Recently in Loyalty Marketing Category

From: LOFT
Subject Line: 12 HOURS ONLY! 40% Off EVERYTHING + Free Shipping On Orders Of $75
Date: Sunday, July 17, 2011 5:17 PM PST

From: LOFT
Subject Line: 40% Off EVERYTHING Is Back: Please Accept Our Apologies
Date: Tuesday, July 19, 2011 6:27 AM PST

I rarely check email on Sundays, so I missed the first send of LOFT's 40% Off Flash Sale... it's probably just as well, since I definitely would have been frustrated had I loaded up my shopping cart, only to be stymied by technical issues! With that said, I thoroughly commend the LOFT for their response to the mistake. Within less than 48 hours they sent a genuine sounding apology email, extending the original offer which includes a longer window of shopping opportunity (original send: 12 hours vs. re-send: 14.5 hours). Thank you LOFT. Apology accepted. :)

From: OfficeMax
Subject Line: A Special Birthday Gift For You
Date: Wednesday, June 1, 2011

From: Old Navy
Subject Line: A Birthday Surprise! (Just for You) + FREE Shipping Everyday
Date: Sunday, June 12, 2011

From: PacSun
Subject Line: Happy Birthday - like we'd forget your birthday! Check inside for your birthday surprise.
Date: Sunday, June 12, 2011

From: Estée Lauder
Subject Line: Kathryn, Happy Birthday from Estée Lauder
Date: Monday, June 5, 2011

From: Sur La Table
Subject Line: Get Sharp: Free Knife Sharpening Through June
Date: Wednesday, June 1, 2011

From: Baskin-Robbins
Subject Line: Happy Birthday from Baskin-Robbins. Have a scoop on us.‏
Date: Tuesday, June 7, 2011


My birthday was Sunday June 12th, and like any good little email geek I got excited about opening cards, presents, and of course - emails! This year my birthday inbox did not disappoint, as I found myself showered with all kinds of virtual gifts and goodies. Here's a selection of messages that stood out to me this year:

Kicking off the party was this message from OfficeMax, which was actually sent on the first of June. Many retailers opt to send a "birthday month" message in lieu of setting up daily triggered emails. This is a perfectly acceptable practice to me, since it gives me more time to take advantage of the offers (these offers typically expire at the end of the month), and I'm sure Miss Manners would agree that it's much better to wish someone an early birthday than a belated one.

Next up, Old Navy sends me birthday shopping with $10 off and a cupcake for good measure. The email includes an online coupon code, as well as a barcode so I can print and use the email for in-store redemption.

PacSun's subject line [...like we'd forget your birthday!] is silly and totally on brand. Their main message is relaxed and takes a completely opposite approach from most highly-urgent birthday messaging by telling me that I should first go party, and then come back anytime within the next 30 days to use my discount.

Estée Lauder gets 10 extra-special birthday points for personalization in the subject line - but I'm not sure how I feel about the primary message in the hero. The quote: "Never forget that you don't lose your potential for beauty as you age" makes sense for a beauty products brand, but it also reminds me that I'm getting old, and could be spun in a more positive light...

This Sur La Table email came into my inbox on June 1st with a special gift - free professional knife sharpening! I'm not 100% sure if this is a birthday email or not, since they don't use the word "birthday" anywhere in the email. This might have been a coincidentally-timed promotion available to everyone during the month of June, but it doesn't hurt to think it was a special birthday gift just for me. (A birthday girl can dream, right?)

Lastly, Baskin-Robbins gave me a coupon for a free ice cream cone, sent five days before the big day itself, and good for five additional days afterward. The email included a lot of personalization and dynamic content housed within a printable coupon embedded within the email. They get 10 birthday points for difficulty.










































That's about all the birthday fun I can fit into one post. I hope these examples have helped inspire you to make your subscribers' birthdays a little more special!

Sent: Wed 4/06/11 2:37 PM
Subject Line: Accept our apology, SHIPPING is on us!

There has been a flurry of site enhancements in the retail space. Companies are optimizing their sites for mobile, adding video, and increasing social media sharing opportunities. Customers benefit from a better experience, and businesses see revenue return on their UI investment.

But sometimes along with upgrades, come growing pains.

Saks Fifth Avenue recently added new features to their site and evidently experienced some issues. See how they turned the situation around with the following apology email and  free shipping offer.

 

I've been thinking about additional, unique ways to get cause-related messages out. Then voila--when I ran out of stamps and visited usps.com to purchase stamps, I saw their new green stamps (click on image). Brilliant. The stamps describe easy ways we can be greener. This gives the action of adhering stamps on envelopes just a little more purpose and viral impact. Order up or support this effort with a like or tweet of this post.

