, 4/30 — Treat Mom to an unforgettable Mother's Day
RitzCamera, 5/1 — Mother's Day Photo Tips, Save on Camera Outfits for Mom!

Read previous Mother’s Day Season Finales: 2009, 2008, 2007

Explore Mother’s Day tag.
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AM Inbox: Connecting vertical lines to secondary messages

The Retail Email Blog monitors the email marketing campaigns of more than 100 top online retailers. Here are highlights from my inbox this morning:

Tiffany & Co., 6/22 — A Design Original: Elsa Peretti Diamonds by the Yard
In this email and others, Tiffany does a great job of creating vertical movement through the use of images of necklaces, bracelets and other jewelry. Those vertical lines have the effect of encouraging subscribers to scroll, since we’re innately curious to see where lines go. This technique is a great way to expose subscribers to other content further down in the email. Unfortunately, Tiffany rarely, if ever, includes any secondary messages in their emails, so the tactic is kind of wasted in this instance.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Gap, 6/22 — Roll the Dice & Get Up to 40% Off‏
Blair, 6/22 — We're celebrating a century of savings with up to 50% off‏
Furniture.com, 6/22 — TOMORROW: Up to $1000 off your order!‏
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AM Inbox: Two header redesigns

The Retail Email Blog monitors the email marketing campaigns of more than 100 top online retailers. Here are highlights from my inbox this morning:

L.L. Bean, 6/21 — FREE Shipping + Cool Summer Shorts and Shirts‏
Bucking the trend toward shorter headers, L.L. Bean has redesigned their header, making it 30 pixels taller. The L.L. Bean logo is noticeably larger and background color has been moved from the navigation bar to the logo banner. Other than that, there are no new elements in the new design; the existing elements are just repositioned. Here’s the new design:



And here’s the old design from a June 18 email:



The Company Store, 6/21 — Free Delivery ENTIRE ORDER + All Mattress Pads on SALE
The Company Store has also redesigned their header recently. The new design is about 30 pixels shorter and is visually much lighter, since it ditches the background color used previously. They expanded one navigation link, which caused them to have to reduce the point size a bit. On top of that, their nav links are now full-caps, which is more difficult to read than the previous initial cap style. They also expanded their SWYN language a little and—oddly—began using a non-standard Facebook icon. Here’s the new design:



And here’s the old design from a June 7 email:



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Sam’s Club, 6/21 — July 4th savings are heating up.‏
Omaha Steaks, 6/21 — 73% SAVINGS just in time for your 4th of July celebration!‏
Wal-Mart, 6/21 — Celebrate the 4th of July With Hot Savings on Entertaining Essentials‏
Hanna Andersson, 6/21 — New Prints In Backpacks, Plus Extra 20% Sale Still Going!
Barnes & Noble, 6/21 — Introducing NOOK Wi-Fi: the new full-featured low-cost eReader.‏
J. Jill, 6/21 — Up to 80% off! How much do you love saving?
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AM Inbox: Assume your subscribers know nothing

The Retail Email Blog monitors the email marketing campaigns of more than 100 top online retailers. Here are highlights from my inbox this morning:

Abercrombie & Fitch, 6/18 — Get ready, the A&F Quarterly is coming!
After reading both this email and the landing page, I still can’t tell you what the A&F Quarterly is about. The messaging seems to rely on subscribers haven’t previous experiences with the Quarterly, but I’ve been following A&F for four years and don’t recall ever hearing about it. It seems like the copywriter allowed their insider familiarity with the Quarterly to severely hollow out their messaging about it. Be sure your messaging can be understood by folks that are completely new to your brand and your products.



Bluefly, 6/18 — It's National Splurge Day! - Treat Yourself To Something Special...
Just about everyone promotes the big holidays—Christmas, back-to-school, Mother’s Day, etc.—but retailers let plenty of lesser-known holidays pass quietly by. For instance, Bluefly was the only major retailer to create an email promotion around National Splurge Day, which is a great holiday for them brand-wise. In addition to the promotion, they explain the origin of National Splurge Day on their blog. Bluefly sends emails pretty much daily, so it’s easier for them to highlight niche holidays, but are their minor holidays that fit well with your brand that you’re missing?



