AM Inbox: 1-800-Flowers redesigns 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:

1-800-Flowers.com, 9/29 — One Dozen Long Stem Red Roses, just $19.99 - Last Chance!
1-800-Flowers has redesigned their email template, going with a much lighter, minimalistic approach. Abandoning their arts-and-crafts aesthetic, the new template puts more emphasis on the product and messaging. It remains to be seen whether this email represents a 100% turn away from longer promotional emails in favor or shorter, more focused ones. One disappointment in the new design was the continued use of graphical text for the navigation bar. The new one is so simple that there’s really no reason not to use HTML text for it. Here’s the new design:



And here's the previous design from a Sept. 27 email:



Hallmark, 9/29 — Mark your calendar for Keepsake Ornament Debut, Oct 9-10‏
Hallmark is the second retailer in recent months to use a “add to calendar” call-to-action (see June 14 AM Inbox). This email, which promotes the debut of keepsake ornaments in stores, includes a strong social sharing call-to-action as well. It’s too early to say, but this email may also contain the first holiday navigation bar with the link to the Keepsake Ornament Club. We’ll see if this is a one-off navigation bar to support the message of the email or whether it’s a more permanent change.

On the down side, Hallmark missed a perfect opportunity to use an animated gif to demonstrate the light show these ornaments are capable of putting on. Showing is so much more powerful than telling. Despite animated gif usage being up more than 120% year-over-year among retailers, Hallmark is the second retailer in a week to miss a golden opportunity to use animation; Williams-Sonoma was the other (see Sept. 24 AM Inbox).



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Saks Fifth Avenue, 9/28 — BAZAAR'S Glenda Bailey's Picks only at saks.com‏
Spiegel, 9/28 — SPIEGEL+ HARPER'S BAZAAR Present New Looks In Ponte Knit!‏
Harry & David, 9/28 — Celebrate 'Good Neighbor Day' with 20% OFF your entire purchase‏
Brookstone, 9/28 — Ghosts and witches love the CandyMan on Halloween‏
Bloomingdale’s, 9/29 — High-Tech Jackets for Him + 20% Off Friends & Family‏
Frederick’s of Hollywood, 9/28 — Obsessing over boots? We are, too.‏
L.L. Bean, 9/28 — First Look: NEW Outerwear + Free Shipping‏
Sports Authority, 9/28 — Fleece For All + Cash Cards Up To $75‏
Neiman Marcus, 9/29 — Now on InSite: Reinvent outerwear with NEW statement coats‏
Gap, 9/28 — Winter Preview: 25% Off For the Whole Family + Free Shipping on $100‏
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AM Inbox: First reference to Columbus Day

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

1-800-Flowers.com, 9/27 — Exclusive $19.99 Offer: One Dozen Long Stem Red Roses‏
1-800-Flowers gives us our first reference to Columbus Day, which is Oct. 11 this year. For insights and inspiration to help you plan your Columbus Day campaigns, check out the 2009 Columbus Day Season Finale.



ShopNBC, 9/27 — Holiday Pricing! 25 Hour Christmas Countdown‏
ShopNBC is the latest top online retailer to begin their Christmas email messaging, bringing the total percentage of retailers that have begun their holiday messaging to 19%. In this email, ShopNBC also introduces a new preheader and header design. The changes include (1) adding a preheader message that summarizes the main call-to-action of the email, (2) dropping their whitelisting request, (3) bring up share-with-your-network (SWYN), forward-to-a-friend (FTAF) and community links from the bottom of the email, and (4) adding a “view on mobile” link next to their “view with images” link. All of those are probably good moves, although they bizarrely use graphical text for their FTAF, “view on mobile” and “view with images” links when HTML would have likely been much more effective. Here’s the new design:



And here’s the previous design from a Sept. 5 email:



Overstock, 9/27 — HALF-OFF‏
After announcing the launch of Eziba last month (see Aug. 25 AM Inbox), Overstock has begun running an Eziba banner promoting their current one-day deal. Overstock is still trying to build brand awareness for the new site and the banner is relatively small and toward the very bottom of their emails, so it’s probably harmless to run it for a while. But at some point Overstock will likely want to remove the banner or make it dynamic, so that only subscribers who have clicked on it in recent months see the banner. If subscribers aren’t interested in Eziba, there’s a limit to how many times you can put the brand in their face before it becomes a sore point and damages their impression of Overstock. After all, they signed up to receive promotions from Overstock, not Eziba.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Wal-Mart, 9/27 — Find Un-boo-lievable Prices on Halloween Costumes, Decor + More‏
Kohl’s, 9/27 — Halloween Costumes: Take an Extra 10% Off + Frighteningly Good Clearance Deals‏
Hanna Andersson, 9/27 — New Holiday Hannas + Dress & Sweater Sale Is Here!‏
Disney Store, 9/27 — It's Never Too Early for a Sneak Peek!‏ [promoting holiday preview]
Fingerhut, 9/27 — Fingerhut: Use the Gift Finder to Get the Perfect Gift this Season!
J. Crew, 9/27 — A message from our commander-in-chic...
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AM Inbox: Unexpected charity tie-ins

>>We’ve relaunched Responsys.com! Check out the new site.

