For the record, I am not a Yankees fan. In fact, I’d be willing to go there and say I’m a Yankee hater. I’m an Orioles fan (as painful as it is to admit that)–and without Jeffrey Maier, Jeter’s nothing… but that’s my opinion as an O’s fan with a grudge.

Regardless of my fandom, Sports Authority nailed one of the key components of a good email: Timing.

The Yankees won the World Series Wednesday night. Within two hours of the end of the game, I received this:

Some quick remarks on this before I leave you:

• Preheader is perfect for the message. On target with the subject line, which was “New York Yankees are 2009 World Champions – Get Your Gear at Sports Authority.”
• The subject line is a bit long in my opinion, but certainly is timely, given that they became champions a mere hour or so beforehand.
• One solid message to convey. No real confusion. Particularly “above the fold.”
• I would have preferred the “Shop Now” be bigger and the “Click here to find a store near you” be a bit smaller.
• Actually kind of like the Facebook logo with “Become a fan” in the top right corner. Though the header may be a bit big in general.

I wonder if they had a version ready to go for the Phillies? I wonder if it’s like the shirts for the losing team at the Super Bowl? Do they send that message template to some less fortunate email marketer to use?

I kid. But in seriousness, though I hate the Yankees, I think this email message is pretty solid.

I was at Lord & Taylor a while back to buy a shirt. During checkout, the associate asked me if I’d like to join their email list (good job!). When I said “yes” she was able to put my information directly into the computer while ringing me up, and asked me to confirm that she’d spelled it correctly (also good).

She also informed me that it might take a while for the emails to start (less good, and weird because she already had my information electronically – it wasn’t like I filled out a paper signup).

I got my first email from them about a week and a half later…

… And A Week After That Email, I Got My Welcome Email.

Here’s a snapshot of my emails from Lord & Taylor so far:

Note the dates on the first two emails (at the bottom of the image). Lord & Taylor sent me a “regular” promotional email before I ever got a welcome email or any other initial messaging.

The Intended Welcome Email

Here’s their welcome email:

It’s a good welcome email on the whole (except for relying on an image for the main body of the email – I would have preferred more HTML text). It includes a discount, sets some expectations, and nudges me back toward the website.

It’s just… late. By the time I got it, I’d already gotten this:

What’s extra funny/wrong about this is that the discount in the first email I got (25%) was larger than the one in the welcome email (15%). This would have been perfectly fine had I gotten the welcome email first. But getting the emails in the order I did, and seeing shrinking discounts, makes me feel somewhat less welcome/special (not to mention glad I didn’t get suckered into only getting 15% off).

I’m hoping this was a simple technical glitch, but whatever it was it sure needs to be fixed.

There is little debate about relevancy being as important aspect of email marketing. Yet, time and time again, I’m fooled into thinking that all of the email I receive is relevant to me. Yesterday, I was disappointed again.

I am a Barenaked Ladies fan. A few years ago when I found out they were coming to town, tickets had already gone on sale and I was late to the party, I opted-in to receive their emails. Imagine my delight when I got an email with the subject line “Upcoming BNL Dates and Yukon Cornelius!” Surely BNL was coming back to Florida!

Wrong.

This email was promoting shows in Worcester, MA, Indianapolis, IN, Vail, CO and Biloxi, MS. I’m sure the fans in those areas are thrilled that The Barenaked Ladies are playing in their area, but for me, with the closest location more than an eight hour drive, the email left me little more than annoyed. Imagine what some simple segmentation could have done for an email like this.

Another critical aspect of email marketing is design. I had a lot of hope for this email when I opened it. The header caught my eye and got me excited about the content. The only problem I had with the header was that I had the urge to click it. That’s a good thing right? Click on logo, click on the faces, I wanted it to take me somewhere!

But there was nowhere to go. The header wasn’t linked. I can’t help but wonder how many others opened the email and wanted to click it. It was a missed opportunity to drive traffic to the BNL site. And those faces! Even after knowing that they’re not clickable, I still want to click on them! On the website clicking on a face brings you to that band member’s blog. It would have been a great idea to tie those links into the email also.

Once I scrolled past the header the email was all text with links to purchase tickets for concerts I won’t be attending. Boring. The calls to action were clear, it just wasn’t for me. What could have been, should have been, an awesome email, fell on it’s face rather quickly.

As we receive email, it is sometimes customary for organizations to put into the footer who they are sending the email too.  However, in a recent email sent to me from Kirklands, it appears as if they are sending it to somebody@kirklands.com and not me.

Funny…but not as I think someone forgot to write the code right.

Check it out

Technorati Tags:
email, email marketing, email strategy, funny email, email footer, retail email, kirklands.com

Marketing emails are inherently prone to mistakes.  Why?  The people who create and manage them aren’t perfect.  We are only human after all.  However, sending an apology email to your target takes courage and timeliness.  It doesn’t have to be a long, drawn out explanation or even a grand mea culpa but it does need to convey what the original mistake was and capture folks’ attention.  Otherwise you might be leaving your recipients wondering what exactly was wrong with the original email and why they should care – negatively compounding issues.

