Recently in Multiple Messages Category

From: Zipcar
Subject Line: Zipcar Satisfaction Survey
Date: Monday, August 22, 2011

From: Decipher Research
Subject Line: Virgin America invites you to share your thoughts about your recent flight!
Date: Wednesday, August 17, 2011

From: Decipher Research
Subject Line: REMINDER: Virgin America invites you to share your thoughts about your recent flight!
Date: Monday, August 22, 2011

While I appreciate the idea behind Customer Survey emails, I find myself annoyed when I receive them if they aren't well-executed. These two examples from Virgin and Zipcar recently came to my inbox, and while they are both super-simple in execution (plain text and HTML light respectively), the tones are very different from each other, and only the Zipcar email compelled me to follow through. (For professional purposes I actually attempted both surveys, but more on that later)

The email on Virgin's behalf sent by Decipher Research could take a few lessons from the Zipcar email.

• The sender: Zipcar's email was sent by Zipcar vs. Virgin's email was sent by a 3rd party, which feels slightly off-putting to me. I know, trust and respect Virgin as a brand, but previously knew nothing about Decipher Research... and the email was signed off by "Hall & Partners, research partner of Virgin America". Again, I don't know them. (For the record, I am a huge fan of Virgin's regular email program)
  
• The subject lines: Zipcar Satisfaction Survey vs. Virgin America invites you... Zipcar's is short and very to the point. Virgin's is longer than it needs to be, and by using the the word "invites", I got my hopes up that there might be some sort of offer or incentive. Also the REMINDER in all caps for the second send bothered me... Don't shout at me! Why didn't you take the hint I don't want to complete your survey the first time?!
  
• The greeting: Dear Customer vs, Hi Lyla. I appreciate the personal greeting from Zipcar. 
• The general tone and content: all business for Virgin vs. casual and friendly for Zipcar. Again, the bolding and underlining in the Virgin email seems overly strong.
  

As for the survey itself, my feelings towards the emails carry over to the the overall experience. The Zipcar email requests that I take the "2-minute" survey which links to the Zipcar site. Of their 4 total questions 3 were multiple choice, so it is truly a speedy experience. The Virgin survey claims to be 5 minutes. I won't know for sure how long it would have actually taken for me to fully complete, because I got annoyed with it for not allowing me to skip answers, and having a forceful tone about it. Additionally, the first 10 questions that I did answer before I gave up, were all about information that I assume Virgin would have about me anyways based on my flight bookings.

Both bottom line is, if you are going to ask your customers to take a survey, make sure that you keep it simple, and be cautious with your tone. Ideally, there should be some sort of incentive, such as a driving or flight credit, but at the very least provide your customers with a survey taking experience that is easy and pleasurable.

From: AT&T U-verse
Subject Line: AT&T U-verse Order Confirmation
Date: Tuesday, January 25, 2011

From: AT&T U-verse
Subject Line: Get to know your AT&T U-verse
Date: Monday, January 31, 2011

From: AT&T U-verse
Subject Line: AT&T U-verse: one day away
Date: Monday, February 7, 2011

I received a surprisingly catchy email confirmation from AT&T U-verse within 24 hours of signing up. A week later, I got an email encouraging me to become acquainted with the AT&T U-verse services and a "one day away from installation" email prior to the installation.

 

The design and layout for the most part are eye-catching and visually appealing. The concept of the AT&T U-verse email transactional series is nice. I liked their clever headline "Confirmed for Liftoff" for the confirmation email. They reinforced this concept of "taking off" with hot air balloon images and illustrations throughout the series.

 

There are some formatting issues, however, in the details section of the confirmation email where tables are not aligning. I confirmed this by opening it in different email clients to see if the issue would be recreated.

 

I also think integrating the "Your order details" closer to the top left section of the email would be more effective because it would deliver the most important information upfront. Since I was expecting this email, it might not have been as crucial but in a land of tens to hundreds of daily emails, making it easy for customers to find out the reason for the email and any important information is key to a successful email campaign.

 

Overall, the concept came through in the emails and built anticipation in my mind for their services.