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

Toys “R” Us, 9/24 — Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF! Donate or Pick Up a Collection Box Today.‏
The landing page for this charity effort seems much more focused on collecting donations for UNICEF on the spot rather than pushing the Halloween angle, but it’s really unusual to see a Halloween charity effort so this email really got my attention. It’s a little similar to TigerDirect’s Pink Friday campaigns (see Nov. 22, 2007 AM Inbox), which support breast cancer awareness on Black Friday, when charity efforts are scarce.



Frederick’s of Hollywood, 9/24 — Lingerie that flaunts your flirty side + free shipping.
Frederick’s announces the launch of its blog, Love, Frederick’s XOXOXO, and very succinctly explains what it's going to cover. I’ll be curious to see how they bring content from the blog into their emails going forward.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Drs. Foster &Smith, 9/24 — What Will Your Pet Be This Halloween?
Oriental Trading, 9/24 — Get free shipping on hundreds of spooktacular toys‏
JCPenney, 9/25 — PEOPLE StyleWatch Editors' Fall Picks‏
Bloomingdale’s, 9/24 — Fall's Top Trends for Men‏
Backcountry.com, 9/24 — Video Ski Gear Guide + New Snowboard Gear‏
Lillian Vernon, 9/24 — Special Offer for Online Catalog Shopping Only!
Fingerhut, 9/24 — Fingerhut: Shop the NEWEST eCatalog - Fashion + Accessories!‏
Ralph Lauren, 9/24 — A Rare World For Men: 867 Madison Is Now Open‏
TigerDirect, 9/26 — Tiger Tip #15: Fans Have More Ways to Save & Win Big‏
REI, 9/24 — REI Travel News: Packing Light, Carry-On Luggage, Deals at REI-OUTLET and More‏
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Week-End Trends: Halloween to dominate next 3 weeks

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 Sept. 24, 2010. That’s up 2% week-over-week, up 6% from where it was four weeks ago, and up 19% 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: Halloween will continue to be the dominant seasonal theme until the second half of October when it will be overtaken by holidays/Christmas messaging.



Selling Seasons on the Horizon:
Columbus Day (10/11): Columbus Day 2009 Season Finale
Breast Cancer Awareness Month (Oct.): Breast Cancer Awareness Month 2009 Season Finale
Halloween (10/31): Halloween 2009 Season Finale
Thanksgiving (11/25): Thanksgiving 2009 Season Finale
Christmas (12/25): Christmas 2009 Season Finale and the 2010 Retail Email Guide to the Holiday Season
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Ping Time: Speaking CXO-ish, coupon code sharing, etc.

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

>>Loren McDonald of Silverpop gives great advice on—among other things—how to speak about email marketing with those in the C-suite. >>Follow the ping

>>Linda Bustos of Get Elastic shares tactics for addressing coupon code sharing, including some that involve email marketing. >>Follow the ping

>>Jay Baer of Convince & Convert deftly explains how email and social are different and how they can work together. >>Follow the ping

>>UX Movement explains how top-aligned labels help consumers complete forms—like email sign-up forms—more easily. >>Follow the ping

>>Sherry Chiger on the Big Fat Marketing Blog talks about some of her favorite triggered emails. >>Follow the ping

>>Tim Watson of smartFocus reminds us that we should always craft our messaging from the consumer’s point of view, sharing a disastrous example from airline Flybe. >>Follow the ping
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AM Inbox: Making the opt-down option clear up front

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

Nordstrom, 9/23 — New Looks from Kenneth Cole New York & More See What’s on Sale‏
If you offer subscribers the ability to opt-down, you’d much rather subscribers do that than opt-out all together. About 35% of retailers give subscribers the opt-down option, according to the 2010 Retail Email Unsubscribe Benchmark Study, but that option is often not alluded to in the footer of emails. Nordstrom mentions the “opt-down” option along with unsubscribing in their footer, so any subscriber who was looking to opt-out will immediately be presented with the suggestion of staying on at a reduced cadence. For clarity, they use different language when explaining the two options that are available in their preference center, which is where the single link directs folks.

That said, the “remove yourself from our email program” language could be a little less “you” vs. “me.” Maybe something like “stop receiving email discounts and offers,” which reminds them of the benefit of the emails, perhaps steering them more toward opting down rather than out. Also, the “permission statement” that leads off the unsubscribe section sent a chill down my spine. Hopefully subscribers are receiving emails because they asked for them, not just because they’re a “valued Nordstrom customer.” That’s frankly the kind of “permission statement” a spammer would use.



Williams-Sonoma, 9/23 — Make Trick-Or-Treating Safer with Totes That Glow - Under $20‏
Not seeing an inset image of the totes in this email glowing/reflecting, I literally stared at the primary image in this email for 10 seconds before I accepted that it wasn’t animated and wasn’t going to flip to show the totes in the dark. The landing page didn’t have an image of the totes in the dark either, so perhaps it was just an asset problem, but I was super-bummed. Normally Williams-Sonoma is very savvy about animated gif opportunities.



