SUBJECT LINE SLIPS
As usual, subject lines proved to be fertile ground for oopsies, which is unfortunate since they play such a strong role in determining whether the recipient opens and engages further with the email. Errors ranged from misspellings to total FAILS.
eBags, 7/14 — 10063439, eBags Friends & Family Back to School Event Starts Now
Personalized greetings are supposed to indicate that a marketer knows you on some level—if only your name. In this eBags email, the first name personalization breaks, inserting numbers where the name should be. Ouch! I’ve been reduced to a number. The same personalized subject line greeting mistake was made again in 7/18 and 7/20 emails.
Petco, 2/6 — (No Subject)
They used a placeholder subject line that they never updated.
Lands’ End, 2/21 — To Be Added
Another instance of a placeholder subject line being used. They were able to halt the send and correct the subject line, but some people got this one.
Diamond.com, 6/16 — Fashion News Editorial
This email also had a placeholder subject line, although it was much more descriptive.
Orvis, 12/20 — PRE-SEND NOTIFICATION: Don't wait! There's still time to save on great holiday gift ideas.
“PRE-SEND NOTIFICATION” appears to be internal note that didn’t get removed before send.
Furniture.com, 5/9 — Deal #4: 15% off all mattresses!
This deal was actually the fifth deal.
Diamond.com, 7/3 — Hurry Its Your Last Chance - Amazing Deals For this July 4th Sale
This subject line is missing a comma after “Hurry” and misspelled “It’s.”
Sam’s Club, 7/26 — Savings on dorm room digital: laptops, printers and more
It appears that a word is missing after “digital.” That adjective is just hanging there.
Target, 8/13 — Two days only: Two days only: Save 10% on clothing, baby finds + home updates.
“Two days only:” is duplicated in the subject line.
Brookstone, 6/14 — 1 Days Left for Father’s Day Standard Delivery--and Special Offer to e-mail customers!
This subject line should have said “1 Day.”
Backcountry.com, 5/25 — Newsletter: Dirty Pleasures, Get the Shot, Inisde Basecamp & Sale
“Inside” was misspelled.
Ann Taylor, 5/14 — Summer Styles Starting At $24 + Ann Taylor & Instyle Present Wear-To-Work Chic
InStyle magazine is spelled with a capital “S.”
Ross-Simons, 1/25 — Last Chance to Save Up to 79 Off!
The % sign in “79% Off” was left off.
Musician’s Friend, 8/13 — Musician's Friend: Grab Insane Bargains & Get Free Shipping Today on Almost Anything
Broken symbol character in subject line.
Fingerhut, 12/16 — Check Out Santa, Baby - a Hiliarous Holiday e-card from Fingerhut.com!
“Hilarious” was misspelled.
Diamond.com, 10/11 — Last Chance to purchase at 50% off - Columbus day sale
“Day” should have been capitalized.
J&R, 10/10 — Weekend Sale :Deals Good Thru Columbus Day
The space ended up on the wrong side of the colon.
Lane Bryant, 4/19 — Summer Must - Haves: Shorts And Crops Buy 1 Get 1 50% Off
There were unneeded spaces in “Must-Haves.”
Chadwick’s, 2/14 — Happy Valentine's Day ! Get Free Shipping.
There was an errant space before the exclamation mark.
Sportsman’s Guide, 12/15 — $25 Gift Card, OR, Free Shipping... More from The Guide
Errant commas before and after the “OR.”
Banana Republic, 2/11 — Happy Birthday Mr. President! Save up to 40% + Free shipping.
There should be a comma after “Birthday” since it’s addressing “Mr. President.”
Lane Bryant, 4/5 — It's 30% Off Week - Save Today On Leggings + Springs Hot New Look
“Spring’s” missing an apostrophe.
Target, 8/25 — Wired for school: Electronics the'’ll want to take with 'em.
It looks like the “y” in “they’ll” was replaced by an apostrophe in this subject line.
JC Whitney, 3/19 — Up To 60% Off 1000's Of Replacement Parts!
JC Whitney, 2/21 — A DIYer's Dream - Everything Automotive Plus 15% Off!