From: Harry & David
Subject Lines:
1.) FREE as FREE Can Be: Christmas Delivery for ALL Gifts + Bonus Offer Inside!
2.) JOHANNA, We'll give you FREE Christmas Delivery + 20% OFF Fruit-of-the-Month Club gifts!
Date: Wednesday, December 16, 2009



The urgency of 'hurry' is cluttering up my inbox these days. Everyone is fighting for my attention, even emails from my own mother are getting lost in the shuffle. Some retailers are getting a little aggressive in the inbox and I'm not sure if I'm a fan or not...but I'm more likely to look at the messages they are sending me. In the case of Harry & David, I'm actually purchasing thanks to the repetitive messaging. Harry & David always has beautiful emails, simply based on photography of fruits and chocolates. My mouth might be watering just a little thinking 'bout their pears. Recently though, Harry & David's urgency -- HURRY, FREE, JOHANNA! -- is overwhelming my inbox more than most other retailers. In one given day I received four different emails from Harry & David with all messages in caps.

At first the urgency is slightly annoying, but then the shopper in me takes over and I can't miss out on this big savings taking place TODAY ONLY! Also, they have "Blitzen Deals" that last 24 hours on specific products. I flipped through the messages, visited the website, and even purchased a few items for friends as holiday gifts. So, even though I'm annoyed, you win Harry & David. You're like a nagging friend reminding me to do something good for others. THANKS! 


From: Brookstone
Subject Lines:
1) FREE Sitewide shipping with $95 minimum purchase
2) Hurry, only 4 hours left for FREE Sitewide Shipping at $90!
3) Deal of the Day: $20 OFF our Men's Fleece Heated Vest plus Sitewide FREE SHIPPING!
4) Discover this year's hottest holiday gifts plus FREE Sitewide Shipping!
Date: Tuesday, December 15, 2009



Brookstone has stepped into one of the most common holiday traps: over-sending.

I have received up to four emails in one day from Brookstone, and an average of more than one email per day overall. While a small handful of people may enjoy getting blasted by that many emails, I think you're more likely to lose subscribers by over-sending.

Make sure if you're sending more than one email a day that the messages differ enough to make it worthwhile. On 12/15 I received two postcard-style emails, a deal of the day AND a general product collage email. The two postcard emails were essentially the same: Free Shipping on orders over $95, and the other, Free Shipping on orders over $90 - baffling. The other two emails mentioned the free shipping offer again in a top banner. Were four emails really needed for the free shipping promo? I doubt it.

If you're not sure how many emails to send, I would suggest creating a "my account" option where the subscriber can login and choose the amount (and type) of emails they would like to receive. If you already have an option like this on your website, make sure to include a link in each email to "change my email preferences." If that's too much work (on you or your subscribers), place a survey at the bottom of each email with a simple one-click answer.
EXAMPLE: How many emails would you like to receive from us?
[ ] More than two per week  [ ] Two per week  [ ] One per week
[ ] Bi-weekly  [ ] One per month

If you give the customer a chance to control how many emails they receive, you'll be more likely to retain your subscribers by giving them a program that fits their personal needs.

From: Restoration Hardware
Subject Line: Introducing the Mayfair Secretary Trunk
Date: Wenedsday, September 16, 2009

From: Restoration Hardware
Subject Line: Introducing the Oviedo Chaise
Date: Wenedsday, September 30, 2009




I found out from reading the apartment therapy blog that Restoration Hardware has recently gone through a major "overhaul" and according to the blog, RH has "Roared Back". I'm sure that the marketing dept for RH must be happy to be receiving such praise from well-respected design blogs, however IMHO, I must say that I think internally, they are missing a giant opportunity here! This is the perfect time to be unrestrained in terms of your email campaigns, and go ahead and toot your own horn! Tell us why you are new and exciting! Create a little fanfare! Even their website shows no indication that there's anything special happening - not even on the "Letter From Our CEO" link (another wasted opportunity - instead of telling us anything about the changes, it's some boring musings about a Thomas Edison quote).