Musician’s Friend, 9/23 — Musician's Friend: October Catalog In The Mail + Get Deals Too Late To Print‏
This subject line does a good job of not only alerting subscribers that the latest catalog has been mailed, but also differentiates their email and catalog channels by saying that this email includes “deals too late to print.”

SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Bass Pro Shops, 9/23 — New & Improved BassPro.com‏
Bluefly, 9/23 — The New Working Girl...Professional Gets A Makeover!
Omaha Steaks, 9/23 — Want 72% Savings PLUS Free Burgers, Free Cutlery and Free Cutting Board? Just open this...
Sam’s Club, 9/23 — Organize for less with Storage & Organization at Sam's Club‏
Cooking.com, 9/23 — You Voted: Top 5 YUMMIEST Warm Breakfast Recipes‏
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AM Inbox: Sharing as a primary call-to-action

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

Crate & Barrel, 9/22 — Know someone who's engaged? Invite them to our Wedding Parties events.
Sometimes you know your message isn’t right for everyone, but you’re hoping your subscribers will point you to the right folks. We’ve seen this approach with messages that ask subscribers to forward them on to those who are college-bound and we see it in this Crate & Barrel email that’s trying to find couples who are engaged. The branding is probably way overly large and the text block under the image could have been broken up, but the key info and call-to-action is right up top and super easy to read. I also like how the forward-to-a-friend call-to-action is repeated at the bottom of the email in a large color block. For those that scrolled down and read all the details, it’s very clear what Crate & Barrel wants you to do.



JCPenney, 9/22 — Redefine Your Style With Hot Fall Fashions!
This JCPenney email also has a strong share call-to-action via a share bar right under the navigation bar. Right-justifying creates white space on the left that draws attention to the FTAF and SWYN calls-to-action.



Costco, 9/22 — Clean-Up With Great Prices at Costco.com!
Starting with a Sept. 17 email, Costco has added a prominent SMS subscription call-to-action to their emails. The messaging is in a preview pane banner than runs right under their header, with an image of a cellphone that juts up into the header area and pushed their preheader text to the left. Not many retailers promote SMS subscriptions in their emails, but those that do generally promote them at the bottom of their emails in an administrative, social or share bar. Costco doesn’t include a navigation bar in their emails so there wasn’t an issue with this SMS promotion bumping into that design element.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Disney Store, 9/22 — Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo! $10 Off Halloween Costumes for You‏
Norm Thompson, 9/22 — Happy First Day of Fall! Take 25% off your order.‏
The Company Store, 9/22 — Make it personal with FREE Monogramming‏
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AM Inbox: Discount codes in subject lines trend growing

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

Sears, 9/21 — Instant Savings with Coupon Code SEPTSAVINGS‏
There are three interesting things about this Sears email: (1) They include the discount code in both the preheader text and in the subject line. As I predicted during our holiday planning webinar a couple of weeks ago, I expect this trend to breakout during the holiday season. (2) Speaking of the holidays, Sears promotes their “top toys for holiday” in this email. As of yesterday, 14% of top online retailers had mentioned the holidays or Christmas in at least one email. And (3) the tabbed navigation in this email is a first for Sears. More retailers have been experimenting with the navigation in their emails lately. This is a fruitful element to experiment with, as navigation bars generally drive significant clickthroughs.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Disney Store, 9/20 — Last Day! Free Shipping Ends at the Stroke of Midnight!‏
NFLshop, 9/19 — Sunday Night Football: New York Giants vs. Indianapolis Colts‏
Fingerhut, 9/21 — Fingerhut: Shhh, Get a SNEAK PEEK at the Holiday BIG Book!
Sephora, 9/19 — Holiday sneak peek: Dior, Kat Von D, tokidoki + more‏
Oriental Trading, 9/19 — Oriental Trading Introduces Halloween Fun‏
Kmart, 9/20 — Save Big! Shop Costumes, Games, Shoes, Beauty & More‏
Barnes & Noble, 9/20 — Get The Grade You Want Today! Cram101 Can Help.
Diamond.com, 9/20 — Because Every Queen Deserves It‏
Lillian Vernon, 9/19 — Organize Your Life and Your Budget‏
Fingerhut, 9/20 — Fingerhut: Find Everything You Need to Clean Up Your Backyard!‏
Sam’s Club, 9/20 — Extend patio season into fall with Firepits & Heaters‏
Northern Tool, 9/20 — Without These Items No Garage Would Be Complete‏
Old Navy, 9/20 — The Sweater Event: New Styles Starting at $20‏
Orvis, 9/21 — Get ready for fall with warm sweatshirts.
Abercrombie & Fitch, 9/21 — Warm up in the hottest new sweatpants in every bright color!
Ann Taylor, 9/19 — The Bestsellers List + Shop The Fall Style Event!‏
Neiman Marcus, 9/21 — Now on InSite: Our buyers' TOP 5 for Fall‏
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AM Inbox: GameStop email template redesign

>>I’m back from a couple of days off. I’ll have our tracking back up to date tomorrow.

