Just when you thought you were out of clever ideas for how to spin a sale...check out Tobi. They're TGIF approach is refreshingly simple and cleverly executed, not to mention that it's 20% off regular-priced merchandise...not sale and clearance! While most retailers are waiting to use the Labor Day handle for their big fall savings push, Tobi's smart approach makes sure all their loyal fans spend their hard-earned cash on their site first. Nice thinking. Still wishing they had a preheader and FTAF in their emails, but they do have the SWYN icons at the bottom, so that's a step in the right direction. And let's not overlook the straightforward subject line that tells the entire story in only four words and still has personality. Well done.
From: Ann Taylor Subject Line: Meet Our New Designer + Shop Our New Perfect Pieces.
Date: August 24, 2009
I love the way that Ann Taylor unveils a new designer in this special email. This approach aligns perfectly with the current trend of putting real faces on big companies and of forging more of individual connections with customers and email subscribers. Not only do we get a literal face to associate with Ann Taylor designs, but the entire email creative represents the artistic process behind all Ann Taylor clothing. The swatches and sketch allows subscribers to envision the creativity and thought invested in clothing by real people, allowing shoppers to feel like they are purchasing something special and unique.
From: Sur La Table Subject Line: We're on TV (Hi Mom!) Date: Thursday, April 2, 2009
I've recently noticed brands taking the opportunity to promote their popularity by flaunting the "As Seen In" angle. I find the idea compelling - it's cool to see that the brand is established, can be trusted and is well-known/recognized by the general public. I mean, why do most girls' buy Coach purses if not because of the popular reputation? Other ways to achieve this same goal might be star ratings (with more than 10 reviews), TV video ads or even an image of a celebrity wearing/using the product.
It also creates a cross-channel experience for those who have seen the product elsewhere. I also have to say I love the Sur La Table subject line addition of "(Hi Mom!)." :)
From: lululemon athletica Subject Line: Welcome to online shopping at lululemon Date: August 20, 2009
From: lululemon athletica Subject Line: The new items you've been waiting for are here! Date: August 26, 2009
I am in the middle of a huge love affair with lululemon. There is something irresistibly cool and hip about their workout stuff, and I am definitely not the only girl out there who's figured that out. If you haven't visited their site, do it now. I am all over the amazing texture in the navigation and the simplicity of the graphics.
Their welcome email was really fresh and unbelievably simple. It didn't fall back on the same ole copy that everybody uses. (i.e. "You're on the inside track! Now you'll be the first to know about special sales and events." Sound familiar?) Instead, they went for an inspirational shot with a simple "Thanks for registering!" headline and a clear shop-now CTA.
The second email I got from them hit the mark for me as well. I love how they picked up the navigation treatment from the site and the message felt timely and focused. They're showcasing all their new stuff in a simple, clean, and compelling way. No fuss, no muss.
Plus, the fact that they're saying this is what's new THIS WEEK, makes me wonder if they'll send an email each week with new stuff. It'll be fun to see how the emails evolve. Potentially a "shop all new items CTA" at the bottom would have been a good addition, but the top nav does give people a way to engage with the site as a whole. And who can resist the way they dropped some logic at the end... "Love Your Failures". Ain't that the truth.
From: Hollister Subject Line: Woke up in shreds Date: August 23, 2009
First things first. Love this subject line. Love it. I had 30+ emails waiting in my strictly retail email inbox this morning and this is the first one I opened. What I also love is that the subject of the email delivers on the promise of the subject line. It's all about torn-up jeans.
Two big misses for me: 1) At first, second, and third glance, I didn't realize this was a horizontal email. I love that they're exploring a new perspective, but they need to offer some copy to help their email subscribers along. This is a shift in the norm, so a little help would be good. A cool "Keep scrolling" would've helped me figure it out, at least. 2) An even bigger issue for me is that there's no CTA. A simple "Get shredded" would do the trick.
But, even without the CTA, I clicked on the image anyways and was taken to a fantastic landing page within the chick portion of the site. What I can't figure out is how Hollister knew I was a Betty and not a Dude. They never asked when I signed up for email, so I'm thinking they just guessed. Rather than taking a 50/50 shot, my suggestion would be to just add a question to the sign-up a process: Are you a Betty or a Dude? Or better yet, add two CTAs to the email, Betty Shop and Dude Shop.
At any rate, the subject line rocks and so did the landing experience. Now, to try and fit into those skinny-leg shredded jeans... but that's another story for another blog.
Setting aside the fact that Whole Foods is probably not the most economical place to shop, I still feel somehow healthier when I buy my food there. I just signed up for their emails yesterday, and while the Welcome letter was a little boring, I'm loving their newsletter! Here's what I heart about it:
Preheader: Althought it's a bit wordy, the fact that they have a
preheader is a step in the right direction. I do think they could
streamline it a bit and still get the messages across.