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Omaha Steaks, 6/18 — OVERSTOCK ALERT Filets at better than employee prices Only 750 at this price‏
Frederick’s of Hollywood, 6/18 — It's so good, we had to send it again.‏ [promoting $15 off $50 offer]
The Company Store, 6/19 — Get your College Kid's Dorm Gear + Free Delivery‏
JCPenney, 6/20 — Happy Dad's Day! Save Up To 40% Online Only‏
Ralph Lauren, 6/20 — Happy Father's Day From Ralph Lauren‏
Bluefly, 6/20 — Happy Father's Day! EXTRA 25% Off All Sale Items - Today Only!‏
Home Depot, 6/20 — FREE Shipping on All Grills, eCards in Time for Father’s Day‏
L.L. Bean, 6/18 — 20% Off Adventure Duffles + Email Dad a Gift Card in Hours‏
Linens ’n Things, 6/20 — Father's Day Exclusive: Twice the LUV, Twice the Savings!‏
Hallmark, 6/18 — LAST CHANCE to send Father's Day wishes‏
Brookstone, 6/18 — HUGE SAVINGS- - Plus Father's Day Shipping Cut-Off Extended... Order by 3 PM Today!
Barnes & Noble, 6/18 — Wrap Up the Perfect Gift for Dad -- NOOK with Free $50 Gift Card‏
JCPenney, 6/18 — Great Gifts For Dad + Instant Money Savings‏
Walgreens, 6/20 — Remember Dad's Day! Get 50 Prints Only $5 + 25% OFF Photo Books‏
Kmart, 6/18 — Round up your favorite Toy Story 3 gear at Kmart‏
Drs. Foster & Smith, 6/19 — Summer Fun Guide for Dogs!‏
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Week-End Trends: Back-to-season begins its slow build

Email activity and seasonal trends during the past week:

The Retail Email Index: Top online retailers sent each of their subscribers a year-to-date high of 2.9 promotional emails on average during the week ending June 18, 2010. That’s up 5% week-over-week, up 10% from where it was four weeks ago, and up 11% year-over-year.



The Retail Email Participation Rate: Friday was the most popular day to send retail emails last week.



The Retail Email Seasonality Meter: Father’s Day messaging will fizzle out this weekend, making way for a brief spike in 4th of July messages before the key message of the summer—back to school—picks up steam. Last week, Wal-Mart gave us our first reference to the back-to-school season.



Selling Seasons on the Horizon:
Graduation (May-June): Graduation 2009 Season Finale
Back to School (June-September): Back-to-School 2009 Season Finale
Father’s Day (6/20): Father’s Day 2009 Season Finale
Independence Day (7/4): 4th of July 2009 Season Finale
Labor Day (9/6): Labor Day 2009 Season Finale
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Ping Time: 2-second window, subscriber research, etc.

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

>>Litmas shares research on subscribers actions, such as that the majority of users delete email within 2 seconds of opening it. >>Follow the ping Hat tip to Tamara Gielen.

>>ExactTarget releases the first of a six-part Subscribers, Fans & Followers research series. >>Follow the ping

>>George Bilbrey of Return Path discusses the recent changes to Hotmail and what they mean. >>Follow the ping

>>Kimberly Synder of Bronto Software poses an interesting exercise—matching subject lines with their email content. >>Follow the ping

>>Campaign Monitor breaks down a ton of list building scenarios and lays out which truly constitute permission. >>You have my permission to follow the ping

>>Linda Bustos of Get Elastic talks about making sure that your search boxes and email sign-up boxes look different. >>Follow the ping

>>In my latest Email Insider column, I share my favorite #EmailAnalogies from a Twitter conversation. >>Follow the ping
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AM Inbox: First reference to back-to-school