Restoration Hardware has some very compelling new products that they have been featuring in their emails lately, such as the Mayfair Secretary Trunk and Oviedo Chaise. To me, the new products are very unique, but the emails are still kinda blah.

In short, I never would have known about the RH transformation, had I not been found out about it independently. To see how I have have done things differently, check out my blog post from yesterday about Ann Taylor's most excellent email campaign introducing "The New Ann"... See, it is possible to appear classy, yet give yourself a little pat on the back at the same time.  ;)

From: Abercrombie & Fitch
Subject Line: Young and Sexy, Vintage Hoodies
Date: Sunday, September 13, 2009

From: Abercrombie & Fitch
Subject Line: Young and Sexy, Vintage Hoodies
Date: Thursday, September 24, 2009

From: Abercrombie & Fitch
Subject Line: Young and Sexy, Vintage Hoodies
Date: Thursday, October 1, 2009

What? Just in case I missed it the first and second times?

I know A&F's Emails seem to be the favorite "whipping boy" of the Smith-Harmon bloggers, and I'm loathe to just jump on the pile, but c'mon already!! I guess Abercrombie's marketing style is to beat you over the head with it... For this "Vintage Hoody", I've received 3 emails (so far... who knows? Maybe I'll get more!). For their "Destroyed Jeans" 5, and "Preppy Plaid Shirts" 9(!?!). And, furthermore... they were too lazy to even mix it up a little with the Subject Line!

Just so I say one nice thing though, as previously commented by fellow Smith-Harmon blogger, Alex Madison, I do like that they being creative and doing the horizontal format.

I've always been blown away by the way designers bring copy to life. The way they think is completely different than how I think. I think in black-and-white word docs; they think in color, color, color. Bringing these two ways of thinking together is what creates the perfect email.

Coach put a fresh step in my inbox with this newsletter. At first glance, I loved the way they gave the product silos in the hero some breathing space by not confining them to a box. That said, it also felt like too many tricks in one bag. To get the real scoop from a designer's POV, I enlisted Amy Hamilton, SH designer extraordinaire, to help me out with the 360-degree look at the creative.

Here's what she said:

My first thought when seeing this email was, WOW COOL, this is different! I immediately noticed the overlapping text, colors and imagery. Coach is definitely creating a style here.

However, after the initial WOW factor wore off, my eye wasn't sure where to go. The hero copy and right rail copy seemed to fight each other, and the lower half of the email felt a bit cluttered. The call to actions also fell pretty far below the fold. While this email has some nice and inventive approaches, I think it could use a little more focus. I would suggest:

• Move a call-to-action above the fold
• Create a primary message focus by expanding the hero image through to the left rail, or by bringing down the font size in the left rail so it's more obvious that it's a secondary message
• Use a unified headline and copy treatment (as well as HTML text for body copy)
• Clean up a bit of the cluttered imagery at the bottom

From: Saks Fifth Avenue
Subject Line: Harper's Bazaar picks Spring's best only at Saks
Date: September 23

On the heels of Fashion Week, this email couldn't be more perfectly timed or perfectly designed. I love that they avoided the boxy grid and messed things up a little. It has a fluidity to it that feels fresh. The copy is short and compelling, the call-to-action is clear, and the way they handled the partnership aspect of this email is really classy. Love how the Harper's Bazaar logo looks like it's actually part of the headline vs. being tacked on in an empty space. The secondary bonus message works really well in this email, too. Rather than go with a traditional boxed-in promo, they added some grit with a torn piece of paper.

Best of all, the landing page didn't disappoint. It was clean and compelling, highlighting the top five trends and giving me Glenda's take on each. And even though we're headed into fall, I could still shop each spring trend if I was so inclined.

Overall, Saks has definitely stepped up their email game by mixing product-focused messages with dedicated emails featuring editorial content, as you can see here and here. As a copywriter who believes there is always a story to tell beyond Free Shipping and SALE, I love it. 