“1000s,” not “1000’s.”
Lillian Vernon, 6, 17 — 100's of Items Now on Clearance, Plus Ship for $3.99
Lillian Vernon, 3/14 — 100's of Items Added to the Sale + Great Easter Items Running Out!
“100s,” not “100’s.”
Long-time readers know that, as a former copy editor, I’m a stickler about proper hyphenation. Here are some of the hyphenation woes that catch my eye last year:
Chadwick’s, 7/14 — First-Time Ever! $15 Flash Sale - 2 hrs only!
“First-Time” shouldn’t be hyphenated in this subject line.
Lands’ End, 10/23 — Save 30% on all regularly-priced styles + free shipping
Lands’ End, 4/5 — Ends today: Save 20% on regularly-priced styles + Free Shipping
Lands’ End, 4/4 — Ends Monday! Save 20% on all regularly-priced styles + Free Shipping
Lands’ End, 4/2 — One day only! Save 30% on regularly-priced shoes + Free Shipping
Lands’ End, 3/15 — Ends today! Save 20% on all regularly-priced styles + Free Shipping
“Regularly priced” shouldn’t be hyphenated.
Dell, 8/24 — Time is running out on back to school PCs
Dell, 8/17 — Great deals on Back To School PCs
Dell, 8/14 — Highly rated customer favorites – popular systems for back to school.
eBags, 8/14 — Ends Sunday - Extra 10% Off + Free Shipping for Back to School
Costco, 8/10 — HUGE Back To School Savings! Shop at Your Local Costco Warehouse or on Costco.com.
J&R, 8/5 — Back to School Sale - Get Prepped with these Notebook Deals!
Art.com, 8/2 — The $4.98 Back to School Sale + 22% Off Everything!
Disney Store, 7/30 — Get Free Shipping with Any Back to School Item!
J&R, 7/30 — Weekend Sale - Back to School Edition!
“Back-to-school” should be hyphenated when used as an adjective.
Disney Store, 12/20 — Great Last Minute Gifts to Wrap Up Your List!
Staples, 12/20 — Save up to 50% - Last Minute Gift event!
Walgreens, 6/17 — Last Minute Gift Ideas for Dad + $10 OFF at Walgreens.com
Bass Pro Shops, 6/15 — Last Minute Gift Idea for Dad
Diamond.com, 5/3 — Last Minute Gifts For Mom
“Last-Minute” should be hyphenated when used as an adjective.
Lillian Vernon, 8/13 — Costumes are Back! Plus, Find Your Last Minute Back to School Needs!
“Last-Minute” and “Back-to-School” should be hyphenated.
Backcountry, 8/3 — Top Rated Outerwear
Northern Tool, 8/2 — Customer Top Rated Tools & Equipment
eBags, 6/23 — Extra 25% Off + Free Shipping on Our Top Rated Bags
Northern Tool, 4/29 — Our Top Rated Products Reviewed By Customers Like You
Bass Pro Shops, 3/31 — Customer Top Rated Hunting Gear + Shop with 6 Pay
Northern Tool, 3/29 — Top Rated Power Equipment That Combines Power + Value
Fingerhut, 2/12 — Fingerhut: Shop Our Top Rated Products!
JC Whitney, 2/12 — Top Rated Products Ship Free All Weekend!
Northern Tool, 2/1 — Featured Top Rated Brands
“Top-Rated” should be hyphenated.
Eddie Bauer, 8/20 — Best Selling Leather Jackets + Save Up To $20 On Jeans
Fingerhut, 9/13 — Fingerhut: Check Out Our BEST Selling Products!
Sports Authority, 6/8 — 20% Off Your Order + Check Out Our Best Sellers
Orvis, 6/30 — Shop our best sellers for summertime. Plus, our Giant Fly Sale's final days.
“Best-Selling” should be hyphenated.
Saks Fifth Avenue, 11/27 — Post Thanksgiving Sale: Up to 60% Off
“Post-Thanksgiving” should be hyphenated.
TigerDirect, 11/5 — 73 Hour Early Christmas Sale
“73-Hour” should be hyphenated.
