January 2010 Archives

From: Red Cross
Date: Monday, January 15, 2010


On January 12, 2010, Haiti was struck by a devastating earthquake that not only shook the island but people across the globe. Within days, many organizations mobilized to collect donations. The Red Cross partnered with the Mobile Giving Foundation and First Lady Michelle Obama to launch an incredible mobile campaign.

Within three days of the earthquake, the Red Cross generated over $8 million in donations via texts at $10 per transaction. More donations were generated via short codes as other organizations launched their own mobile campaigns.

All marketing channels were leveraged to generate historically significant totals. Through websites, music sales, benefits, telethons and texts, organizations quickly organized to drive one the most focused and successful campaigns in history. Success was driven by three key components: low donation thresholds, ease of donation through mobile partners and cross channel efforts that amplified the message.

Donors were presented with options to receive updates on how their dollars were spent. Subscribers connected to the event through updates and news that drove continued contributions. To date, donations to help Haiti exceed $528 million. What an amazing feat!

From: Lucky Brand
Subject Line: Switch Gears with Our Newest Vintage Moto Tees
Date: Thursday, January 21, 2010

As the red and pink haze of Valentine's Day messaging starts wafting into our inboxes (I can almost smell chocolate), I find Lucky Brand's denim-inspired email refreshing and cool. I'm usually not that impressed with their email program but the copy in this email brought me to a screeching halt. It took all but a nano-second to open the email after reading their clever subject line, "Switch Gears." Yes! Please!

On first glance I don't find the featured t-shirts to be particularly interesting. However, after reading the copy my feelings have changed. These aren't just t-shirts anymore, they're vintage t-shirts. The copy has me picturing James Dean filling up at a local gas station after a long ride on his bike - a rugged romanticism that Lucky has captured nicely.

Besides the copy, I think the design needs a tune up. I appreciate the simplicity and straightforward CTAs, but something is missing. It would've been nice to see these t-shirts displayed in a less static design and instead have it look vintage. Also, I think it would've been helpful if the product names were displayed somewhere to let customers know what to search for if they're browsing the Lucky Brand website.

From: HP Home & Home Office Store
Subject Line: Your HP Home & Home Office Store Deals - Week of January 4, 2010
Date: Monday, January 4, 2010

From: HP Home & Home Office Store
Date: Monday, January 4, 2010

While I know a few senders already have begun to take advantage of the power of using their email lists to build their mobile contact lists, I still get excited when I see an example in the wild. Like most consumers, I'm not eager to get text messages for promotions on my iPhone. I don't mind receiving timely and relevant alerts for specific reasons, but for this message from HP, my excitement quickly turned to skepticism when I tried to provide my details.

I clicked on the image based form on the landing page to enter my mobile number, however, that was the only requested data point. The fine print reads "As a member of the HP Club you'll receive a maximum of 4 messages a month", which doesn't sound very customized or alert based to me. Without any chance to provide other details to HP like my name, email address (both could be populated from the email click saving time and ensuring data synchronization) printer type and typical usage, how can they possibly send me a relevant and timely alert when my ink is low?

As we continue to build cross channel programs and lists throughout 2010, we need to keep in mind one of the key lessons learned from the email channel -- consumers want meaningful choices and control of where and how they receive messaging from marketers. Respecting these choices builds stronger performing programs with more engaged recipients.

From: kate spade
Subject Line: i resolve to wear out my passport
Date: Thursday, January 7, 2010

From: kate spade
Subject Line: i resolve to sing in the rain
Date: Thursday, January 14, 2010

Simple, clean and fresh. What a perfect way to start off a new year. Kate Spade is carrying this "i resolve..." handle throughout all their emails this month and I love it. Everything about this email gives me room to breathe. From the photography to the typography, and the free shipping top promo to the social footer. My fave is the "i resolve to sing in the rain". Given that I'm practically rowing a boat to my local coffee joint because of all the rain, the timing on that one was perfection. My only gripe is the landing page experience. When you click on the "Shop the Collection" link, it takes you to a pretty little landing page with a few rain essentials... and a few randoms (why is there a necklace on this page? is it waterproof?). Wish they had more of a selection to really tell the rainy day story. They have two jackets, one boot, two bags and an umbrella. Makes me wonder what a Macy's or a Piperlime or a Nordstroms could do with this type of story, since they have so much more to choose from.

From: Amazon.com
Subject Line: Amazon.com: The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Books of 2009
Date: Friday, December 25, 2009

The goal of an email marketer is to have as many relevant touch points with your customers (and prospects) as possible. In this month of 'best of' countdowns, use your 2009 purchase data to provide targeted emails. Amazon is doing a nice job with their "The Best [book genre] of 2009" emails that I began receiving on Christmas. I've received these for Science Fiction & Fantasy, Literature & Fiction, Short Stories, and Romance, and yes, you guessed it - I've bought books from each of these categories in the past year. So, if you have multiple product categories, consider expanding your "Best of" email to a whole series, and targeting these emails based on purchase behavior.

Additional tip: include non-purchasers who have browsed products in these categories on your site in the last 30 days. Track this group separately and see how they perform, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised!

In October, I wrote about the genius EEC Marketing Haiku Slam. Since then (at random moments on the elliptical or on an airplane), when inspiration strikes I jot one down. My most recent favorite is below. I'd love to hear yours!

A/B Test
Ideally I'd split
My existence and test B
Against the control

Deep thoughts on a Monday morning... :). Have a great week!