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

GameStop, 9/17 — GameStop Weekly Ad 9.17.10‏
GameStop has redesigned their weekly ad email. The white and red text on black really pops, and the larger font sizes make the email easier to scan. Plus, the “View Deals” button is a much stronger call-to-action than the previous plain text link. On the downside, the button isn’t bulletproof, so it doesn’t render when images are blocked. However, the rundown of deals in the email (“New, Low…$10 Now”) is HTML text, and probably compensates for not showing a second page of the weekly ad circular. The only other decision I really question here is that they dropped the navigation bar from the new design.



And here’s the previous design from a Sept. 10 email:



PC Connection, 9/16 — Receive a $15 Gas Card with a $75 Purchase of Eligible HP Ink Cartridges!‏
Not sure how I missed this, but when PC Connection redesigned their email template recently (see Sept. 9 AM Inbox), they made their preheader text and footer text color a lighter shade of gray, making it significantly harder to read. Usability changes like this can unnecessarily increase spam complaints because people can’t read the administrative text and decrease the effectiveness of preheader text. Here’s the new design:



And here’s the previous font color used from an Aug. 26 email:



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Disney Store, 9/17 — Trick-or-Treat with Disney Parks + Free Shipping!
Oriental Trading, 9/17 — Get free shipping on frightfully fun Halloween decor‏
Williams-Sonoma, 9/17 — 3 Days Only: Save 15% on Fall Cleaning & Organizing Essentials‏
J. Crew, 9/17 — INTRODUCING FACTORY ONLINE...(OPEN WEEKENDS ONLY)
Office Depot, 9/16 — Sit Back, Relax, and Enjoy Office Depot's FREE Webcafe Seminars!
Ralph Lauren, 9/18 — Straight From The Runway: Watch The Collection Fashion Show‏
Barnes & Noble, 9/17 — Just Announced! Oprah's Latest Book Club Pick‏
Toys “R” Us, 9/17 — We've Got It! PlayStation Move PLUS Free $10 Gift Card and More!
J&R, 9/16 — Which Mac Is Right For You?
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AM Inbox: Background colors and preheader text legibility

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

HSN, 9/15 — NEW Arrivals - Shop Before They Appear on HSN!
Background colors can frame up an email, making it stand out in the inbox. But it can also wreak havoc on the legibility of preheader and administrative text if colors aren’t chosen wisely. In this email, the hyperlink colors are so close in tone to the blue background color that it’s pretty much unreadable.

That said, email marketers seem to be more prone to accidentally turning preheader and administrative text white on a white background, as we’ve seen with Toys “R” Us (see Apr. 22 AM Inbox) and J&R (see Nov. 9, 2009 AM Inbox).



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Disney Store, 9/15 — FREE Shipping! It's Our Treat!
Backcountry, 9/15 — Check The SteepandCheap iPhone App‏
Williams-Sonoma, 9/15 — New! Over 50 of the World's Finest Spices + Special Offer‏
Ann Taylor, 9/15 — THE NEW WEAR TO WORK + Shop The Fall Style Event!‏
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AM Inbox: Non-traditional ways to generate product reviews

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

Backcountry.com, 9/14 — Switch Gears - New Season, New Gear‏
In the same way that a B2B marketer might highlight a question from their forum or community site in one of their emails to spur activity, Backcountry is drawing attention to a Gear Question about one of their products. This got me thinking about how asking questions of subscribers could be used to generate product reviews. For instance, you could ask subscribers what the best holiday cook book is among a provided selection of books, asking those who have read them to add their reviews. Similar questions might be used to drive reviews of other product categories or sets of products. Have you seen other interesting ways of prompting product reviews?



Toys “R” Us, 9/14 — Layaway is HERE! Shop Now for the Holidays, and Take Time to Pay!
As mentioned in the 2010 Retail Email Guide to the Holiday Season, promoting layaway programs—as Toys “R” Us does in this email—is a good early holiday messaging tactic because its use tends to be well ahead of Christmas. Social media and user-generated content campaigns that take a while to rev up like Sear’s Be the Santa campaign (see Aug. 26 AM Inbox) are also good early messaging opportunities. Are you taking advantage of this time before the product promotion onslaught in late November to build holiday mindshare?



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Oriental Trading, 9/14 — Get crafty for Halloween! Up to $10 off + FREE shipping‏
Neiman Marcus, 9/14 — First-Ever NM Beauty Awards + Our new arrivals during Beauty Event‏
Nordstrom, 9/14 — UGG Australia's New Button Boot‏
Walgreens, 9/14 — Flu Shots Are Now Available At Your Local Walgreens‏
GameStop, 9/14 — Tier 1 Day 1. New low price. That's all I can say.
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AM Inbox: Confidence-killing opt-out message