TigerDirect, 7/23 — Christmas in July: 3 Day Special Event
“3-Day” should be hyphenated, as it is in the body copy.
TigerDirect, 11/11 — 48 Hour Veteran's Day Deals: LEDs, LCDs, TVs, Projectors, Photo Frame & More
TigerDirect, 7/16 — 48 Hour Deals Start Now
“48-Hour” should be hyphenated.
The Company Store, 11/3 — 25% Off 4 Hour Comforter Sale Click for your promotion code...
“4-Hour” should be hyphenated.
Coach, 9/8 — Just in: the new fall must haves
“Must-haves” should be hyphenated.
Chadwick’s, 4/22 — Time Sensitive Offer Inside: Look Who's Turning 40!
“Time-Sensitive” should be hyphenated.
Linens ’n Things, 4/17 — Hurry, 2 Days Left to Enjoy Post Tax Day Savings!
“Post-Tax Day Saving” should be hyphenated.
Lane Bryant, 2/8 — 5 Star Customer Rated Bras + A Special Offer For You
Both “5-Star” and “Customer-Rated” should be hyphenated.
Barnes & Noble, 1/19 — This Week -- Coupons, 30% Off Customer Favorites, Award Winning Kids Books, DVD sale
“Award-Winning” should be hyphenated. It was correct in the body copy.
DEPLOYMENT MISHAPS
Oopsies in the deployment sphere ranged from duplicate emails to botched A/B tests to completely empty emails.
Sports Authority, 12/9 — [25% Off] Friends + Family Event
Sports Authority, 12/9 — 25% Off - Sports Authority Friends + Family Event
Sports Authority, 12/9 — 25% Off - Friends + Family Event - Get Ready For the Holidays
Sports Authority, 12/9 — Still Need The Perfect Gift? - [25% Off] Friends + Family Event
Sports Authority, 12/9 — Its Back! Sports Authority Friends + Family Event
Sports Authority, 12/9 — Oops! Sorry For The Technical Foul!
As all good email marketers should, Sports Authority has been A/B testing subject lines. Unfortunately, the list segmentation broke and some, if not all, subscribers received emails with all five of the subject lines they were testing. Normally I would have recommended letting this go without an apology email, but perhaps they saw their unsubscribes or complaints increasing so they sent this apology email. Given the record levels of email that consumers were getting in their inboxes in early December, the timing of this glitch was very unfortunate.
NFLshop, 9/9 — New York Giants Kickoff Weekend - Get Free Shipping on Your Order!
This email was sent from NFLshop but contained content from ESPN Shop, another sporting goods retailer that contracts with GSI Commerce. This mistake 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? Later in the day the correct NFLshop email was sent with the same subject line and no explanation or apology in the email.
Kohl’s, 10/5 — 2-Day Specials Start Today, End Tomorrow.
This old Labor Day email was resent in October.
TigerDirect, 3/5 — CRAZY: 47" 1080p HDTV $629...17" Gateway 4gb Win 7 Laptop $439...32" 1080p HDTV $349...$9 USB or $9 SD...$99 TomTom 4.3" GPS
The body of the email was completely empty.
Lands’ End, 5/14 — Perfect forecast: Save 25% online and in stores + free shipping
This email uses a new sender name and address—“Lands’ End Canvas” and “landsendcanvas@email.landsend.com”—unnecessarily it would appear since the email wasn’t about Lands’ End Canvas. Consequently, images were blocked and security warnings issued for most subscribers.
Old Navy, 12/28 — New Arrivals for the Family + FREE Shipping Every Day
This Old Navy email was sent from a Piperlime branded address, piperlime@piperlimeo.delivery.net. Considering that some email clients display the sender address instead of the sender name, this kind of mistake can generate spam complaints from subscribers not recognizing the sender.
Bluefly, 9/19 — Today Only! Clearance Sale - Extra 20% Off All Sale Items - Now Up to 80% Off!
This email was sent at least three times to at least some subscribers.
Wal-Mart, 12/23 — There's Still Time to Get Great Gifts That Put a Smile on Their Faces
Buy.com, 12/22 — Champagne & Wine Blowout - Get it by New Years Eve
JC Whitney, 12/3 — Find Unique Stocking Stuffers Exclusive Shipping Offer!
