From: Old Navy
Subject Line: Time to Play Favorites
Date: July 31, 2008

In keeping with the theme of this month's Smith-Harmon Loveletter, I want to take a minute to talk about preference centers.

Personalizing the inbox is no longer as easy as just including a Dear Jane as a greeting to your email or adding a name to your subject line. These days if you really want to deliver personalized messages that stand out in the inbox, you have to find out what your customers want. And you do that by building out your preferences center. Find out what interests your subscribers and you'll be better able to deliver the right messages to the right people.

Piperlime includes a banner that's dedicated entirely to preferences in every email. Pretty cool, right? Only problem is that the landing page felt like they were trying to get me to sign up for more Gap Inc. emails vs. finding out what interests me. I was hoping for questions about my age, shoe size, fave colors, sense of style, etc. etc.

Taking a giant leap, Old Navy actually dedicated an entire email to finding out what interests their subscribers. I was excited! Unfortunately their pref center landing page was as sparse as Piperlime's page. When I clicked-through, it simply asked me if I wanted info on Men's, Women's, Plus-Size, etc. clothing. Nothing else. Oh wait, it also asked if I wanted to sign up for more emails from any other Gap Inc. brands. Wish they'd asked me about my favorite colors or personal denim style. Or maybe at least what age bracket I fall in!

It comes down to this: The more you know about your audience, the more you can personalize the message. Check out Sephora's Beauty Insider profile experience to see a really cool pref center in action.

From: Borders
Subject Line:30% Off Coupon for One Minute of Your Time
Date: Monday, August 18, 2008

I must be channeling my late Grandma Nixon: I am a sucker for a coupon. (She actually was more practical - she'd only clip them for things she was going to purchase anyways.) In any event, this was actual enticement for me. Despite the fact that I "hate surveys", I did click through on this, and there were only 4 questions, none of which were too personal. The subject line was spot on as well - normally Borders' Emails are too much visual overload for me and I automatically delete them. :)

From: Daily Candy
Subject Line:DailyCandy SF - Open Water
Date: Tuesday, August 12, 2008

The Brown Cannon 3 Surfboards featured in this Email are beautiful, but the part that caught my eye, was the "SHARE WITH THE CLASS - Take the Daily Candy Survey". Surveys have been fresh on our minds at Smith-Harmon as we've just gone through the process ourselves. Personally I hate doing surveys. I know that in order to receive better service I should participate, but what can I say? I still hate them. I nearly always automatically delete them from my inbox (or throw them away if they come via snailmail). I thought the humor of "Share with the class" was witty enough to entice me. Then I clicked on it... and scrolled and scrolled and scrolled. 45 questions. Pass. :)