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Dell Days of Deals Email

December 11th, 2009

In my previous post I discussed Dell’s email sign-up process for their “Days of Deals” holiday promotion; a very clean and simple approach to opt-ins that had some nice touches.

I started receiving the “Days of Deals” promotional reminders, mostly with a positive opinion. Below is a screen grab.

A few notes:

1. Design: I love the branding consistency. The simplicity of this design also works for them. There is nothing that is too busy, call outs are clear, and it is aesthetically pleasing.

2. Small Touches: Notice in the upper right they have a ‘Send to a Friend’ and ‘Click to Chat’ link. Both simple – but nice additions. The send to a friend is standard, but many retailers don’t utilize the ‘Click to Chat’ within email.

3. Deals: My first reaction was “where are today’s deals?” It would have been nice to include the actual products in the email — as I did select preferences for certain product categories. Implementing some dynamic content, they could have easily served me personalized product reminders. Hopefully they are implementing some testing here and I just fell into this particular group with the single call out. While Dell of course wants subscribers to get back to the site via the “check out today’s savings” button, they are likely missing out on some opportunity with dynamic content showcasing products within the email.

Questions or thoughts? Feel free to leave a comment below or shoot me an email.

Cheers,

Forest

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Posted in Analysis of Live Emails, B2C, Design, Retail Email

Lazy Email Execution from Trader Joes

November 18th, 2009

In a post from last month, we discussed the Trader Joe’s email opt-in process via their in-store signage. The healthy food store was promoting their email newsletter on location, but did not make it easy to sign up.

After finally getting on board I eventually received the first newsletter piece. “Trader Joe’s roasting…a turkey” — this subject line could use some improvement, but that is the least of their concerns.

Below is the turkey newsletter:

I think this needs a major overhaul. For starters:

1. Where is the useful navigation?

2. How about a link to the website (other than the PDF for the ‘Turkey Roasting Game Plan’)

3. Color: Outside of the turkey and corn, maybe something more than black and white.

4. Design: A design overhaul that is consistent with the TJ’s brand would help a great deal.

5. Architecture: Before overhauling design, develop a cohesive and usable architecture for the email. Here is an example of Blue Nile doing well with this.

6. How about bringing it full circle and having some local store mentions?

The list goes on…

While Trader Joe’s is a ‘down to earth’ brand, and probably promotes a minimalist approach with their email communications, there is no reason they can’t find equilibrium with email best-practices and simplistic presentation. I hold larger companies to a much higher standard when reviewing emails. With Trader Joe’s bringing in $7.2 billion in 2008 should be producing better work.

Don’t get me wrong — there is a place for ultra simple and pretty much designless emails. I’ve seen much higher engagement with a simple-text personal letter format — under the right conditions. Trader Joe’s may have been better off with that approach here: “Forest, with Thanksgiving right around the corner, we thought you would enjoy some tips for preparing your turkey….. ” etc. But they chose a different approach and did not make the appropriate adjustments.

Thoughts or questions? Feel free to leave a comment below or shoot me an email.

Cheers,

Forest

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Posted in Analysis of Live Emails, B2C, Design, Red Flag Mistakes

Nice Promo from Lucky Brand

September 15th, 2009

Often times email promotions are watered down and don’t provide much incentive to act. With so much email coming in these days, a sub-par discount isn’t going to get much attention. This is one reason I’m a fan of testing content that isn’t just discount/promo focused.

This doesn’t mean there is not a place for discounts — of course there is. Just don’t make it bland. 5% off doesn’t cut it. Make it exclusive for your email list and they will feel more rewarded.

The email below from Lucky Brand is a few weeks old, but it is a nice example of an attention-grabbing discount. It also gives you the option to print and bring in to the store, or use online. I would use a different promo-code though as 9SEPFRND is not the easiest to remember — could be much worse with a completely random string of letters and numbers, but could be improved to something like LUCKY30.

Cheers,

Forest | Follow Me on Twitter

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Posted in Analysis of Live Emails, B2C, Design, Promotions, Retail Email

Cool Labor Day Email from Blinds.com

September 2nd, 2009

I’m digging the email layout from Blinds.com! Clear promo, CTA on left fold, easy to remember discount code, clean design — Very Nice!

I think the timing is good as well. This email arrived on Tuesday morning, which gives me some time to review and act before the rushed weekend of holiday travel. I would expect a follow-up email; either a trigger if I don’t click-through, or an “In case you missed our Labor Day Sale…” type message.

Great (and improved) email execution from Blinds.com! One thing I’m curious about though is their overall content approach. On first glance, it appears that the vast majority of their emails are either seasonal-based promotions or special discounts either store-wide or brand-specific. What about educational content, design tips, product features and the like? Often times more sales come from a non-sales approach. If I get engaged, get some ideas, and start reviewing my windows more, I may be much more likely to purchase than if I get a nice promo but don’t know what I need or that there could be something I want. Blinds.com sells products that are perfect for more juicy content that can better leverage the email channel.

At any rate; nice work on the email below.

Cheers,

Forest

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Posted in Analysis of Live Emails, B2C, Design, Promotions, Retail Email

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