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

B&H Photo Video, 9/14 — Exciting Upcoming Events and Seminars!
I was surprised to receive this email in an old tracking account because I thought I had unsubscribed long ago. I checked and I even had an unsubscribe confirmation email from them. I was kind and instead of hitting the “report spam” button, I tried to unsubscribe again from B&H’s emails. Much to my dismay, the landing page (below) said that my email address wasn’t on their email list. And yet they emailed me, which leads me to believe that they accidently mailed to their suppression file. Mega-oopsy! Hopefully they catch this mistake before the spam complaints pile up too high.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Sam’s Club, 9/13 — Great solutions for Fall Clean Up - shipping included on all Outdoor Storage Sheds!‏
Orvis, 9/13 — Ready for fall. Ready for adventure.‏
Kmart, 9/13 — Check Out this Season's Fall Boot Fashions + Shop Baby Days‏
Spiegel, 9/13 — NEW LOOKS You Want Right Now! Shop The Fall 2010 Signature Collection!
Norm Thompson, 9/13 — Toss out the iron! These shirts don't need it. Free shipping.‏
Saks Fifth Avenue, 9/13 — I'm Going to Saks for checks & plaids‏
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AM Inbox: This email walked 6,450 steps

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

Kmart, 9/10 — Price Drop: Extra 30% off Toy Clearance + Nintendo DSi‏
Presumably inspired by Nintendo’s PokéWalker, Kmart has launched the Step Smart program. What a cool way to reward customers for being healthy.



Oriental Trading, 9/10 — Set the scene for Halloween fun & get free shipping‏
In this email, Oriental Trading promotes a trio of Halloween microsites on the landing page for this banner: Trick or Treat Your Friends; Monster Mashup, which they promoted last year; and Tweet a Spell, which utilizes Twitter.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Spiegel 9/11 — Just in Time For Fashion Week! Our New SIGNATURE STYLE MAGAZINE!‏
Alibris, 9/10 — NOTE TO SELF: Use my 15% coupon before it expires‏
eBags, 9/10 — Last Chance for Huge Back to School Savings‏
Avon, 9/10 — Can't Help Falling For... [promoting fall colors]
Norm Thompson, 9/10 — We're loving Boiled Wool Jackets this fall. $10 off + ship free.
Bloomingdale’s, 9/12 — The Double-Breasted Cardigan + Take $25 to $500 Off‏
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Week-End Trends: Email volume hits new year-to-date high

Email activity and seasonal trends during the past week:

The Retail Email Index: Top online retailers sent each of their subscribers a new year-to-date high of 2.9 promotional emails on average during the week ending Sept. 10, 2010. That’s up 2% week-over-week, up 9% from where it was four weeks ago, and up 16% 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: Labor Day messaging dropped off dramatically after Tuesday. At the same time, now that schools are back in session, Halloween messaging is on the rise.



Selling Seasons on the Horizon:
Columbus Day (10/11): Columbus Day 2009 Season Finale
Breast Cancer Awareness Month (Oct.): Breast Cancer Awareness Month 2009 Season Finale
Halloween (10/31): Halloween 2009 Season Finale
Christmas (12/25): Christmas 2009 Season Finale and the 2010 Retail Email Guide to the Holiday Season
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Holiday planning webinar now available on-demand

If you missed the holiday planning webinar that Director of Creative Services Lisa Harmon and I did last week, fear not: The hour-long webinar is now available on-demand.

The webinar covers highlights from our 2010 Retail Email Guide to the Holiday Season as well as additional insights, including five holiday email marketing predictions.

>>View the webinar and download the slides
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AM Inbox: Now this seems apology-worthy

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

NFLshop, 9/9 — New York Giants Kickoff Weekend - Get Free Shipping on Your Order!‏
In most cases, there’s no need to apologize for messed up subject lines, typos in body copy, broken links and similar mistakes—all of which are hopefully rare occurrences for you. Resends and apologies are justified when the email’s functionality is severely compromised or there’s the possibility of significant brand damage. It’s the latter that I immediately worried about when I saw this email sent from NFLshop but that contained content from ESPN Shop. That surely raised red flags for subscribers: Did NFLshop sell my address? Is this an advertisement? What happens if I unsubscribe from this ESPN Shop email?



A later in the day the correct NFLshop email was sent with the same subject line and no explanation or apology in the email.



I assume that this was an innocent error by GSI Commerce, which appears to run both NFLshop and ESPN Shop, but it seems to me that enough serious issues are raised by this that it would be in NFLshop’s best interest to clarify what did and didn’t happen.

What do you think?

SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Fingerhut, 9/9 — Fingerhut: Get Ready to Tailgate with Our Products + a GREAT Recipe!‏
Barnes & Noble, 9/9 — Lighten your Backpack! Get Digital TEXTBOOKS Instantly.
Toys “R” Us, 9/9 — Shop Our Halloween Catalog, PLUS Save on Costumes, Candy and More.
Bluefly, 9/9 — New Dresses You'll FALL In Love With...
Eddie Bauer, 9/9 — Best Fall Looks + Save 20% On Everything‏
Bed Bath & Beyond, 9/9 — Can you trust your floor cleaner? Choose eco-friendly Bona systems.
Crate & Barrel, 9/9 — It's a dog's life. New at Crate and Barrel.‏
Sam’s Club, 9/9 — Shop, save and sparkle at the September Diamond Event‏
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AM Inbox: Vertical text in call-to-action button

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

Montgomery Ward, 9/8 — New Halloween Delights: Get Ready for a Night of Fright!‏
While by no means common, more retailers are making use of diagonal and vertical text in their email designs to break the status quo of horizontal text. In this email, Montgomery Ward uses vertical text as part of an interesting call-to-action button. That said, I was disappointed that there weren’t any spider legs on the “Now” button. :(



PC Connection, 9/8 — Canon Digital Camera Deals - EOS Rebel T2i - Only $899.95!
We’ve seen several email template redesigns and tweaks over the past few days. Here’s one more: PC Connection has refreshed their social bar and recovery area. The changes are purely cosmetic, using brighter colors, more imagery and circles to punch up the design.