This brought me to the following idea; wouldn't it be interesting if Paperless Post or another ecard company melded the traditional with the unconventional and incorporated cause-related messaging into their digital designs? A simple design element a customer could select and add to their cards? What would the impact be for their business?

I'm obsessed with what's new in online marketing. On a regular basis, I check out my favorite brands' email creative and websites (going to shopbop.com is research), and I also participate in online customer surveys.

Generally, online surveys aren't considered a marketer's sexiest vehicle, but they're clearly one of the most insightful. The online survey format has become streamlined over the years, but the hook to complete a survey is getting really stale. How many times have we seen, "Complete this survey for your chance to win__________?"

But this recent survey invite from Hulu caught my eye (click image to view):

 

Why this matters.

 

Through the invite, Hulu makes a viewer feel:

• Effective - I can help make a difference
• Empowered - I have control over the "prize" and future video ads
• Involved - I've become part of the Hulu ecosystem by providing feedback
• Important - I received a message from the Hulu CEO (with contact email)

 

What's in it for Hulu?

 

Engagement. Hulu has:

• Given advertising clients more information about their product, service, messaging, or advertising
• Provided viewers with a better understanding of a particular advertiser
• Reminded viewers they stream video ads for charitable organizations

 

Win (advertisers) + Win (viewers) + Win (non-profits) = Triple Win (Hulu)

 

Now, how are you bringing sexy back to your online surveys?

 

From: Urban Daddy
Subject Line: UD | Korean Tacos, Swedish Jackets and Famous Movies
Date: Thursday, January 13, 2011

From: Refinery29
Subject Line: The ultimate freeloader's guide to NYC
Date: Thursday, January 13, 2011

From: Daily Candy
Subject Line: NYC - The Weekend Guide
Date: Thursday, January 13, 2011

Since moving to NYC, I have been looking for ways to get to know this gigantic city. So I decided to sign up for local emails from Urban Daddy, Refinery29 and Daily Candy. The result? I love it! Not only do I feel like I am slowly getting "in the know," but I'm spending more to get it! It's opened my eyes to many things that I had no idea were out there: Fitbits & Kimchi taco trucks, the ultimate freeloaders guide, Brazilian plastic footwear...
 

Improve your customer retention program by instating a birthday email!

From: The Container Store
Subject Line: Happy Birthday! We have a special gift for you!
Date: Tuesday, June 1, 2010
The Container Store's email doesn't say what the gift is, you have to go to the store to claim it. Making your gift exclusively available in-store is a good way to drive traffic to your store, but I would prefer if the email said what the gift was.

From: World Market Explorer (Cost Plus)
Subject Line: Guess what? You've earned a Reward!
Date: Sunday, June 13, 2010
Cost Plus's email doesn't say Happy Birthday anywhere in the email or subject line, only on the landing page (thumbs down). Also note that you have to click in order to see your reward, which doesn't bother me and helps drive traffic to the website.

From: Disney Movie Rewards
Subject Line: Amy, Happy Birthday!
Date: Friday, June 18, 2010
My favorite. I was looking forward to this one after getting it last year. Although the movie selection is exactly the same as last year's. Offering an awesome reward like this can do 3 things: 1) Build customer loyalty. If the gift is worth it, you can bet people will stay subscribed to get the same perk next year. Until then, you have a better chance of reeling them in on other offers. 2) Build your List. If I got a great deal on my birthday, I'd tell my friends to sign up for your emails. 3) Increase your conversion rate. By giving a gift, you may be reminding an inactive customer just how great your products are -- and get them buying again.

From: ING Direct
Subject Line: Happy Birthday from ING DIRECT!
Date: Friday, June 18, 2010
I liked how this email gave 3 product suggestions for using my 15% discount.

From: Nature Made
Subject Line: Happy Birthday From Nature Made
Date: Friday, June 18, 2010
I like how Nature Made included my name in the email. They also used the opportunity to cross-promote a product.

From: Piperlime
Subject Line: Happy Birthday! Here's a treat.
Date: Friday, June 18, 2010
The offer on this one wasn't as great as some of the others ($15 off a purchase of $60).