From: Saks Fifth Avenue Subject Line: Boots, Boots, and more Boots Date: September 19	From: Piperlime Subject Line: The season's "it" boot + the top 10 fall trends Date: September 15	From: Nordstrom Subject Line: Hot Boots Under $100 | Last Chance for Triple Rewards Points (Details Inside) Date: September 19
The Saks subject line pretty much sums it up: Boots, Boots, and more Boots. About this time every year, my inbox is inundated with the must-have boots of the season. Just check out these three emails I received in the last week. Hands down, my favorite is the Saks email. It's the only one that gives me a full-on view of the breadth of their boot collection. And I really like the fact that they kept it pure, without a secondary message for this one. Piperlime always has great copy and photography, so I kinda wish they'd shown more of an assortment for this email. Instead, they focused on the IT style of the season: the over-the-knee boot. I'm sure they'll showcase more boots in the weeks to come, but it'd be a shopper's dream come true to see all those pretty boots in one email. The secondary message is good in theory, but the execution is a little confusing. The landing page is really cool, so I wish they'd turned this message into a dedicated email and done it a bit more justice. I rarely get excited about Nordstrom emails, and this one is no exception. It doesn't feel fresh and exciting to me. It feels like a department store email. And that's a bummer. The boots themselves are cool, but they feel like the product shot feels dark and dreary. Maybe it's rich in print, but not so much here. The secondary stories are buzz-worthy, but again, they fall flat in execution. They don't inspire me to click through. I want them to inspire me. But they just don't. So, who wins the battle of the boots this year? For me, it's all about Piperlime. I have 5 pairs waiting in my shopping cart. Time to check out, folks.

From: Bluefly
Subject Lines: Several
Date: Monday, September 14, 2009

I love Bluefly, but check out the frequency of their emails.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009 - Coats To FALL For!
Wednesday, August 26, 2009 - Happy Feet! SHOE SALE - Extra 10% off

Thursday, August 27, 2009 - Step On It! SHOE SALE - Now Up To 70% Off
Thursday, August 27, 2009 - Go Glam! NEW Evening Dresses by Vera Wang & Badgley Mischka

Tuesday, September 8, 2009 - Exclusive Preview: Be the First to Shop our New Fall 2009 Collection...
Tuesday, September 8, 2009 - We've Got Leggings (And Killer Heels) + Preview Our NEW Fall Collection!

Well, you start to get the idea and it didn't let up. On September 12th the frequency went to one a day. I have been a Bluefly subscriber since 2003 and I remember getting about two emails a week. Notice the subject lines getting longer as well, with one up to 72 characters. Two emails a day and even one a day is too much based on best practices. I'm exhausted, are you?

From: The Daily Sip
Subject Line: Daily Sip: Frick-in' Dry Creek
Date: August 17, 2009

Taking a cue from Daily Candy's playbook, The Daily Sip by bottlenotes focuses on one big feature per email. Short on the sass that Daily Candy is known for, but long on copy just the same, the emails combine a swirl of education with a splash of salesmanship. They bottle each one as a "daily dose of wine knowledge" and they've created a pretty tight editorial calendar around that direction, with five main content types per week: Tips & Tools, Featured Winemaker, Chef Notes, Wine of the Week, and Regional Spotlight.

Overall, I'm really digging these emails and read at least three out of the five I get each week. The tone is friendly and casual, not corporate, which is a definite bonus. That said, I think there are also some things they could do to help their subscribers interact more with the bottlenotes site, which appears to be big on community. (Their tagline is Good People. Great Wine.)

1. A top nav would be a great start. My suggestion: Wines, People, Notes, Clubs...at the minimum.
2. Including a few secondary messages that drive people to the site would be key, i.e. a small promo similar to what's on their homepage to entice people to write notes about the wines they're drinking now. It's a no-brainer; the promo is already built!
3. From an inbox perspective, I'd also change the "from" field to bottlenotes vs. The Daily Sip. They have "Daily Sip" in the subject line itself, so use the opportunity to promote the name bottlenotes in addition to The Daily Sip.

