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.