TigerDirect, 11/25 — BIGGEST BLACK FRIDAY SALE EVER...Shop Now @ Tiger
J. Jill, 11/23 — Introducing the J. Jill e-gift card!
Backcountry.com, 11/11 — 48 Hours - Select Items Up To 50% Off
Frederick’s of Hollywood, 10/25 — The holidays rock! Glam new styles & 150+ new gifts under $25.
Saks Fifth Avenue, 9/8 — His best Fall sweaters are here now
Cooking.com, 7/29 — Top 10 Pasta Salad Recipes
Lillian Vernon, 7/27 — A Free Gift + Free Shipping to Help Enjoy Back to School Shopping
Frederick’s of Hollywood, 6/19 — Last chance. Take $15 off $50.
Each of these emails was sent at least twice to at least some subscribers.
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, at least some subscribers received both versions.
CODING & IMAGE ERRORS
Mistakes in coding and image formatting made for some of the most spectacular errors of 2010. There’s no missing these.
Ralph Lauren, 10/22 — Latest Luxury Arrivals, Now Online
Coding is a constant thorn in email marketers’ sides, but it’s vital not only for consistent rendering but also for CAN-SPAM compliance, as we see in this Ralph Lauren email. In it, the preheader and administrative text is accidently rendered in white text on a white background—which makes it invisible. The lost text includes the unsubscribe instructions and mailing address, a violation of CAN-SPAM. Text links were unaffected, but Ralph Lauren didn’t help themselves by using the old-school “click here” call-to-action for both their “view with images” and “unsubscribe” links. More descriptive calls-to-actions like “view this email online” and “unsubscribe” would have been more user-friendly. Here’s the email (left) and the email with all the images and text highlighted:
Toys “R” Us, 4/21 — Go Green! Celebrate Earth Day with Outdoor Activities.
At Responsys, we tend to design single, very flexible templates for clients. Having a single template makes it easier to update fine print and to replicate any design or coding improvements. Here, Toys “R” Us demonstrates the danger of having several templates. For this Earth Day email, they abandoned their usual template, which they’d recently updated to be optimized for viewing in Hotmail using Firefox, thereby avoiding the rendering issues discussed in our Majority of Retailers Fail Hotmail-Firefox Rendering Test report. This template isn’t optimized for Hotmail-Firefox, so there are many image gaps throughout the design. Also, the body text is left-justified in Hotmail-Firefox, but is centered in Hotmail-Internet Explorer, which is more difficult to read and makes the bulleted section of text awkward. But those two rendering issues are trivial compared to the fact that this template renders their preheader text and administrative text in white text on a white background—which makes their opt-out language and mailing address invisible, a violation of CAN-SPAM. And using “click here” for all of their administrative links—rather than more descriptive links like “unsubscribe”—certainly didn’t help their cause. Here’s the email in Hotmail-Internet Explorer (left) and in Hotmail-Firefox:
Lane Bryant, 5/23 — Last Day! 40% Off In Stores And Online Ends Today
Pieces of the header, navigation and footer appear to be repeated in a strange format, giving this email the appearance that it’s exploding.
eBags, 9/11 — Back to school Blowout: Last Chance to save up to 60%
A botched personalized greeting in this submessage reduced some subscribers to just a number. This error was replicated in many emails over the subsequent three or so weeks.
NFLshop, 8/10 — Be a true NFL fan: give back
The personalized greeting in this email broke since there was no default value established.
Lane Bryant, 10/11 — Add Beautiful Bras To Your Wardrobe - Save Up To 50%
The personalized greeting used in the preheader of this email also broke. Their default value was the awkward “{friend}.” This error appeared in two additional emails that followed.
Sephora, 5/12 — One of a kind. For a limited time.
This personalized greeting in preheader didn’t have a default value for when a name wasn’t in the database.
Lands’ End, 1/1 — May your New Year be happy & your shipping be free
The alt text coding is showing at the bottom of this email.
Hanna Andersson, 9/23 — Hurry, Last Chance For Early Outerwear Savings - Ends Sunday!