Brookstone did this just recently.  There’s no epitath explaining the mistake they previously made.  There’s no cute reworked image or creative.  Only thing that would let me know this is a corrected resend is the subject line.  The one thing that stands out here to me as keeping it unremarkable, though, is the fact there’s not enough information.  Granted, you don’t want to beat yourself up in your recipients’ eyes but this email has me wondering what was so horrendous about the previous email they had to do an entire resend.  And, had it not been that I’d preview scrolled through my emails, I would’ve missed it entirely. The subject line is cute but not what I would expect from a major retailer (online, brick and mortar or a blending of the two).  The entire email is pretty long so I’m saving white space, but the content is exactly the same.  Seems there should’ve been a bit more thought put into making this “pop” and drawing me in to check out the email again.  As it stands now, I realize they goofed and appreciate their attempting to make up for it, but am unmotivated by their singularly changed subject line to do anything beyond blog about it here.

Chris Wheeler
Director of Deliverability
Bronto

For those of you who do not know Dylan’s Candy Bar, it’s a growing retail candy chain that was founded by Dylan Lauren, daughter of famed fashion designer Ralph Lauren. They have a simple but unique business model; sell candy at high prices.

They have two locations here in Orlando and several others across the US. Both Orlando locations are located in major tourist shopping malls; one is a standalone shop while the other is much smaller and embedded into a large upscale retailer. They also sell candy online.

After visiting both shops I was not altogether surprised that they didn’t ask me for my email address via the retail clerk, drop box, or kiosk. After all the practice is not yet universally adopted (even though there are new data capture technologies built for this purpose) but considering that they also sell candy online they really should test it.

So I visited their website and found a prominently displayed navigational item “Sugar Rush Email Sign up”. Good.

At the sign up page Dylan’s gave me some an idea of what I could expect out of my subscription; “Sneak peeks, Great gift ideas, Exclusive discounts, Free shipping”. Again this is good; however, I would also would have liked to have seen what I can expect in regard to frequency.

Here’s Dylan’s sign up page.

Upon submission I was redirect to a traditionally boring confirmation page, which again told me what I should expect, such as discounts. However, the confirmation page would have been a great opportunity for them to give me some of those great discounts that I’ve heard so much about.

The email confirmation came only moments later. As you’ll see below, they did not require that I confirm my email address via double opt-in, which considering their offering, is not a bad idea.

They used the subject line “Dylan’s Candy Bar sign-up confirmation for scott@mydomain.com”. Not bad but I would have preferred to see my name as opposed to my email address in the subject line as well as a call to action, something like “Scott, here’s your first sweet deal from Dylan’s Candy Bar”. However the real issue was with the friendly from line which read “customerservice”.  Looks too automated…even though it is. Not good.

The email itself rendered nicely with the email images blocked. They have a nice, albeit uncreative, use of image alt tags.

With images turned on the Dylan’s email was on-brand and it rendered well again.

The biggest item of note in the email itself was the lack of personalization. Instead of “Dear fellow candy fan,” they could have used my first name, and/or the type candy that I stated was my favorite on the sign up page. “Dear Scott (or should we call you Mr. Sweet Tarts),“

Note that Dylan’s also asked that I add them to my trusted senders list, this is always a great practice but what make their attempt better than most is that they did it with humor and in an unconventional location. Good stuff.

Besides the lack of personalization my true issue with the entire effort (from sign up to inbox) is the many missed transactional and consumer insight opportunities (not to mention the regurgitated “this is what you’ll get” content). They should have also asked me to follow/fan them on their various social media networks. Kind of a no-brainer right?

It’s nearly three weeks and I have yet to see the first circular email from Dylan’s. I’m curious to see if they “treat” me, the new subscriber, differently that other users or if they cater content to my profile and behavior. I’ll keep you posted.

About the Author: Scott Hardigree is CEO at Indiemark, a full-service email marketing agency and consultancy based in Orlando, FL.

I don’t shop at Urban Outfitters. Perhaps its my age or the fact that I am not cool enough. However, when it comes to email, I really enjoy their ability to convey a strong message in simplistic creative.  The creative below to me screams individuality and MAKES me want to click through.  It is certainly unique and I wonder if some other retailers might adopt such a simplistic way to sell their stuff.

My favorite part of this whole email is the “shop now” button which is center justified under the call to action…and while it just hangs there..it makes me just go “awwww..”

Technorati Tags:
email, email marketing, email creative, email copywriting, good creative, email engagement, promotional email, unique email, urban outfitters

For the purposes of this blog, and not to mention my own, I bought SnagIt. For those of you who don’t know what it is, SnagIt is an excellent, useful piece of software that allows you to “snag” imagery, pages of websites, etc., for use as images, videos, etc. in documents, blogs, etc. (Lots of etc’s in there.) Part of the deal was signing up for their newsletters.