The Retail Email Blog monitors the email marketing campaigns of more than 100 top online retailers. Here are highlights from my inbox this morning:

Wal-Mart, 6/17 — Shop Top-Selling Home Essentials at Affordable Summer Prices‏
Wal-Mart gives us our first back-to-school reference. For insights and inspiration for your back-to-school campaign, check out the Back-to-School 2009 Season Finale.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Sports Authority, 6/17 — Last Day for 20% Off + Hot Golf Deals & Gifts For Dad‏
Dick’s Sporting Goods, 6/17 — It's Your Last Chance to Shop for Dad!‏
Cooking.com, 6/17 — Top 10 Grilled Steak Recipes For Father's Day‏
Newegg.com, 6/17 — Dad's Going to Love This! $44.99 320GB Ext HDD, $149.99 Polk Audio Monitor 70 Speaker...
Sony, 6/17 — Update: Special Father's Day Savings, Now Through June 26‏
Barnes & Noble, 6/17 — MVP (Most Valuable Prices) Weekend! Save on Summer Books and DVDs‏
Banana Republic, 6/17 — Stay neutral: The best new looks in black & white.‏
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AM Inbox: Fashion news editorial + the latest E3 coverage

The Retail Email Blog monitors the email marketing campaigns of more than 100 top online retailers. Here are highlights from my inbox this morning:

Diamond.com, 6/16 — Fashion News Editorial‏
To break up their flow of straight promotional emails, Diamond.com is trying their hand at giving their products an editorial context. First, I’ll assume that this is not the subject line that they really wanted to go out with this. It looks like a placeholder subject line that just didn’t get changed before they hit send, which is doubly unfortunate since this is the first email like this that they’re sending out. Regarding the design, I like the silhouetted promoted images, but their placement, along with the placement of the section titles and text, make the email feel very messy and makes scanning difficult. A bit more structure—and a little less text—would have made this email easier to digest. The catalog style of labeling products was also a little off-putting. It’s a tactic that’s rarely used in the email world. An alternative would have been to include the product and information in alt text for the product links, which Diamond.com mapped out in the design.



GameStop, 6/16 — E3 2010. GameStop has the latest coverage.‏
Looking to engage their subscribers with coverage of E3, GameStop is providing live video coverage and coverage of new games, and soliciting subscribers’ thoughts on what they’re seeing from the show. Both this email and the Diamond.com email are further evidence of retailers trying to engage subscribers with editorial and quasi-editorial content.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
TigerDirect, 6/16 — Final Chance for Dads: $89 Blu-ray Player...$59 Samsung Laser Printer...New 4GB Lenovo Laptop $449...24" 1080p LCD $189...$59 GPS‏
JCPenney, 6/16 — LAST DAY To Get Half-Off Express Shipping!
Brookstone, 6/16 — Take $25 Off Your Entire Order--Last Chance for Father’s Day 2nd Day Delivery!
Kohl’s, 6/16 — Dad's One-Day Sale + Last Day for an Extra 30%, 20% or 15% Off‏
Williams-Sonoma, 6/16 — The Secret to Wood Smoked Flavor on Your Gas Grill‏
Toys “R” Us, 6/16 — Family LEGO Creation Challenge! Prizes & Giveaways, Sat., June 19 at 2pm!‏
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Season Finale: Earth Day 2010

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

Start to finish: The first reference to Earth Day was on Mar. 27. The final reference was on Apr. 24.

In addition to looking explicitly at Earth Day references, to provide the big picture I also looked at eco-friendly references, which spike in the run-up to Earth Day. The biggest day for Earth Day and eco-friendly emails was Earth Day itself, Apr. 22. Retailers sent the majority of their Earth Day-themed emails after Apr. 19.



Most interesting emails: All of the interesting Earth Day emails this year included some social element. For instance, many of Overstock’s seasonal messages now include a “This Twitter conversation is sponsored by Overstock” element where Overstock offers a prize to one or more Twitter users who answer Overstock’s question. In this case, they want to know how folks are celebrating Earth Day. It’s a low-cost way of generating conversations that are tied to your brand.