Relevancy : The Renegade Lunch Lady is a perfect feature story for back to school. Even if the meals she's suggesting are more what Claire would eat vs. Brian (that's a Breakfast Club reference BTW), the idea is timely. Plus they include links that go directly to the recipes, which makes life easy for busy moms.
Dynamic Content : Love the fact that they were able to populate the "What's on sale?" story with the deals for my specific Whole Foods store. Hint: they could do that because they asked me for my zip code when I signed up for their emails.
Recipe Reviews: This is a smart way to bring me into their community and encourage me to try a recipe as well as write a review.
Smart Design: They really broke up the content in any easy to digest way (pun intended) and maximized the right rail.
From: The Container Store Subject Line: Know a teacher? Don't miss this offer! Date: August 20, 2009
How refreshing to see a back-to-school email that's all about teachers! Since I live in a state where they've slashed, yet again, the funding for schools, I would imagine that a lot of teachers are having to dig into their own wallets to buy the "extras" they want for their classroom. Bravo to The Container Store for giving these hard-working superstars a special savings discount of their own.
Fantastic offer aside, there are a few things from an execution standpoint that I think they could have done better. Let's start with the copy. It's written as though I'm not a teacher, which is fine because I'm not. But what if I were? Also, it doesn't tell me whether I can shop online and in-store. The landing page did go into more detail, but I think telling people WHERE they can shop is a pretty important fact to get across up front. The fulfillment part of this is also interesting because they will email you a discount code once you've registered. I don't know about you, but I'm thinking a simple 1-2-3 approach to the copy would have educated the subscriber quickly on the logistics of the program and made them feel like this is super-easy to do and not a time suck. Plus, at first scroll, I missed the fact the teacher needs to register for the discount... so maybe that call to action should have been above the fold. And lastly, the subject line might have been a little more powerful if the percentage was included: Back to School Special: 15% Off for Teachers!
On the design front, I think it would have been great to show some products to inspire teachers to consider The Container Store as a resource center. Plus, for those of us who aren't teachers, we might get excited about some really cool storage ideas that could corral the clutter and make our lives just that much more organized. Because, you know, piles only work for so long. Eventually, you really do have to file.
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.)
A top nav would be a great start. My suggestion: Wines, People, Notes, Clubs...at the minimum.
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!
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: YogaBlaze Subject Line: Bourgeois Sufferings & The Practice of Staying Date: Monday, August 3, 2009
The newsletter itself is (visually) a dog's breakfast, but how's this for a compelling subject line :)!?!?
Bourgeois Sufferings & The Practice of Staying
How could you not open that? It's an awesome argument for going off-formula and putting some creative thought into those good old SLs. Yay, YogaBlaze!
From: Crewcuts Subject Line:candy-colored classroom brights Date: August 7, 2009
Okay, so I love J.Crew's emails and I think crewcuts is just adorable, but this one had me scripting a pint-sized soap opera from the second I opened it.
"They'd been rivals all their lives. One always wanting what the other had. And this times was no exception. Sophie wanted that green bauble necklace and she was going to do anything to get it, even if that meant putting ABC gum in Ava's hair. But Ava, she was on to Sophie's game. And she wasn't going to back down...not without a few good hair-pulling moves of her own."
I'm thinking that maybe there was a cuter pic where the girls didn't look like the mini-me versions of Krystle Jennings and Alexis Carrington. (That's a Dynasty reference, BTW. I heart the 80s.) If catfighting is the trend for fall, then this email nails it.
From: Smith-Harmon Subject Line: FTAF vs. SWYN: The State of Email Sharing Date: August 6, 2009
The email marketing world has been abuzz with questions about the future of forward-to-a-friend (FTAF) functionality...is it being replaced by share-with-your-network (SWYN) functionality?
There are legitimate reasons to think that SWYN might overshadow the older, graying FTAF. While FTAF usually just enables one-to-one, one-time sharing, SWYN creates an opportunity for email content to reach people across the recipients' entire social networks, and social networking presences can increase the chances of multi-channel, ongoing engagement. SWYN is also more viral and avoids entanglements with CAN-SPAM rules.
So, are the rumors true? Is FTAF really on its deathbed? It's hard to say in the long run, but it's clear that FTAF still has some fighting life in it, still showing a four-to-one adoption rate over SWYN among the top online retailers. While only 12% of retailers use SWYN, 48% use FTAF--and FTAF adoption is up from 44% in 2006.
Eager to hear more of the talk on sharing? Check out FTAF vs. SWYN, an info-packed 7-page reportlet with all the details on SWYN vs. FTAF, plus SWYN mechanisms, placement and wording tips, and more.