Lastly, I'm the first to admit that I'm not a designer, but I find the right rail ads to be disjointed from the rest of the creative. If it's a bottlenotes promotion, then the design seems to work, but when it's an ad for grass-fed beef...well...it just doesn't, IMHO. If they turned the ad into editorial content, then they could have more control of the creative. They could also connect the ad to the feature story. So if it's about a killer red wine, then reference that the grass-fed beef would be the perfect food pairing. Otherwise, I'm not sure I get why it's there. Any other design suggestions here?

I lied. One last thing. I was a bit bummed by the experience of clicking on the "past sips" button. I was hoping to land in a newsletter archive, but instead ended up on a subscribe to The Daily Sip landing page. Since I already subscribe, this seemed like a miss.

From: iTunes Store
Subject Line: Your Season Pass for Top Chef Masters, Season 1
Date: Wednesday, July 8, 2009

From: iTunes Store
Subject Line: New episode for download - Top Chef Masters, Season 1
Date: Thursday, July 23, 2009









I recently had the misfortune to have a back spasm that put me completely out of commission for a week +. On the bright side, I have the best mother-in-law in the whole wide world: she got on the first plane she could catch from San Diego to San Francisco and picked up my 2 kids, then took them with her for 10 days! (Which in turn, enabled me to knock back the Vicodin, and catch up on some TV)... which brings me to my post:

We haven't had a TV for years now... not because we are snobs or anything, we just don't have the space (or much time to watch it for that matter). For years, our only TV watching options had been to either invite ourselves over to somebody's house or wait for our favorite shows to come out on DVD some time after the end of the season. Nowadays there are many more options: Netflix has lots of TV (and other) content that can viewed instantly, as do most of the major networks and Hulu (although the download quality leaves something to be desired).

...And then there's The iTunes Store! Most of the shows that I'm interested in watching are available there and the download quality, while not perfect, seems much better than the above mentioned options. The full episodes become available when they are aired on their respective networks. Plus, I really liked the Thank You message The iTunes Store sent and that there have been follow-up emails when new episodes of (my show of choice) Top Chef Masters have become available. My only minor complaint is concerning the Thank You email and its "Other TV Shows" recommendations for me: they haven't quite figured out my tastes yet.  :)

From: Neiman Marcus
Subject Line: Free $100 NM GIFT CARD with ONLINE purchase + Free gift wrap & Free online shipping
Date: December 8, 2008

I'd been putting off my inbox cleaning for too long, so I spent some time this weekend filing over a thousand emails away into my archive library. After first sorting all my emails by the "from" field, I noticed something very interesting. Without realizing it, I've been receiving an email a day from Neiman Marcus since at least October and maybe even longer! I was shocked. At first I thought that maybe I'd missed checking a preference box or something when I signed up for emails originally, but when I tested my theory with a different email address, I was never given a frequency option. So, this leads me to believe that Neiman's default is to send an email a day to subscribers. Interesting. Then, lo and behold, when I clicked unsubscribe, I was given the option of getting a weekly email vs. a daily email. I did choose the weekly option rather than unsubscribe from all, but I have to wonder how many other people unsubscribe all together out of sheer frustration at receiving so many messages. I'd love to know if this everyday delivery strategy is working for Neiman's. I would think that the unsubscribe rate would be HUGE, but then again, I'm not exactly Neiman's target customer. Let's open up the discussion: What are your thoughts on email frequency?

From: Ann Taylor
Subject Line: Our Top Picks for February and The Spring Celebrations Preview
Date: Wednesday, January 31, 2007

What to do when one message won't drive enough revenue? Build out two! Ann Taylor has been doing this for a while now, and lately I'm noticing a lot of folks following suit. Basically, the MO is this: grow your submessage into a full-size campaign. When you've got two not-too-strong stories - especially when they're no-promo (read: no sale or free ship) - build them out and stack them up as two full-size creatives (they'll have to share the subject line) and hope that combined they drive some decent dollars.

Unrelated but have to say it: Ann Taylor, you just featured that image of the gal in the jacket on Tuesday! Ah, someone did notice after all...

