RedBox Leverages Email Marketing

May 29, 2009 No comments »

I have used Netflix for years, but recently I tried RedBox at my local grocery store for a quick flick. After joining their email list, I have noticed some very nice elements that they are implementing to leverage the email channel.

Nice usability, focused communications, integrated landing pages, some ’small-touch’ best practices and more. There are many things going well here for RedBox.

Let’s look at a few elements from the email screen grab  below:

1. Pre-Header: You should always link to a web version, but offering a ‘mobile device’ option is a nice addition.

2. Navigation: In a previous post I commented on the benefits of navigation in your email. Here, they provide 4 primary nav links that are consistent with their site. How Redbox Works, Find A Movie, Find A Redbox, Reserve Online. Simple, to the point, and relevant. 

3. Design: Clean, consistent with their brand, and welcoming.

4. Focus: They have a clear focus here; to highlight the new release. (in this particular email it was the movie “New in Town.” They provide an image, movie description, and clear call to action to reserve it online…

5. Landing Page: You can have a great email, but if your landing pages are not integrated then you are not getting maximum benefit (and hurting your email efforts). Here, they take you to a page specifically about the movie with the option to search for availability at your local RedBox location (and of course then reserve it online). Not every company executes this well. In a previous post, I pointed out some landing page mistakes by William Sonoma.

6. Forward to a Friend: Nice option in the upper right. I may not be interested in this particular movie, but my friends may be.

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Upper fold of RedBox New Release Email (Click Image to Enlarge)

RedBox Email Marketing

Landing Page for ‘Reserve Online’ and Movie Image (Click Image to Enlarge)

RedBox Landing Page

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5 Email List Building Mistakes

May 28, 2009 No comments »

Email list building is an important topic for any email program, as you must make efforts to continue adding to your subscriber list. While there are many tips and tricks for building your email list, let’s focus on some errors many companies make:

5 Common Mistakes with Email List Building

1. Don’t keep the sign-up process fast and simple: This is a big one. If you make the sign-up process complex, you will not get many sign-ups. It’s that simple. Below are some previous posts on email sign-up forms and process.

Good simple form from Express

Nice simple opt-in from New York Life

Flawed sign-up process from SCORE

2. Don’t send a welcome email message: Another huge mistake. When people sign up for your list they are expecting an email welcoming them. This will be one of the highest open rates you will see. Use this opportunity to kick off the relationship on a good note. Below are some previous posts on the topic of welcome messages.

Pro Flowers welcome letter review

Good things from Olive Garden’s welcome email

Sephora screws up their welcome letter

3. Purchase lists: It’s just not a good idea. Unsolicited messages have the highest spam complaint rates and have the opportunity to deteriorate your sending reputation. Focus on building your email lists naturally and you will have much better results from the email channel.

4. Automatically add forward to a friend folks: This is not true permission. But do include an easy way to join your mailing list in the forwarded versions of the email.

5. Don’t offer website sign-up: Sounds elementary, but some big players drop the ball here and don’t leverage their site traffic to build their email list. Here is a post about jewelry retailer Shane Co making this same mistake.

In a future post we’ll provide some more best practices for email list building.

- Forest Bronzan

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Quick Tip: Text to Graphics Ratio

May 25, 2009 3 comments »

Never send an email that is one big image. It will be blocked by many email clients, you won’t get full tracking capability of link engagement, and you run a higher risk of landing in spam filters.

You also don’t want to send emails that are extra heavy on graphics and light on text. Aim for a ratio of around 60% text and 40% graphics.

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