From: Bluefly
Subject Line: Winter Trend Watch + SHOE SALE!
Date: Monday, December 28, 2009

I am usually less than impressed by Bluefly's emails: their recent habit of using "OMG!" as the headline of nearly every email leaves me unenthused. But let's give credit where credit is due: I love the clever copy going on in this email. Specifically, the bit where they call out the subscriber habit of reading fashion emails at work: "Go 'head & press play, the office is a ghost town!" Cheeky! It's my job to read emails, so I don't feel so rebellious for opening this, but I do appreciate a little wink-wink attitude on the part of Bluefly. To me, it shows that they really know their audience and are willing to go the extra mile to connect with their customers.

From: CHEFS
Subject Line: LYLA: Win a Top Rated Kitchen Product from CHEFS Catalog!
Date: Tuesday, January 12, 2010

I still haven't quite completely dealt with my mess of an email in-box in the aftermath of the holiday season, so I have to give CHEFS credit for having a subject line intriguing enough to grab me. As a kitchen gadget fanatic, I got even more exited when I opened the email and saw the images of the prizes to be offered: KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer! Wüsthof Gourmet Block Set! Waring Flip Waffler!... and that was just the top row of a dozen different prizes. There is a catch for entering to win one of the lovely goodies, however (not that I should be surprised). Clicking on the "Enter to Win!" button took me to a nearly identical page with a "Write A Review!" button. I was still game at this point. It was the next page that deflated my balloon - 9 multi-step steps to write a review! I'm sure that it was meant to be a helpful tutorial, but unfortunately they lost me there.

From: west elm
Subject Line: Get exclusive west elm offers on Facebook and Twitter
Date: Saturday, January 9, 2010

Although this email was sent on Saturday, which according to The Retail Email Blog is the least popular day of the week to send emails, I was pretty excited to see an entire email dedicated to social. There isn't a sales pitch for product to be found, from preheader to footer. I was intrigued enough to become a fan on Facebook.

When I got to the west elm Facebook page, my excitement faded. Fast. There were all kinds of wall posts from other fans, but precious few content gems from the west elm team and only a few photos. And even after I officially became a fan, there wasn't a special offer to be found. Somehow I was hoping that once I got behind the secret fan curtain, there'd be some cool stuff waiting for me. No such luck.

This brings me to my big gripe with companies adding Facebook and Twitter experiences to their emails: Lack of content. It's not enough to just get people to your page, you need and want them to come back and participate. Two steps forward for the social-centric email. One step back for a disappointing experience.

From: Sports Basement
Subject Line: NA
Date: Thursday, December 17, 2009

Let me start by saying I love Sports Basement. Thanks Sports Basement, not only for your charitable support of non-profits, fantastic inventory and prices to swoon over, but also for your thoughtful pop-up opt-in box! I was frantically scouring websites for last minute Christmas shopping (I know, I'm such a cliché) and found myself browsing Sports Basement's website. As I was perusing their hiking boot selection, a nifty little opt-in pop-up appeared. It's not a new function, but a great one none-the-less.

What's nice about this strategy is that you are not passively collecting opt-ins. Users are presented with the opportunity to opt-in. As an added bonus, because the box pops up after a prospect has spent some time on the site, Sports Basement will likely collect a higher quality email address.

However, there are a couple areas that should be considered. The website does not offer any other area to opt-in. In addition to the absence of the traditional opt-in, Sports Basement drops a cookie once they've collected the opt-in in order to suppress the pop-up moving forward. This suppression is most likely implemented in order to soften the aggressive acquisition process. While this may be a thoughtful business rule, it does not take into consideration that computers and laptops may be shared. Other prospects using the same machine will not have the opportunity to opt-in. To avoid leaving dollars on the table, I recommend adding the traditional opt-in box to every page, then test the suppression business rules to get optimum acquisition results.

From: Audible.com Hear and Now
Subject Line: Your Five-Star Listens: Highest Rated Audiobooks of 2009
Date: Thursday, December 17, 2009

These days I rarely consider any online purchase without first seeing what other people have said about the products I'm interested in. When I received this email from Audible promoting 5 star reviews, I couldn't resist taking a few minutes to check them out. Sadly, the expectations set by this email were a big letdown for me and violated one of my core email mantras -- "make it easy for the recipient".

Notice there's not a single review, testimonial, or product category present in the email, just a very generic CTA link to read the reviews. Clicking through goes directly to a log in screen requiring my password. Now, since I'm a frequent customer this wasn't a huge barrier, but an occasional customer might get stumped here and have to request their password by email. I shouldn't need to enter my password until I'm ready to purchase something, and at this point I wasn't even close to ready.

Everything about this email led me to believe the reviews would be from "listeners like me", setting the expectation that the "top picks" would be in categories I've previously purchased, like Horror, Fiction, Crime Thrillers. Nope, instead I was presented with a product page of 10 top picks (out of 60 total) on topics not even close to anything I've ever purchased or would consider. To make things even worse, not a single featured product had a 5 star rating, nor a link to read reviews next to the stars shown. Rounding out the experience, nothing was on sale.

I'm sorry Audible, but I gave this campaign 1 star out of 5

From: Zappos
Subject Line: Toast The New Year With A New You! Plus, Get Free Shipping
Date: Monday, January 4, 2009

Thanks to the social revolution of 2009, Facebook, Twitter and/or YouTube buttons have become fixtures in the footer or top nav of just about every email in the inbox. While some companies do indeed put together a social strategy, too many companies add the social factor simply because everyone else is doing it. They don't actually invest time, talent and money into creating a true social experience. What I L-O-V-E about Zappos emails is that they raise the bar by including a recent tweet from Tony their CEO. Now that's what I call delivering on the experience. Rather than simply throw in a "Follow Us on Twitter", Zappos creates content around the social experience by including a sample tweet. Very clever. Just wish it wasn't so buried at the bottom of the email.