From: Coach
Subject Line: have you seen it? the new coach.com
Date: Monday, April 4, 2009

Coach.com announced their website revamp via email this morning. In contrast to the very focused approach taken by Williams-Sonoma in 2008, Coach's message is an explosion of screenshots and pink. While I could go on about the lack of standard logo and navigation, the unfortunate, not-so-easy-to-read tiny graphical text and the endless scrolling, that would just be boring. By now, we've all taken a trip on the best practices train to 516 W34th Street and back. (Check out our Email Insider "Break the Rules" article for more on this topic.) What I like about this email is that while it's absolutely overflowing with content and screengrabs, it's also overflowing with enthusiasm and excitement. I get the sense that Coach is excited about the new coach.com, and therefore, so am I. As an email viewer, do I have the patience to actually squint through the fine print and all the little screenshots? Not so much. But I am inspired to click through and check out the new website (and I'm not really even a Coach shopper), so in essence, this email has more than done it's job.

I like to make this analogy: a promotional retail email should act like a retail store window. It needs to be compelling enough to bring passers-by inside.