And here’s the previous design from an Aug. 26 email:



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Kohl’s, 9/8 — NEW! Breast Cancer Merchandise by Vera Wang -- Support the Cause.
Bluefly, 9/8 — It’s Here…FALL 2010! Thousands of New Styles Just Arrived!
Saks Fifth Avenue, 9/8 — His best Fall sweaters are here now‏
Lands’ End, 9/8 — $10 off new fall sweaters + free shipping‏
Diamond.com, 9/8 — Shop fall’s colorful collection - Get 20% Off‏
Target, 9/8 — Our Biggest TV Event of the Season ends Saturday.
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AM Inbox: Another template tweak ahead of the holidays

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

The Company Store, 9/7 — Cozy up to Flannel-Now on SALE‏
The Company Store has redesigned their email header and preheader areas. One big change is that they reduced their preheader text to one line, moving their “view with images” link into the space to the right of the logo and wisely dropping their whitelisting request. They were also able to move their “share on Facebook” link a little higher up in the design. The other big change is that they reduced the number of navigation bar links to five from seven and moved the link to their sister brand, Company Kids, to the end of the nav bar. All the changes make their header about 20 pixels shallower, which allows for more of the body copy to appear in preview panes. Here’s the new design:



And here’s the previous design from a Sept. 2 email:



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Office Depot, 9/7 — Shop Labor Day Deals All Week Long + A Coupon Just For You‏
Sierra Trading Post, 9/7 — EXTRA 20% OFF & FREE SHIPPING! Plus EXTRA 20-30% OFF Labor Day Blowout Ends Today!
Newegg, 9/7 — Last Chance! Back-to-School Deals: $99.99 18.5" LCD Monitor, $14.99 Wireless Router...
Oriental Trading, 9/7 — No tricks - just treats. Get free shipping + $10 off‏
Bluefly, 9/7 — EXCLUSIVE Fall 2010 Sneak Peek - Through This Email Only!
Ann Taylor, 9/7 — FALL TREND: Stripes + Enter Our Parisian Getaway Sweeps!
Macy’s, 9/7 — Women's fall fashion: Free Shipping at $75!
Dell, 9/7 — Two days only - Personalize your PC for free‏
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AM Inbox: Petco and Overstock redesign email templates

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

Petco, 9/5 — 20% Sitewide Labor Day Sale + FREE Shipping!‏
Petco has done a major redesign of their email template. They are using a deep blue to unify their content. They use it in the header, grid lines that frame the email and box in content modules, and for new call-to-action buttons that stand out much more because of the reverse type used. The new design is 20 pixels wider at 600 pixels, which is still quite mobile-friendly. The new design is pretty boxy and a bit difficult to scan because of all the submessages. Here’s the new design (left) and the previous design from an Aug. 29 email:



Overstock.com, 9/3 — CLOSEOUTS + FREE SHIPPING COUPON‏
Overstock also launched a redesigned email template. All of the changes appeared to be isolated to the header area. Besides reducing the number of links in the navigation bar to 8 from 10, the changes were largely cosmetic. The new design uses darker colors to draw attention to the search bar and navigation bar, and groups the email preference, site search and view cart links together in a new navigation bar that runs above the logo. The changes open up white space to the right of the logo that may be used for seasonal promotions in the future. Even with all the changes, the size of the header remains unchanged at about 185 pixels deep. The width of the template was also unchanged at a mobile-friendly 605 pixels. Here’s the new design:



And here’s the previous design from a Sept. 1 email:



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Bloomingdale’s, 9/3 — Be Fashion-Ready For Rain (Or Hurricane!)
Oriental Trading, 9/3 — Catch game day savings. Up to $50 off - 4 days only‏
Tiffany & Co., 9/3 — Introducing the Tiffany Leather Collection
Sports Authority, 9/4 — SNIAGRAB Starts Today - Save Up to 75%!
Victoria’s Secret, 9/5 — Victoria's Secret Supermodels featured in Vogue's September Issue!
Barnes & Noble, 9/3 — Traveling This Weekend? Bring Some FREE eBooks Along for the Ride‏
ShopNBC, 9/5 — Last Chance...Lowest prices we'll ever offer!
Old Navy, 9/3 — Labor Week Sale! 7 Days of Deals + Free Shipping‏
Kohl’s, 9/3 — Extra 15% Shopping Pass: Use During Our Incredible Labor Day Sale‏
J. Jill, 9/3 — All-you-can-save Labor Day buffet. Free shipping & up to 60% off!‏
Sears, 9/3 — Free Shipping! Plus Great Labor Day Deals!
Bluefly, 9/3 — Labor Day Sale! Extra 25% Off - Now Up To 80% Off‏
Lands’ End, 9/3 — Labor Day Sale: 25% off EVERYTHING + free shipping‏
JC Whitney, 9/3 — Enjoy Labor Day Weekend And Take 20% Off Your Order!
Macy’s, 9/3 — Free Shipping on women's fall looks at the Labor Day Sale!
REI, 9/3 — REI Labor Day Sale and Clearance Ends Monday‏
Harry & David, 9/3 — Email Exclusive Labor Day Sale - SAVE 20% on select gifts plus FREE Delivery‏
Omaha Steaks, 9/3 — SAVE 72% PLUS get 3 Free Gifts during our Labor Day Weekend Sale!
Spiegel, 9/3 — Labor Day Weekend SALE EVENT! Up to 80% Over 200 Styles!
Crate & Barrel, 9/3 — Up to 60% off Outlet Sale this Labor Day weekend.
eBags, 9/3 — Labor Day Sale - 20% Off + Free Shipping‏
Sportsman’s Guide, 9/4 — Double Your Savings! Labor Day & Hunting Sales, 10 Buck Coupon, More from The Guide‏
Diamond.com, 9/4 — Labor Day Sale - 50% Off Select Items - But Hurry, Offer Ends September 6th‏
OfficeMax, 9/5 — 2-Day Labor Day Savings Event – Save up to 50%
Chadwick’s, 9/5 — It Gets Even Better! Labor Day Clearance Mania‏
eBags, 9/5 — Labor Day Sale - 3 Days Left‏
Hanna Andersson, 9/5 — Halloween Hannas That Help Kids In Need!
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Week-End Trends: Pre-weekend spike lifts weekly volume 6%

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 Sept. 3, 2010. That’s up 6% week-over-week, up 7% from where it was four weeks ago, and up 16% 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: Back-to-school messaging continued to fade last week as Labor Day messaging spiked.



Selling Seasons on the Horizon:
Columbus Day (10/11): Columbus Day 2009 Season Finale
Breast Cancer Awareness Month (Oct.): Breast Cancer Awareness Month 2009 Season Finale
Halloween (10/31): Halloween 2009 Season Finale
Christmas (12/25): Christmas 2009 Season Finale and the 2010 Retail Email Guide to the Holiday Season
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Ping Time: Holiday roundup, Priority Inbox, etc.

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

>>Mark Brownlow of Email Marketing Reports debuts his list of holiday resources, which he continually updates throughout the holiday season (so bookmark it). >>Follow the ping

>>Gmail announces the launch of Priority Inbox, which divides the inbox into three sections, with the “important” emails appearing in the top section. >>Follow this important ping

>>Dela Quist of Alchemy Worx provides some interesting perspective on the rising use of engagement metrics by ISPs. Follow the ping

>>Kimberly Snyder of Bronto Software shares the excellent in-store email sign-up experience she had at Kohl’s. >>Follow the ping

>>Morgan Stewart of ExactTarget explains that while coupons are popular on Facebook, they’re way more popular in email. >>Follow the ping

>>KISSmetrics shares advice on the use of color in designs. >>Follow the ping (hat tip to Dylan Boyd of eROI)

>>WhichTestWon shares an A/B test of an email opt-in form overlay. Follow the ping

>>Jim Spence of Smith-Harmon provides tips on how to use gradients effectively. >>Follow the ping

>>In Smith-Harmon’s latest Email Insider column, Alex Madison and Lisa Harmon talk about making smooth transitions from email content to landing page content. >>Follow the ping
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AM Inbox: Are you prepared for a hurricane?

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, 9/2 — Labor Day 5 Day Sale: Save Up to 60% On Top Electronics!‏
For large brands, it’s often difficult to be nimble with your emails. For most of our clients, the production cycle starts three to four weeks out—and planning stretches out two or more months. So when events arise like a hurricane coming through a major market, it can be difficult to respond. Kudos to J&R for adding this secondary message banner about hurricane preparedness in response to Hurricane Earl threatening New York City, J&R’s hometown. They even referenced the hurricane in their branding in the header. It’s a looong jump down to the banner, but the header reference will hopefully encourage subscribers to look for that content. Now if only J&R would fix the image alignment issue with their logo. It’s been that way for months.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Kohl’s, 9/2 — Print This Shopping Pass. Extra 15% Off Everything.‏
Norm Thompson, 9/2 — Labor Day Weekend Celebration - up to 25% OFF!‏
Home Depot, 9/2 — Labor Day Savings with 10% OFF Appliances + Much More!
Dell, 9/2 — Labor Day Sale starts now - Save up to 35% on select systems‏
Avon, 9/2 — Labor Day WEEKEND SPREE Starts Today‏
Eddie Bauer, 9/2 — Labor Day Blowout! Prices Starting at $5 - 5 Days Only!‏
Ross-Simons, 9/2 — Labor Day Clearance Sale - Up to 87% Off!‏
Spiegel, 9/2 — STARTS TODAY! Labor Day Sale! 250+ Styles JUST REDUCED Up to 80%!‏
Williams-Sonoma, 9/2 — 5 Days Only: Labor Day Savings on a Customer Favorite‏
Apple, 9/2 — iPod. iTunes. Apple TV. All new. Totally amazing.
Bluefly, 9/2 — Your Closet's Begging for JEGGINGS! Current/Elliot, SL8, Genetic Denim... New & Up to 40% Off‏
Hanna Andersson, 9/2 — Save Early - Up To 30% Off New Winter Hannas For A Limited Time!‏
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AM Inbox: Obliterating the grid