The navigation bar alignment broke.
Lands’ End, 1/6 — Outerwear Sale! Women's and more + Free Shipping
The spacer images in this email have borders that make them visible.
Buy.com, 7/29 — Special price on Toshiba HDTV, Aero Air Mattress $32.99, 1TB Network Hard Drive $114.99, UFC Sandals $12.99, Brother Laser Printer $96.99,..
This email was missing all the product images associated with the product details.
TigerDirect, 6/23 — 1TB HD $69...Build an 8GB, 1TB, Quad PC under 500 Bucks...23" 1080p LCD $169...2GB SD Card $4.99...Top 5 New Electronics Deals
This email was missing the primary message image.
Sears, 6/8 — Tools, Electronics, Appliances and more on Sale for Father's Day
This email was missing images.
Diamond.com, 5/6 — Sitewide Sale Plus Free Shipping
This email was missing all the images for the primary message. An Apr. 22 email suffered the same problem.
Image alignment issues were among the most common problems last year, whether caused by borders, errant spaces bumping images over the line width or some other issue. Here’s just a small sample:
J&R, 6/15 — Musical Instruments Store First Anniversary Sale. . . Save Big!
J&R started having image alignment problems with their logo with this email. It has affected nearly every email they’ve sent since that time.
Finish Line, 10/21 — Boot Season is Here--Shop Our Premium Selection!
When viewed in Gmail, many of Finish Line’s emails suffered image alignment problems like the one in this email. Every email client renders a little differently and supports different HTML and CSS codes. It’s critical to test rendering in all major email clients and browser combinations.
TigerDirect, 7/28 — SSD Storage Sale...Plus: 28" HD LCD $249...1TB HD $59...2GB USB $5.99...Hurry
Image alignment issues are hard to miss in this email.
Saks Fifth Avenue, 10/19 — 20% OFF Friends & Family Online Today
As more retailers insert HTML text discount codes, particularly personalized codes like Saks uses in this email, we’re seeing more image alignment issues around those text blocks. Kohl’s also regularly suffers image alignment issues like this.
Cooking.com, 6/15 — Save up to $110 on Calphalon Skillets and Lids
This email also has image alignment issues.
Banana Republic, 3/2 — We've got a crush on coral.
The second model was cropped a bit too tightly and she lost part of her hand.
Barnes & Noble, 11/11 — 25% Off Any One Item -- Our Early Holiday Gift to You!
Placeholder alt text was used in this email.
Office Depot, 11/3 — Hot Deal of the Day Offers Inside + an Exclusive Ink Offer For You!
The alt text for all four of these product images was “header.”
Newegg, 6/29 — INDEPENDENCE DAY SALE! Over 60 of our biggest deals of the summer inside-
The alt text for this image includes placeholder text.
Bloomingdale’s, 1/27 — True Romance: Valentine's Day Gifts For Her
For many of their emails, including this one, Bloomingdale’s had two line breaks at the top of their email template. As a result, they’re giving up about more than 30 pixels of preview pane space, which is precious.
LANDING PAGE DISCONNECTS
A seamless transition from email to landing page will hugely benefit conversions. With these emails, something went wrong along the way:
Neiman Marcus, 8/30 — Dress to express: Which "Ooh!" are YOU?
When I saw Neiman Marcus asking subscribers to target their specific sense of style, I got excited, expecting that they were doing some progressive profiling a la Spiegel (see Mar. 17, 2008 AM Inbox). Collecting which style subscribers clicked on could have been the basis for dynamic content in future emails or a triggered email dedicated to apparel in that style.
However, Neiman Marcus didn’t use a click map for the image so regardless of which style you click on, it all goes to the same landing page (shown below). Even worse, that landing page had completely different “shop by” criteria. So while a subscriber may have been interested in the “Sophisticate” style, the landing page cut off that avenue of exploration and forced them to choose a new path. Disconnects like this between email content and landing pages can significantly dampen conversion rates.