About a week ago, I received their September edition of “TechSmith’s News You Can Use.” Of course, as it is with all email, there are good things and bad things about it. Let’s start with what I feel is “Good” about this message:

• Good use of alt text. You do not lose much in translation without images.
• As you can see to the right, I like establishing a “Voice” with newsletters. Goes a long way for establishing trust.
• Matching the friendly from line and the subject line is good practice.
• I particularly like the focus on allowing the readers to establish preferences. Striving to deliver the content readers want (rather than having it shoved down their throats) is exactly what all email marketers should be doing. Not saying we’re perfect, but asking is an EXCELLENT first step.
• “News You Can Use” is a good headline for the products TechSmith offers. I don’t have much if any experience with Camtasia (another of their offerings), but I know people who love it and would want the tutorials offered in this message (full message is at bottom). It’s a bit of a cliche, but I like it anyway.

Now for the weaknesses of this message:

• Simply put, the message is too long. Lots of scrolling.
• Message could use to go the full 600 pixels in width at least. If it goes that wide, the message would benefit from the ability to go with a two-column approach, allowing for less scrolling and better content delivery.
• Design could be a bit more engaging. As you see to the right, the newsletter does use “pods” for content delivery, but they are a bit bland. Spicing them up could drive more clicks.
• Also, less content in those pods would help as well. Drive clicks to these tutorials by driving the readers to a landing page devoted just to tutorials. A bit more of a robust page.

All in all, I think there’s a great deal of potential with this message. My recommendations would be to tighten up the content a bit, make better use of landing pages, and use the standard 600 pixels to its fullest.

But of course, those are just my opinions. What are yours?

Full message below:

I hate that time of year when my Car Insurance is due, it’s that time of year when suddenly it’s OK for all those companies I previously asked to give me insurance quotes to suddenly call my phone and spam my Inbox with crappy Emails that hold no value to me.

You see, the problem with products like Insurance is this; no one likes insurance companies. It’s true, we think they’re taking our money and giving us nothing in return, it’s hard work to get quotes and the differences between the hundred-or-more insurance companies is absurd in both price and offerings.

So when Kwik-Fit dropped me an Email with the subject line of ‘Buy a Car Insurance policy and get a FREE MOT’ I immediately opened it; after all it already cancels out that preconception that Insurance companies are money sucking vampires.

To my surprise, the Email was actually really very well designed, here comes the good points,

• A great tag line pulling me further into the offer, followed by an immediate call to action to ‘Get a Quote Now’.
• Immediately below the call to action is a further, suplimentary offer of ‘20% online discount’ to try and get you back to that call to action.
• Small amount of copy with bullet points, important because readers scan for what important and bullet points get more coverage than paragraphs.
• Tertiary messaging including other benefits of the policy, as well as other types of cover they provide.

However, there’s a few things that spoil this Email a little bit, and no doubt will have affected (negatively) on their Clicks and Conversion Rates.

• Heavy use of Images for Call To Actions and Offer Messaging, there’s no need. The typeface they’ve used could easily be done with websafe font, as well as the Call To Action button.
• Tiny font. I really really dislike small font. It might be because I’m somewhat blind, but also because it’s much easier to read or scan font at about 12-13px.
• The footer, which happens to be as big as the Email itself. Jeez, I mean really, read the whole thing and it kinda puts you off taking up the offer of the Email. Some of that stuff I really couldn’t give a crap about. Not only that, but it hides the Unsubscribe Link, which only has the ‘click here’ hyperlinked making it hard to find – make it hard for subscribers to unsubscribe and they’ll mark you as spam.

So what’s letting this Email down?

Email Marketing isn’t just about the Emails you send to your Subscribers, it’s about the whole experience. This includes the sign up, the welcome email, your reputation as a brand, your website and most importantly in this Email the ‘what happens after?’.

Custom Landing Pages are often used in order to make the transition from Click to Conversion (a purchase, a registration, etc) a lot smoother for the Subscriber so as to reduce the risk of ‘dropping out’. As a result it is just, if not more, important to get the Landing Page right.

Kwik-Fit actually had me on this Email, I clicked. When I clicked on the big green button in the Email, I was surprised when taken to a Landing Page that wasn’t the Quote Page – after all the button did say ‘Get a quote now’. Instead it took me to a Landing Page with even more stuff to read, urgh, I just want to get a quote!

When I do get to the Quote Form, the experience is awful. It not only pops open in a new window (I have enough of them open, thanks) the content doesn’t even fit the dimensions they’ve specified for the pop-up window.

I carry on going, getting to the ‘Cover you require’ step. I fill it all in and hit ‘Continue’ only to be presented with an error (Quick UX Fail Tip: don’t let me hit that continue button if there’s errors, it’s extremely annoying) which stated ‘Start date must be within 30 days’.

Blood boiled. I’ve wasted this much time filling out a crappy form, after Kwik-Fit sent me an Email asking me to go and get a Quote. Are you serioues Kwik-fit? This alone makes this one of the worst Emails I’ve had in my Inbox recently.