In an Apr. 15 email, Hanna Andersson improves on Overstock’s formula by using a green product as the carrot to spur a conversation on Facebook.



I’m not a big fan of bribing folks to become a Facebook fan or Twitter follower—just like I’m not a fan of sweepstakes to build email lists—but the charity approach that Dell takes in this Apr. 20 email seems to rise a bit above simple bribery since the landing page (which has been taken down) included information on year-round green initiatives at Dell. It’s good branding, even if it doesn’t lead to engaged Facebook fans.



Emails that missed the mark: You can have generic sales for certain holidays like Presidents Day and Labor Day, but Earth Day really cries out for something more, whether it’s highlighting eco-friendly products, donating a portion of the day’s sales to a green charity, or pointing out your company’s efforts to be green. In this Apr. 20 email, Linens ’n Things does none of these things—which surely made some subscribers question the retailer’s commitment to the cause. Since they didn’t have anything credible to say about the holiday, they might have been better off letting the holiday go quietly by. ‏



Standout subject lines:
Crutchfield, 4/21 — Want to go green? We can help.
J&R, 4/21 — Save the Planet and Some Money. . . Go Green This Earth Day!
Disney Store, 4/22 — Celebrate Earth Day the Disney Way!
Walgreens, 4/19 — 22% Off Our Earth Day Shop + Save on Contacts, Photo & More
Office Depot, 4/16 — Discover Smart Ways to Go Green and Save Green + $10 Coupon‏

Read previous Earth Day Season Finales: 2009, 2008

Explore Earth Day tag.
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AM Inbox: Bed Bath & Beyond's 5th video gif of year

The Retail Email Blog monitors the email marketing campaigns of more than 100 top online retailers. Here are highlights from my inbox this morning:

Bed Bath & Beyond, 6/15 — SEE WHAT THE MAN WHO REINVENTED VACUUMS HAS DONE NOW‏
While the vast majority of retailers are obviously skeptical of video gifs, Bed Bath & Beyond is clearly seeing great success with them. This is Bed Bath & Beyond’s fifth email campaign this year to include a video gif, which is a compressed, streaming animated gif that emulates video with its high frame rate. Meanwhile, none of the other retailers that I track have used a video gif so far this year. In this email, Bed Bath & Beyond put it right up at the top of the primary message block to ensure that it gets into subscribers’ preview panes. Probably an unnecessary distraction, they also animated the head of the primary message. View the video gif and animation in action.

Ignoring the shouty subject line, the other interesting thing in this email is that Bed Bath & Beyond continues to experiment with sub-navigation bars—or sub navs, for short. In this case, they’ve added a “Dyson” link to their standard primary nav and then expanded on it with a sub nav that highlights “Uprights,” “Canisters,” “Fans” and “Accessories.” Bed Bath & Beyond then reinforces that sub nav with a secondary message block that promotes a Dyson upright and canister vacuum and an iRobot Roomba.



Bass Pro Shops, 6/15 — Last Minute Gift Idea for Dad‏
With Father’s Day quickly approaching and the deadline for delivery with standard shipping now past, retailers will be turning to the last-minute options of (1) express/overnight delivery, (2) in-store pick up, (3) in-store shopping and (4) e-gift cards. Bass Pro Shops dedicates this email to promoting that fourth option. Omaha Steaks also promoted e-gift cards in their email yesterday.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Newegg, 6/15 — 2010 is Halfway Over? Time for the Newegg SEMI-ANNUAL SALE!
Linens ’n Things, 6/15 — LUVDAD & Save an Extra 20% Off!‏
Omaha Steaks, 6/15 — Get It There for Father's Day! 1/2 PRICE Shipping on all Delivery Services + 60% savings‏
Barnes & Noble, 6/15 — Little Time, Big Savings - Save 30% on the Perfect Gift for Dad‏
PC Connection, 6/15 — Great Father's Day Gifts From PC Connection Express!‏
Sony, 6/15 — Special Father's Day Savings, Now Through June 26‏
Tiffany & Co, 6/15 — Father's Day Gifts from Tiffany & Co.
Buy.com, 6/15 — New Microsoft Deals, Tweet n Seek Mini, Office 2010, LifeCam HD, 16GB Zune HD Video MP3 Player, Wireless Mobile Mouse,..‏
Office Depot, 6/15 — Get Microsoft Office 2010 Today!‏
OfficeMax, 6/15 — Furniture Event - Save up to $200 + Upgrade to Microsoft Office 2010‏
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The Retail Email Blog turns 4 years old!