Macy’s, 8/22 — Free Shipping on women's fall clothes & accessories
Are your emails generating good open and click rates, but the conversation rates are weak? Your emails may be suffering landing page issues like this Macy’s email. Calling out individual trends sets the expectation that subscribers can click on them to find out more. However, when you clicked on “the satchel” or “the military coat”—which even has a box around it so it looks like a giant button—you were taken to a top-level landing page for this promotion. From there it was one more click to get into the merchandise. But even worse was the fact that the landing page for Fall Trends didn’t include “the clog,” “the ceramic watch” and “the satchel,” so the email content and landing page content are very out of sync.
Blue Nile, 2/10 — ONE DAY ONLY: Save up to 30% on Silver Jewelry - In Time for Valentine's Day
In this Blue Nile email, all five of the product images and text descriptions link to a single product that’s not highlighted in the email. If you’re trying to make it easy for subscribers to buy what you’re promoting in your emails, then you have to link to the category pages, product pages, and custom landing pages that seamlessly flow from the email in an intuitive way. If a subscriber clicks and end up something they weren’t expecting, many of them will just abandon their effort.
Coach, 2/13 — There's still time...order online, pick-up in store.
This banner linked to Coach’s homepage instead of to the promised content.
CONTENT, SPELLING & GRAMMAR MISTAKES
Including the wrong content, misspelling words and using poor grammar make you look foolish and distracts from what you’re trying to say.
1-800-Flowers.com, 3/4 — Save $10 Sitewide, plus get a $10 Savings Pass
The Olympics references are nice, but the Games ended the previous weekend.
TigerDirect, 7/8 — Inventory Reduction Event!
This email included a “Dads and Grads” promo well after the Father’s Day and graduation seasons had past.
Buy.com, 3/31 — 11" Silicone Oven Mitt $9.99, Razor Mobile Mouse $19.99, Apple 8GB iPod Nano $119.99, Bruce Springsteen 4-CD Boxed Set $14.99,..
The animated gif at the top of this email that provides highlights of the products included further down in the email didn’t actually contain any of those products.
TigerDirect, 12/13 — Christmas Clearance and Coupons
“Mitsubishi” was misspelled in all three of the product listings in this email.
Spiegel, 12/31 — Join Us on Facebook and Get 25% OFF On Your Next Purchase!
Misspelled “Facebook” in the body of the email, spelling it with a capital “B.”
Bluefly, 4/27 — Spring Leather Jackets + Estate Jewelry Sale
I think they meant “wear-everywhere.”
Victoria’s Secret, 1/25 — Fierce at Heart: Unleashed & Untamed. Get Wild this Valentine’s Day.
Misspelled “Valentine’s” in the preheader message: “This Valentines Day, stop them in their tracks.”
Toys “R” Us, 2/11 — 4 Days Only! Presidents' Day Sale! Over 75 Coupons & Deals Inside.
The first letter of their preheader text was unfortunately truncated.
Ralph Lauren, 2/19 — Evan Takes Gold!
The preheader message—“Congratulations Evan Lysacek”—needs a comma after “Congratulations” because it’s addressing “Evan Lysacek.”
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. Avoid production processes that invite errors, such as using placeholder sender names or subject lines.
2. Develop a pre-flight checklist and follow it every time.
3. One word: Spell-check.
4. Check all the links in the email, especially key calls-to-action.
5. View a test send in accounts from all the major email clients, or use a rendering tool, to ensure consistent rendering across platforms.
6. Have someone else look over the email before it goes out. It's difficult to catch your own errors.
7. If you make a mistake in an image, simply correct the source file.
8. Don’t resend emails that contain minor mistakes. Only resend those where the mistake has significantly impaired the message.
9. If the error is significant, see if you can halt the send. You may be able to reduce the number of intended recipients that receive the erroneous email.
10. Develop a protocol for your apology emails so you can respond quickly when serious mistakes happen.
11. Consider holding periodic post-deployment debriefings to review what went right and wrong during the email development and deployment.
Want to learn more from other people’s mistakes?
Check out the 2009, 2008, 2007 and 2006 inductees into the Oopsy Hall of Fame.
Also check out the other Halls of Fame: Subject Line Halls of Fame and Design Halls of Fame.
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BROWSE... Archive / Post Categories / Selling Seasons / Topics Covered / Retailers Tracked