From: Lord_&_Taylor@LordAndTaylor.com
Subject Line: It's Time To Get Dad A Great Gift
Date: Tuesday, June 6, 2006

I am all for the strategic use of submessagery, but I have my doubts about the efficacy of an email campaign made up entirely of submessages. Here, it looks like Lord & Taylor just took a bunch of banner ads and stacked them on top of each other. Without a clear main message, customers don't know where to focus, and as a result they don't focus anywhere. The lack of a clear call-to-action - there are no underlines, carrots, or any other indications of clickability - only adds to the confusion.

Finally, I highly recommend including a prominent logo and a consistent set of navigation items at the top of every email campaign. The logo identifies the brand, while the navigation items (such as "shop", "gifts" and "sale") offer customers several constant clear points of entry to the website.

From: Janie and Jack
Subject Line: Fresh Casual Collections Deliver
Date: Tuesday, April 11, 2006

From: babygap.com
Subject Line: New Outfits for Sunny Days
Date: Tuesday, April 11, 2006

From: Gymboree
Subject Line: New Island Styles and Don't Forget Rise & Shine!
Date: Thursday, April 13, 2006

In contrast to the campaigns I discussed on April 11, all three of these messages include fun, subtle graphical treatments that don't obscure the product offerings.

Comparatively speaking, I love the refinement and simplicity of the Janie and Jack message. Gap and Gymboree offer up a few more options with three submessages each. Which is more effective: Gap's new vertical or Gymboree's more traditional horizontal submessage placement? I like the immediacy of seeing Gap's submessages directly to the right of the main message, no scrolling required, but do they add too much visual clutter, and do they almost feel like Google sidebar ads? Is this the start of an industry-wide no-scrolling-required submessage placement trend?

From: Lands' End
Subject Line: The Perfect Packing List
Date: Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Good Lord! While I am a fan of the well-executed multiple-message campaign, particularly when it combines full-price items with sales or special offers, this Land's End multi-message EDM is an absolute monstrosity!

While I appreciate the idea behind packing the customer's suitcase, which was done nicely by J.Crew last year, this email sets off a sensory overload with at least seven different messages, vibrant colors and energetic graphical elements. Ieee! Plus, Land's End flatters itself if they believe anyone will read the novel-length copy in a less-than-easy-to-read font. Hel-lo!? Next time try sending this as four separate EDMs, or at least chill out on the creative execution.

Question for an email delivery specialist: Why do Land's End (as well as Lord and Taylor) EDMs appear in my inbox with an attachment icon next to them, and how does this affect deliverability?

From: Ann Taylor
Subject Line: The New Collection is Here, with an Exclusive Offer
Date: Tuseday, February 28, 2006

This is a such nice, clean creative execution. It has a light, refined quality that really says "Ann Taylor in the Spring." I think it captures the overall brand cleanup that's been happening recently at Ann Taylor.

On a separate note, since January, Ann Taylor has been doing a notable job executing multiple messages within each campaign. This email manages to address the Spring Collection, a Shoe Sale AND an Online Sale without overwhelming viewers. A rare achievement. Bravo, Ann.

One recommendation for improvement: the New Arrivals main message features the PETITE call-to-action so prominently, we loose sight of the opportunity to click through to the main collection. The two call-outs should really be given equal weight.

From: Eddie Bauer
Subject Line: Guaranteed Christmas Delivery With No Rush Charges.
Date: Monday, December 19, 2005

Eddie's pushing five different messages simultaneously, with very little creative distinction between each, employing the same colors, fonts, and even the same red ribbon treatment. Reads like a rush job to me. The email browser incompatibility (in the out-of-alignment red promo) confirms it.

From: American Eagle Outfitters
Subject Line: Shop early and take 15% off
Date: Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Proof that it's possible deliver multiple messages in one EDM without confusing customers, American Eagle Outfitters gives us a product-specific sale, a one-day-only sale, an in-store sale, a sweepstakes offer AND a gift guide without making our eyes cross.
Love the "Get Together" seal they employed throughout the season, as well as the wood texture used in this particular message.