October 2007 Archives

From: La Quinta Inns & Suites
Subject Line: Laugh Out Loud with Our New Video Spots
Date: Wednesday, October 31, 2007

I'd like to give a shoutout to Meg Reynolds at REI for forwarding along a particularly funny email from La Quinta. Yes, it is what it looks like it is: an ad for an ad. I'm all for "free breakfast, free high speed Internet, comfy beds and many new and newly renovated properties," and I understand that web video is apparently the bee's knees, but an email promoting "new commercials" to help subscribers "wake up on the bright side®" is perhaps a hair ridiculous?

Meg put it best: "Why do companies think people want to get an email about their commercials? This is the third email touting commercials I’ve seen in the past couple of weeks. But the first where it’s the subject line. Even if they’re hilarious, I think emailing your commercials is a weird (not to mention indulgent) idea."

From: Me
Subject Line: Happy Halloween from Smith-Harmon
Date: Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Halloween is my favorite holiday. What other time of year practically requires us to dress like freaks and eat tons of candy? We got into the spirit here today at Smith-Harmon. Cowboys, beer cans and bunnies - oh my! Plus, check out my Halloween post on the EEC blog.

Am I experiencing deja vu!? I received this email from J.Crew last year on Tuesday, September 26, again on Thursday, December 14 and then a third time this year on Saturday, October 20. I interpret it as a smart, triggered communication half-done. I love that J.Crew is messaging low inventory, but would recommend that they at least update the creative color palette seasonally to differentiate between the sends, particularly if they're deploying to the same audience.

From: jcrew@ click.jcrew.com
Subject Line: A little reminder from J.Crew
Date: Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Date: Thursday, December 14, 2006

Date: Saturday, October 20, 2007

From: Crate and Barrel
Subject Line: Thanksgiving Countdown Ideas. Free Shipping, too.
Date: Thursday, October 26, 2007

From: chefs
Subject Line: Day 1: Countdown to Thanksgiving Free Shipping Any Size Order
Date: Monday, October 29, 2007

Thanksgiving is a super-prep-heavy, gear-intensive holiday - one I personally plan to never ever host. The crazy-complicated big-budget Hollywood movie production nature of the feast gives retailers a number of angles from which to approach it. Enter the email series! Both Crate and Barrel and chefs kicked off a Thanksgiving series this week, which makes for an interesting comparison.

Let's start with subject lines. They both boiled down to the same thing - "Thanksgiving Countdown" and "Free Shipping" - only chefs' SL unfortunately had a relatively "Me Talk Pretty One Day" ring to it: "Day 1: Countdown to Thanksgiving Free Shipping Any Size Order". Is that grammatical!?

Moving into the creative, I was charmed by chefs' tip about how to set the table. It's embarrassingly true that I'm always uncertain as to where to put the fork, and I appreciate that they were willing to get so basic. But I was disappointed that the content tidbit was totally unrelated to the imagery featured below it. Why not show place settings!? And while chefs' clearly read Chad White's "All I Want for Christmas Are Daily Deal Emails" Reportlet, I would have loved to have seen the deal relate to the story as well. (A pastry blender couldn't be more random!)

Conversely, Crate and Barrel did a beautiful job weaving together content with relevant imagery; their message has a very editorial feel. I love the "N weeks" graphical header, which I assume we'll see as a visual tie between each email in the series. I also enjoyed the lead-in to next week's topic, "talking turkey." Still, call me a "marketer's designer" all you want, but I don't think it would hurt too much to add a few obvious points of click-through to encourage sales? C'mon, kids! Think of it as a form of customer service...

Last point: while I've been constructively critical, I do want to hand it to both chefs and Crate and Barrel for two signs of email program maturity:
(1) Planning far enough in advance to even conceive of an email series and
(2) Having planned it, executing it, despite an email or two that may not generate as much short-term revenue as - say - a sale message might. Hooray for saying no to email crack cocaine!

Last pointless: I personally do not enjoy turkey. However, that leaves more room for multiple servings of dessert. My Thanksgiving prep tip: don't forget the punch n' pie!

From: CB2
Subject Line: a.m./p.m. space solutions
Date: Monday, October 1, 2007

From: Crate and Barrel
Subject Line: New Fall Home Trends
Date: Monday, October 15, 2007

Thanks to Terri Potter from ScanSource for bringing two Crate and Barrel brand family emails to my attention. With reference to the CB2 campaign, Terri pointed out the synchronicity between the subject line, headline and photography, and I concur: "It's coordinated without being too matchy-matchy." We also agreed that the Crate and Barrel Fall Trends campaign is very attractive. As a Corporate Marketing Copywriter, Terri made an interesting point about the headline: "The copy might be a little too clever – you have to read it out loud, I think, to get the joke. Makes me wonder how many times I’ve "talked through" copy that sounds funny in my head without thinking that this is going to people’s email inbox. Is it even funny on screen? I think this would work if a Tennis Pro Shop was having a fall sale..."

From: Me
Subject Line: MAKE IT POP! Launches on the EEC Blog
Date: Thursday, October 25, 2007

I am proud to announce that I have joined the Email Experience Council blog as a contributor with "MAKE IT POP!", a weekly post dedicated to reviewing the good, the bad and the ugly in email creative.

The EEC blog is a forum for the email marketing industry's leading voices, where you'll find the opinions and thought-leadership that are driving the next evolution of email. Visit blog.emailexperience.org to check out "MAKE IT POP!", plus tons of other posts by smart folks including Bill McCloskey, Chad White, Stephanie Miller and more.

From: Me
Subject Line: WhatCounts to Publish Holiday Loyalty Marketing Practices Whitepaper
Date: Wednesday, October 24, 2007

This just in:
Visit WhatCounts.com this Friday to download their hot-off-the-press whitepaper on Holiday Loyalty Marketing Best Practices. I got a sneak peek earlier this week and was impressed by some of the innovative ideas included, particularly around RFM data and points-based email loyalty programs. There's been a good deal of talk about loyalty lately, and of course a huge emphasis on holiday, but this is the first time I've seen both topics considered simultaneously. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the paper!

Enjoy,
Lisa

From: NORDSTROM
Subject Line: FREE SHIPPING on UGG Australia Boots (Details Inside) | Save 50%: Further Reductions Online
Date: Thursday, October 11, 2007

The obvious problem here being that no one wears UGGs anymore.

From: Brocade Home
Subject Line: Take A Seat...SALE on Upolstered Chairs...Quantities Limited
Date: Tuesday, September 24, 2007

From: Pottery Barn
Subject Line: Take a Seat + Additional Savings
Date: Monday, October 8, 2007

Hello again! After forever-and-a-day, here I am, Lisa Harmon, back in action. After they rolled into my inbox yet again yesterday, I felt compelled to get back on the blog to write about three overused words: "Take a Seat".

I admit to the fact that I do receive a highly disproportionate number of home furnishings emails. I've also observed that we're in the midst of a custom upholstery craze, which ups the volume of seating-specific messaging. All the same, I'd simply like to call attention to the fact that virtually every one of these emails uses the words "Take a Seat" in the Subject Line, Headline or otherwise. OK, that's not true; it's not every campaign, but I've seen the phrase so many times now that it's become a running joke between myself and one of my colleagues. OK, we get it: it's clever! But not the 20th time!

I'd like to earnestly request that we all put on our copy caps and come up with something new as we start to discount all that leftover custom upholstery.