From: Twitter Subject Line: "Fake Name" is now following you on Twitter! Date:Wednesday, August 5, 2009
I'm sorry... I know it's not a very nice thing to say, and I'll probably catch flak for it, but I am simply just not feeling the love for Twitter. I have an account for purely professional purposes, but I'm having a hard time getting over the lack of "real" connection, and it seems like every time I get a new "follower", it's some creep or weirdo that I don't know. It makes me wonder what it is about my profile that is attracting these people! Even though I have the option to block them, it's still annoying to have to take the step to do so, plus there is the time in between when they start following you, and when you block them that they can be checking out your profile. In addition to my privacy "issues", I just can't get over the hump with feeling comfortable about Tweeting - like it's too self-important.
I will say one nice thing about Twitter: in comparison to the ho-hum Friend Request emails from Facebook and Yelp (which was my last blogpost), Twitter at least has has a pretty looking one with a picture of your new "follower" (about which fellow Smith-Harmon blogger Darah MacLean commented here). I guess it just bothers me though that one gets "followed" on Twitter as opposed to "friend requested" like other social net working sites. In my mind "follow" has a sort of a stalker-esque connotation.
I'm very curious to know how others are adjusting to the Twitter world, and welcome any comments here! :)
From: Yelp Subject Line: Wacarra Y. would like to be your friend on Yelp Date:Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Until today, I had just my one "friend" on Yelp (I've always been a little slow with the Social Media thing). I joined Yelp in the first place about a year ago based on a request from my hairdresser, who had just switched salons, and was looking to generate a little publicity. Today I got a "friend" request from fellow Smith-Harmon blogger Wacarra (thanks Wacarra!) and while the request email itself was totally boring (zero graphics and kinda blah copy), I got totally sucked into the friends thing once I clicked through to the Yelp site and confirmed Wacarra. I had not been aware that Yelp has the "friend finder" feature that searches your email. What really got me absorbed it was the "compliments" that you can give your friends - they have great humor in the copy (one example: You're Cool - You're so cool polar bears wear sweaters around you.). And woo-hoo! In the time it's taken me to write this blog entry, I now have a total of five friends - I feel so popular! ;)
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. :)
You may have asked yourself: What is the standard email width, anyway?
Hopefully, my findings here will help you answer that question. I have gathered emails from 47 popular retailers to see what width they use for their emails.
It appears most retailers are using a width of between 600-650px for your average promotional retail email, and 650-700px for more content heavy (newsletter-type) emails.
I concur that these averages are a good standard. Here's why:
1. It's not TOO wide, so it's less likely that your subscribers will get a horizontal scroll bar when viewed at low monitor resolution and in small email window panes.
2. It's not TOO narrow, so your email won't be painstakingly long in order to fit all your content. Long emails will lose subscribers' interest (or overwhelm them). Plus, you are less likely to fit all your relevant content "above the fold" (AKA - within the preview pane vertically).
From: BananaRepublic.com Subject Line: Save up to $500. Online Only. Date: Thursday, July 9, 2009
I'd be curious to know how this Email worked for BR. While I love a good mystery, this just seems a little strange to me. At first glance, it was certainly compelling and maybe it could be an interesting marketing ploy, however, I personally didn't feel compelled to load up my shopping cart with stuff to find out what my Mystery Savings would be. Instead, it did leave me wondering about many other questions: Would I have been satisfied, or disappointed, with the deduction? How were the Mystery Savings determined? By a set percentage? Increasing (ie, the more you buy, the more you save) percentages? Totally random? Past frequency?
Any thoughts? Does anyone have inside info on how well this campaign performed? :)
From: crewcuts Subject Line: the new crewcuts catalog is here Date: Friday, July 31, 2009
I must admit, I got a wee bit teary-eyed at how adorable this image is. It is just so darn sweet! I love how, not only do the BFFs have their hair braided together, but that it all comes together in a heart shape! :)
BTW, this was the first time since the post Holiday sales that I've clicked through on a J.Crew email. I know that I tend to hold a service grudge longer than necessary, but I was completely in the mood to buy a winter coat and A) their website at the time was very un-user friendly and B) when I went to complete my order, their shopping cart was "experiencing technical difficulties" which prevented me from following through. A lost opportunity for them! Their website looks to be much improved now (with the helpful sub-category of sizes in the sale section), but OUCH! they are still kinda pricey!
From: Ann Taylor 
Setting aside the fact that Whole Foods is probably not the most economical place to shop, I still feel somehow healthier when I buy my food there. I just signed up for their emails yesterday, and while the Welcome letter was a little boring, I'm loving their newsletter! Here's what I heart about it:
From: Crewcuts
From: Yelp
From: BananaRepublic.com
From: crewcuts