On June 15, 2006, the first AM Inbox post debuted and the Retail Email Blog as you know it was born. Since then I’ve manually collected data on more than 46,000 retail emails and published more than 1,550 posts—all of which are thoroughly tagged by post category, selling season, topic and retailer, making it easy to mine past content. Over the years, I’ve also published dozens of research reports, many of which are available for free in the Smith-Harmon Research Library.

I sincerely hope that you’ve enjoyed all the content and that it has helped you plan your campaigns, inspired you to try new tactics, and given you ammo to justify email program changes and redesigns. I’m truly thankful for your readership and your kind words of support and appreciation throughout the year.

Sincerely,
Chad
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AM Inbox: J. Jill's preheader redesign + preview pane banner test

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. Jill, 6/14 — Cotton slub is irresistible. So is a $1000 J. Jill wardrobe.‏
J. Jill has redesigned their preheader, adding a preheader message, dropping their “add to address book” request, and condensing their “view with images” and “view on mobile” language. The changes allowed J. Jill to reduce their preheader text to just one line, which all email marketers should strive for.

Also note that in this email, J. Jill uses a preview pane banner for two secondary calls-to-actions, one of which they called out in the subject line. Placing a banner before the primary message can be an effective way to give a secondary CTA a boost in visibility without diminishing the primary message’s visibility too much. Consider working this banner placement into your testing plan.



And here’s a June 11 email that has the old preheader design and has the same secondary banner below the primary message:



Toys “R” Us, 6/14 — Free Toy Story 3 Movie Ticket!‏
Toys “R” Us is running a Toy Story 3 contest that ties together Facebook, Twitter and toysrus.com. It appears to be a mix of an Easter egg hunt—like Blair ran (see Mar. 30 AM Inbox)—and scavenger hunt—like Buy.com ran (see June 25 AM Inbox).



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Urban Outfitters, 6/14 — Free Shipping Ends Today - Enter SUMMERFOREVER At Checkout!‏
Harry & David, 6/14 — Last Chance - FREE Delivery for Father's Day!‏
Dick’s Sporting Goods, 6/14 — Dad's Day is Almost Here - Take $20 Off Your Purchase of $100 or More!‏
Finish Line, 6/14 — Now Get Special Prices On Select Styles--Just In Time For Father's Day!
Sam’s Club, 6/14 — Shop Instant Savings items and save on great Father's Day gifts!‏
Sears, 6/14 — Celebrate Dad - Craftsman Tools on sale & More‏
Linens ’n Things, 6/14 — Flag Day Exclusive: Extra 20% + 99 Cent Shipping!
Hanna Andersson, 6/14 — Pssst...Fall Preview Sneak Peek!
Staples, 6/14 — Microsoft Office 2010 is here!
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AM Inbox: 'Add to calendar' CTA opportunities?

The Retail Email Blog monitors the email marketing campaigns of more than 100 top online retailers. Here are highlights from my inbox this morning:

Ralph Lauren, 6/11 — Save The Date: The Legends Clinic LIVE With Boris Becker‏
Borrowing a page from B2B marketers’ playbook, Ralph Lauren includes an “Add to Calendar” call-to-action in this email to help remind interested subscribers about the “clinic” with Boris Becker. I wonder if this approach would also work with store events and even online and offline sales.