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, 9/1 — Pre-Labor Day Sale - Sneak Peak at Extra 20% Off‏
I praised JCPenney recently for breaking the grid in their emails (see Aug. 19 AM Inbox), but in this email, Alibris dispenses with the grid entirely. In the place of a boxy body, Alibris uses a kind of doily shape to contain their copy. Surrounded by a white background, the unusual shape really stands out. This tactic works primarily because their message is simple. Trying this with a more complex message would be hard and likely have a cluttered, overly busy feel.



Williams-Sonoma, 9/1 — Homemade Pasta, Pronto!‏
I like how Williams-Sonoma tells a simple story that brings together multiple products in this promotion: How to cook a great pasta dinner. While I might argue that steps 2 and 3 should be reversed, there’s no doubt that this is an easy-to-follow narrative with a design that’s easy to scan, while still having rich details for those who are interested enough to read further.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Hallmark, 9/1 — Celebrate grandparents with Recordable Storybooks.
eBags, 9/1 — Pre-Labor Day Sale - Sneak Peak at Extra 20% Off‏
Macy’s, 9/1 — Ship for Free + 2-day specials at the Labor Day Sale!
J. Crew, 9/1 — Labor Day sale: new styles added (plus, FREE SHIPPING)‏
Bluefly, 9/1 — Fall Cashmere Preview Ends Today! Drape It. Wrap It. LOVE it!‏
Orvis, 9/1 — Prepare for fall adventure with new clothing from Orvis.‏
Frederick’s of Hollywood, 9/1 — Want our formula for sexy dreams? Find out with $15 off your order.
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The Most Popular Posts during August 2010

The posts that were visited the most during the month:

10. AM Inbox: Out of sync email and landing page content
9. AM Inbox: One way to encourage scrolling
8. AM Inbox: Backcountry redesign + when to drop whitelisting requests
7. AM Inbox: 3 retailers redesign their email templates
6. AM Inbox: Half-hearted sidescroller + Disney redesign
5. Design Hall of Fame: 2008 Inductees
4. AM Inbox: Crate & Barrel redesign + new J. Crew newsletter
3. AM Inbox: Another great animated gif from Bed Bath & Beyond
2. Retail Email Guide to the Holiday Season 2010
1. Email Design Look Book 2010

>>View the most popular posts from previous months.

Looking to get a jump on ideas for this month? Then check out the September 2009 archive for inspiration and trends from last year.
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AM Inbox: Finish Line redesign + dynamic content misfire

>>The 2010 Retail Email Guide to the Holiday Season: Download the 41-page guide for free. Register for the accompanying holiday planning webinar.

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

Finish Line, 8/31 — Take $10 or $20 Off Our Top Rated Shoes!
Finish Line has redesigned their email template. Beyond sharpening the branding in the header, the big change is they increased the number of navigation bar links to nine from four. Those links are also HTML text, so they appear when images are blocked. The other significant change is that they increased the width of their template to 640 pixels from 615. While that’s in the 600-650 pixel range that we recommend, the trend should be toward narrower designs because of the growing influence of mobile devices. Here’s the new design:



And here’s the previous design from an Aug. 19 email:



Sears, 8/31 — Kiss the Summer Goodbye and Fall Into Savings‏
Looks like Sears had a geo-powered dynamic content issue with this banner. Sears, which knows my zip code and therefore that I’m on the other side of the country from Nevada, has promoted state-based discounts in the past and gotten it right. Dynamic content modules and segmented emails can be great tools for promoting state tax-free weekends and similar events.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Lane Bryant, 8/31 — Labor Day Deals $9.99 And Up + $29.99 Pant Event‏
Newegg, 8/31 — LABOR DAY SALE: $59.99 Samsung 1TB HDD, $34.99 Logitech LED-backlit Gaming Keyboard...
REI, 8/31 — REI Labor Day Sale and Clearance Ends Soon‏
Toys “R” Us, 8/31 — Early Bird Labor Day Outdoor Sale! 2-Day Bonus Deals! Save BIG Wed. & Thurs.!
Office Depot, 8/31 — Add Up the Savings with Pre-Labor Day Deals. Look Inside.‏
Sierra Trading Post, 8/31 — EXTRA 20% OFF & FREE SHIPPING + EXTRA 20-30% OFF Labor Day Blowout!‏
Dick’s Sporting Goods, 8/31 — 2 Great Offers to Get You Ready for Football!
L.L. Bean, 8/31 — Last Chance: 20% Off All Backpacks + Free Shipping‏
Brookstone, 8/31 — Like Us on Facebook… Plus Enter to Win the AR.Drone Flying Video Game‏
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