From: Amazon.com & Netflix Subject Lines: Various Date: Friday, November 6, 2009 - Friday, March 12, 2010 If you're looking to increase user engagement & loyalty, personalization is sure to help. My advice: 1) Get creative. Think about what your subscriber would like to receive rather than what you want to send them. The more you know about your subscriber and use that information to target relevant messages, the more likely you are to hook that customer for the long haul. 2) Start a dialogue. Surveys are a great and easy way to find out what your subscribers are experiencing. If they report problems, work to correct them. 3) Seize the opportunity to add ratings and reviews to your website. They're sure to drive more traffic to your website. A good way to collect reviews: after a subscriber purchases a product, wait a few weeks (to give them time to test the product) and send them a friendly reminder to rate the product. Many people will be happy to share their good or bad experience. Two companies that I've noticed do an awesome job at personalization are Amazon.com and Netflix. Here are just a few examples of great personalization emails that they send: Amazon.com: Lets you to create a gift list for friends/family and sends you reminders when their birthdays are approaching. Allows you to be notified via email when a movie is available for order or pre-order, by request. Suggests product suggestions based on your browsing and order history. Netflix: Sends emails asking you to rate your movies. By rating your movie, Netflix can recommend other movies you might enjoy, based on what other users enjoyed who also liked that movie. And what's really awesome, is that they allow you to rate the movie with one-click in the email itself, simple & time-saving. Notifies you which movie has shipped and when you can expect it. Asks you when you mailed your movie to determine if they are sending/receiving movies in a timely manner according to their policy.

From: Cubs.com Shop
Subject Line: Get started early! Shop our Gift Finder
Date: Tuesday, November 3, 2009

During baseball season Cubs.com will send quite a few emails to allow the ultimate fan the opportunity to purchase apparel, tickets and gifts. They also let the fan know about changes to the roster as well as the latest stats. With the Cubs clearly not making it to the World Series for yet another year (sigh), I found it delightful and yet painful to open this email I received today. It is holiday season, and I know that regardless of the Cubs' performance my father will enjoy any holiday gift smothered in Cubs logos. Who can resist the underdog spirit of the little bear?

After spending a few seconds scrolling down the email I see they have a Gift Finder, which peaks my interest and makes me click their CTA of Shop Now! The website and the email supply me with the same visual image to assure me that I am being led in the right direction.

I am new to using Gift Finder this season and am excited to see what products get pulled and how. Kudos to Cubs and MLB for creating the Gift Finder and letting me know this technology exists via email. Typically I fall into a rut of only viewing Tees or Caps, but now a bunch of additional accessory items have been brought to my attention. The Gift Finder allows you to narrow down products based on recipient, price, category and personality. Now all I need to figure out is if my ol' man should be considered The Rookie Sensation or The Home Team Manager.

From: David's Bridal (co-brand with Shutterfly)
Subject Line: Congratulations! Our Gift to You
Date: Tuesday, July 21, 2009

From: Disney Movie Rewards
Subject Line: Amy, Happy Birthday! 25 Bonus Points Inside
Date: Thursday, June 18, 2009

From: Starbucks.com
Subject Line: Let Us Treat You To a Free Pastry
Date: Monday, July 20, 2009

A sure way to drive people to your website: offer an incentive!
Here are 3 emails that offered me a free gift, no strings attached!

Four reasons why giving something for free can make you money:

1. Great for Customer Loyalty
I wouldn't consider unsubscribing knowing I might have another gift coming in the future. I'll also hesitate to leave an email unread per chance I may be missing another great deal.

2. Helps to Grow Your Subscriber List
Immediately after getting my gift and seeing it wasn't a scam, I was enticed to encourage others to sign up so they can get their free gift (which I did, of course - who wouldn't want a free movie?!)

3. Provides Cross Promotion Opportunities
Along the way to getting my free gift, there is the opportunity to cross promote other products and/or get me accustomed to browsing the website.

4. Get People Hooked
Give me a sample of your product, I may just find that I can't live without it!

From: Victoria's Secret
Subject Line: Thank you for your recent purchase
Date: June 20, 2009

Isn't it fun when you rediscover a brand? Take Victoria's Secret, for instance. Lately, my gal pals and I can't get enough of this iconic brand. And it has nothing to do with sexy little underthings, either. (Sorry guys.) We're all about the dresses, tanks, tshirts and swimsuits featured in the summer catalog. One of my girlfriends went so far as to say that the only promotional emails she opens anymore are the ones from Victoria's Secret!

I'm not sure if they revamped their email marketing and merchandise, or what. But, whatever they're doing, it's working. What sealed the deal for me was this simple "thank you for your purchase" email. Instead of combining it with my order confirmation, they sent a separate email to just say...thanks. I loved it. Plus they gave me free shipping on my next order of $100 or more. I already have three dresses picked out.

From: Sirius
Subject Line: Talk to Us Request
Date: December 10, 2008

From: Tim Westergren at Pandora
Subject Line: Welcome to Pandora
Date: December 9, 2008

While I do love all things girlie (beauty, clothing, shoes), I think it's important to take a look at some OTHER industries, to see what they're doing with email. Recently, I ventured into the world of Sirius and Pandora, and I really like the way they communicate with their customers in their triggered emails.