Here’s the landing page for the “Add to Calendar” CTA:



Walgreens, 6/11 — Walgreens Announces Exciting New Mobile Features & Apps for Your Phone‏
The organization may be a little confusing in this email and the section on the Blackberry and Android apps feels stapled onto the end, but Walgreens is the first major retailer to promote either a Blackberry or Android app in their emails.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Nike Store, 6/11 — Support the Red, White & Blue as They Attempt to Write The Future‏
Harry & David, 6/11 — Hours left to SAVE 20% and send Dad's gift with Standard Delivery‏
Cabela’s, 6/11 — Last chance on $5 Shipping for Father's Day!‏
Disney Store, 6/11 — Hurry! Get Dad a Disney Parks Gift by Father's Day!‏
HP, 6/13 — HP's Top Rated Father's Day Gifts On Sale Now‏
Sears, 6/11 — Save Big on Great Father's Day Gifts!
Sephora, 6/13 — #1 Dad gift, ships free today!‏
Omaha Steaks, 6/11 — EXTRA 15% off $0.00 Shipping Order now for Father's Day!
Brookstone, 6/11 — Save up to 50% on Father’s Day Gifts - at Dad’s favorite store in the mall!‏
Kohl’s, 6/13 — Shop Bonus Buys During Our Father's Day Sale‏
JCPenney, 6/13 — Online Only! Save Up To 40% For Dad‏
Sports Authority, 6/13 — Get up to $100 in Cash Cards + Free Shipping on Select Gifts for Dad‏
TigerDirect, 6/12 — Microsoft Office 2010 is Here...Get Free Wireless Mouse, Bag, or Webcam w/ Purchase...First 2010 Customers Only‏
Furniture.com, 6/13 — This is no typo: Take 20% off one item!‏
Neiman Marcus, 6/11 — The Little BRIGHT Dresses‏
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Week-End Trends: Email volume unchanged for 2nd week in a row

Email activity and seasonal trends during the past week:

The Retail Email Index: Top online retailers sent each of their subscribers 2.8 promotional emails on average during the week ending June 11, 2010. That’s unchanged week-over-week, up 2% from where it was four weeks ago, and up 13% year-over-year.



The Retail Email Participation Rate: Friday was the most popular day to send retail emails last week.



The Retail Email Seasonality Meter: Despite the surge in Father’s Day messaging, retail email volume was flat last week.



Selling Seasons on the Horizon:
Graduation (May-June): Graduation 2009 Season Finale
Father’s Day (6/20): Father’s Day 2009 Season Finale
Independence Day (7/4): 4th of July 2009 Season Finale
Labor Day (9/6): Labor Day 2009 Season Finale
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AM Inbox: Sony misses an opportunity for standout email design

The Retail Email Blog monitors the email marketing campaigns of more than 100 top online retailers. Here are highlights from my inbox this morning:

Sony, 6/10 — Sony's Complete 3D Experience Is Here‏
While I frequently highlight examples of standout email creatives, it worth acknowledging that making every email you send out extraordinary is an unrealistic goal. The trick is mixing things up on a regular basis to wake up subscribers. That takes planning and being vigilant in looking for upcoming messages that lend themselves to a special creative treatment. This Sony email seems like a perfect opportunity to do something special—and it passed by totally unrealized. 3D is all about images shaking themselves loose from the flat, two-dimensional world, breaking out of the box of the movie or TV screen. And yet, everything about this design is contained and flat. They could have created a design that better supported the message by (1) breaking the grid and having portions of images stick out beyond the typically constraints of the email frame, as HP did recently (see Apr. 12 AM Inbox); and (2) having images obscure text and other images to create some depth, as Harry & David did recently (see Mar. 23 AM Inbox). The football image screams out for special treatment and there was a great opportunity to add a falling meatball or two up in the header and navigation area. Keep your eyes open for opportunities to do something special with your email creatives. Don’t let them pass you by.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Kohl’s, 6/10 — Save on Items for Dad + Take an Extra 30%, 20% or 15% Off‏
Walgreens, 6/10 — 25% OFF Gifts for DAD FREE Folded Card + 30 Prints Only $3‏
Sam’s Club, 6/10 — Extraordinary electronics deals for dad‏
Home Depot, 6/10 — Huge Selection of Must-Have Father’s Day Gifts‏
J&R, 6/10 — Perfect Gift Ideas for Dad, Featuring the Viewsonic MovieBook for $59.99!‏
Buy.com, 6/10 — Gotta-Have Gifts for Dads & Grads: Sony VAIO 15.5" Notebook, Panasonic VIERA 50" Plasma HDTV, Pulsar Men's Stainless Steel Watch,..
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AM Inbox: Alibris redesigns their email template

