Whose Word Will Subscribers Take?

From: Nike
Subject Line: Top-Rated Customer Favorites Right Now.
Date: September 24, 2009

In this email, Nike hits two of the best ways to grab subscriber attention:

1. Customer reviews. It's great to see more and more brands tapping into the truth that customers trust each other more than they trust marketing teams. Pulling quotes from actual customers gives this gear some cred, and it's awesome that Nike has built their email around the items getting rave reviews.

2. List. People love lists, and we can barely help but scroll down and see the complete set of 5 favorites. Not only does this approach help lead the eye through the whole email, but it also makes for a template that's easy to populate with whichever gear is topping the popularity charts.

The email design itself is rather lackluster. You can barely read the white type against the light gray background, and the limited inclusion of color keeps it from making a strong visual impression. A better execution of this great idea could work wonders, but I'm still impressed by Nike's choice to build their email on the word of their reviewers.