The first email is one I received from Sirius. While it's far from flashy, the sentiment made me read it to the end. The back-story is that I filled out an online form asking about a song that was played on The Coffee House. Within 24 hours, I got this nice note from them telling me they were on it. They also let me know that they value my feedback and that they're dedicated to customer care. And it didn't come across as lip service. I think they actually mean it. The two suggestions I'd make as far as copy goes is to change the "from" field to Sirius Customer Care and to make some of the text clickable so I can easily get back to the site. They might want to think about adding in a logo to align it with the brand, too.

The second email is the welcome message I got from Pandora after creating an account. Again, nothing too fancy, but engaging all the same. It made me feel a part of the community, like I belong in this really cool music world where I get to create my own radio stations. (I LOVE PANDORA! Totally addicted.) I'll be interested to see what the next round of emails looks like from them. I'm hoping they do a welcome series that tells me how to amp up my Pandora experience.

From: Michael Stars
Subject Line: New Breast Cancer Charity Tee
Date: October 7, 2008

In the last few weeks, I've received quite a few emails from retailers with a Breast Cancer Awareness message as the main story. This really got me thinking about the whole idea of cause-related marketing and whether or not it can actually drive sales.

Lo and behold, I received a blog posting on October 15th from MediaPost.com that talked about this very topic. Here's a slice of the story:

According to the 2008 Cone/Duke University Behavioral Cause Study, released recently by Cone and Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, cause-related marketing can exponentially increase sales, in one case as much as 74%, resulting in millions of dollars in potential revenue for brands.

Gets you thinking, doesn't it? What if every company found a way to include a cause-related message once a month, rather than once a year? In addition to driving sales through the roof, just imagine all the good we could do. Food for thought.

Read the full blog posting on cause-related marketing at MediaPost.com.

This post is a follow-up to my Anthropologie Sign-Up Mix-Up post at the beginning of August. I posted that particular blog on August 8th and a little over a week later I received a package from Anthropologie in the mail. I didn't remember ordering anything offline so I was a little perplexed. I opened up the package and much to my surprise, inside there was a very nice note and a gift card apologizing for the sign-up mix-up with their email newsletter. Now that is customer service people! :)

For those that are curious, here's what I bought: Satu Eau De Parfum. Smells delicious! Thanks Allison!

From: Netflix
Subject Line: We're Sorry DVD Shipments Are Delayed
Date: August 14, 2008

From: Netflix
Subject Line: We're sorry your DVD shipment was delayed
Date: August 15, 2008

No, you're not seeing double. I received these back-to-back customer service emails from Netflix last week. Seems their shipping system was on the fritz, so they took action by stepping up to the inbox not once, but twice to simply say sorry.

At a time when prices are rising and savvy consumers are fine-tuning their buyers' intuition, it's in every retailer's and service provider's best interest to upgrade their personal, one-to-one interactions with their customers. Taking a few extra minutes and a few extra dollars to keep 'em feeling attended to is well worth the investment. IMHO.

My only copy critique is that they should have switched up the subject lines a tad more. I almost didn't open the second email because I thought it was simply a repeat. Lo and behold, it spelled out specifically what Netflix was doing to make up for the mishap; they were giving me a 15% credit on my bill! Pretty major, right? Something like "We're giving you a 15% credit for DVD delay" as the subject line would have done the trick and let me know that it was a follow-up to the first email.

One more little edit is about the casing in the subject lines; one used headline casing and the other used sentence casing. I've never seen any stats on one being better than the other, so it's more of a style consistency thing. Basically, pick a side and plant your feet.

From: Tully's Email Club
Subject Line: Happy Birthday from Tully's
Date: Sunday, July 13, 2008

From: Sephora Beauty Insider
Subject Line: A Birthday Surprise from Sephora
Date: Monday, July 14, 2008

Birthday emails are low-hanging fruit: they are one of the first triggered mails we pick from the lifecycle touchpoint opportunity tree. Here are two from Tully's and Sephora. Sephora's fruit tastes sweeter. Tully's requires me to purchase something in order to enjoy my gift. Tully's also forgot to update their template; it still reads 2007. (A common pitfall we all have to watch for with triggered mails! Review them at least quarterly to identify branches that are no longer evergreen.)

Vanilla Cupcake Bath & Shower Bubbles sound delicious. I love cupcakes. I'm interested in the idea of a birthday registry, although I would never actually create one. I'd have to agree with Miss Manners on the idea of birthday registries; they are vulgar.