The Retail Email Blog monitors the email marketing campaigns of more than 100 top online retailers. Here are highlights from my inbox this morning:

Alibris, 6/9 — Search, seek, and scour Find books now, Book Lover‏
Alibris has redesigned their email template, doing a much better job of optimizing it for preview panes. First, they dropped the “add to address book” request from their preheader. This is a request that should be made strongly on opt-in confirmation pages and in welcome emails. Having it at the top of every email is generally a waste of valuable real estate. Second, they abandoned their tabbed nav bar in favor of a tighter, more traditional one. Third, they dramatically reduced the size of their search box. Those three changes allowed them to reduced the size of their header to 140 pixels tall from roughly 315 pixels tall. That brings much more of the primary message up into preview panes. Alibris also narrowed their email tamplate to 590 pixels from 620 pixels, which makes it even more mobile-friendly.

Here’s the new design (left) and the old design from a June 6 email:



Target, 6/9 — What a splash: Sale + shipping offers on select water fun.
It looks like Target was doing an A/B test looking at the effect of secondary message banners. Unfortunately I received both versions at the same email address.



Pirates of the Caribbean Online, 6/9 — Pirates Online Free Offer - Secret Flatulent Fizz Potion‏
Of all the brands I track, Disney has the most liberal permission-sharing practices. Sign up for emails from the Disney Store and you’ll also get emails from Disney Family, Disney Interactive Studios, Walt Disney Pictures, ABC.com and… Pirates of the Caribbean Online. Worse, there doesn’t seem to be a way to opt-out of receiving emails from these sister brands without opting out of Disney Store’s emails. Perhaps the strength of the Disney brand protects them from serious consequences from their liberal permission practices, but most other brands wouldn’t be able to get away with it. For some much safer tactics for cross-promoting your sister brands, check out Cross-Promoting Sister Brands Safely.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Sports Authority, 6/9 — Chicago Blackhawks are 2010 Stanley Cup Champions - Get Your Gear‏
Sears, 6/9 — Father's Day is June 20th - save on gifts for Dad‏
Bloomingdale’s, 6/9 — Don't Forget Dad! + Free Gift‏
Orvis, 6/9 — There's still time to get your father the special gift he deserves.
Cabela’s, 6/9 — $5 Shipping - Just in time for our Father's Day Sale!
Saks Fifth Avenue, 6/9 — Ralph Lauren Gifts for Dad‏
HP, 6/9 — Two Great Deals for Dad Only at HP‏
eBags, 6/9 — Top Picks For Dad on Sale + Free Shipping‏
Harry & David, 6/9 — 3 DAYS to SAVE 20% - Get Dad a little something extra, or treat yourself with the savings!
Hallmark, 6/9 — Treat dads and grandpas to gifts made just for them.‏
Art.com, 6/9 — Offer Upgrade: 20% off Site Wide + Gift Ideas for Dad!‏
Sportsman’s Guide, 6/9 — Great Gift Ideas for Dad and more from The Guide!‏
Toys “R” Us, 6/9 — FREE Zhu Zhu Pet! New Long Haired & Wild Bunch here! Collect Them All!‏
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