From: Bergdorf Goodman
Subject Line: CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN: The red sole you love in new spring styles
Date: Thursday, March 29, 2007

I love how Bergdorf included this Louboutin quote: "I always say, 'It's a red color, but it's a green light.'" It's a clever little line, and it infuses the featured shoe with story and meaning.

Posted by lfharmon at 07:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From: Borders Rewards
Subject Line: Welcome: Make Reading More Rewarding
Date: Tuesday, March 27, 2007

I was amazed to receive this Welcome message from Borders just one day after signing up for their free Rewards Program in one of their airport retail locations. That was until I sat down for lunch and read a newspaper article detailing how Borders was watering down it's Rewards Program and pissing off a lot of customers. I was probably just part of the mad rush to sign up unwitting new members to it's inferior new program.

All the same, Borders does do something good here: allow new customers to personalize their email experience from the outset, encouraging subscribers to "customize the email you receive from us so you get the email you want when you want it."

On a random note, "Become Online Registered" sounds extremely awkward to me. Why not "Register Online"?

Posted by lfharmon at 07:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From: NORDSTROM.com
Subject Line: New from Brands like Velvet, Wilster & More | FREE SHIPPING with Shoe Purchase (Details Inside)
Date: Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Nordstrom shows their Seattle roots with this gal's hairstyle, eh? I was actually at the Bellevue store this weekend and experienced truly legendary customer service, which I basically used to justify spending way more money than originally planned. See, good customer service really works!

I have seen that more specific Subject Lines often generate a higher CTR, but this seems to be just about the world's longest subject line: New from Brands like Velvet, Wilster & More | FREE SHIPPING with Shoe Purchase (Details Inside).

Posted by lfharmon at 07:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From: Sephora
Subject Line: SNEAK PEEK: Fall's Biggest Beauty Trends
Date: Sunday, March 25, 2007

Sephora generally does a good job with making their emails timely and relevant. This one is a "TREND REPORT" highlighting looks that appeared on the runways. Red lips, bouncy hair and gunmetal eyes are all well-and-good in and of themselves, but framing them as recent runway trends give them much more relevance and power. What can you do to make your messages more relevant and powerful?

BTW, Sephora is also following current best practices: body text, product names and prices are all featured as HTML rather than graphical text.

Posted by lfharmon at 06:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From: The Container Store
Subject Line: Who says a trash can can't make you smile?
Date: Friday, March 23, 2007

What a ridiculous, delightful subject line. I guarrantee this inspired a high open rate. Leave it to the Container Store to make trash happy ;)!

The "Now Hiring Neat People" submessage headline is cute too. Although I was in a Container Store not too long ago and the salesfolks were not so neat...they were so attentive so as to be completely suffocating. We actually bought a few things and agreed to will-call pickup solely to get them out of our hair. I'm all for customer service, but not customer bombardment.

Posted by lfharmon at 08:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From: Forth & Towne
Subject Line: Important News about Forth & Towne - Please Read
Date: Monday, March 19, 2007

From: holdeverything
Subject Line: save 20% on your first west elm purchase
Date: Wednesday, July 16, 2006

Some of you may have already heard that Gap Inc. is already shutting down it's fairly-new Forth & Towne brand. Their email notification brings up a good question: how do you handle bad news, like a store (or brand) closing, via email?

First things first: it is important to break the news to customers. You don't want them making pointless trips to your retail locations, only to find them shuttered. But how you break the news is everything. Here, Forth & Towne erred on the side of being a little too, well, sad. This email just feels depressing. It's important, even with negative news, to keep upbeat and highlight a customer's opportunities. For instance, Forth & Towne could have focused more on sale opportunities at local stores, or could have plugged some of their other brands in an attempt to convert shoppers to Banana Republic or Piperlime, like HoldEverything did with west elm in this example from last year. I realize Forth & Towne will probably cover these things over the course of the next couple of months, but at least touching on them in this initial message would have helped soften the blow.

Posted by lfharmon at 04:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From: Restoration Hardware
Subject Line: Announcing the Launch of BrocadeHome.com
Date: Wednesday, March 14, 2007

If you haven't already, check out Brocade Home. It's like west elm with frills. (Rumor has it that, despite the fact that they're owned by Restoration Hardware and Williams-Sonoma respectively, the concepts actually were originated by the same person.) After so much spareness, I'm kind of fiending for some frou frou.

Posted by lfharmon at 02:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From: gap.com
Subject Line: Lighten Up for Spring
Date: Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Someone needs to tell this model to lighten up. Honestly, she does not look psyched about her khakis. Let's try to keep our copy and imagery synchronous. Otherwise we're saying "no" when we really mean "yes", right?

Posted by lfharmon at 03:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From: Saks Fifth Avenue
Subject Line: Want It! Our Spring Trend Line-Up + FREE SHIPPING
Date: Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Saks' new "Want it!" campaign tagline is such a shameless rip-off of Barney's "Love it!" campaign from last year. It's just too similar not to blow the whistle on it. I do think they made fun use of the rotating GIF though - click here to see it.

Posted by lfharmon at 03:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From: CB2
Subject Line: wait til you see this chair
Date: Tuesday, March 6, 2007

This campaign from CB2 is a breath of fresh air. It's simple, bright, seasonally-appropriate, and just plain happy. And the subtle butterfly animation makes the whole thing that much more "just so." There's a tangible sense of creative and marketing teams getting excited behind this one, and subscribers can feel that. You guys win the spring spirit award this week for sure.

Posted by lfharmon at 09:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From: shopbop.com
Subject Line: Trend Alert: Wide-Leg Pants, Vintage & Navy for Spring at shopbop.com
Date: Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Those of you who receive email updates from shopbop.com are probably familiar with this face. This redhead has been appearing in shopbop's campaigns consistently for as long as I can remember. I'd thought I was sick of seeing her day-in and day-out (Like, can't shopbop afford a second model?) until, recently, she began appearing less. Opening campaigns to find random brunettes and blondes, I found myself missing the redhead - as though my personal rappaport with the face of shopbop was left dangling. When we were finally reunited with this campaign on March 6, I was embarrased to find myself feeling quite content.

(I'd like to think) I'm not alone in my imagined internal dialogues with said redhead. But even if my particular experience is more ridiculous than most, the big-picture reminder here is that your customers - the most "die hard" in particular - are looking to your brand for a sense of continuity. They want consistent visual and verbal cues. They want a solid relationship. They've bonded to your imagery, your voice and your design - that's one of the reasons they are "buyers." So be careful and gentle when you make changes to your email creative. And have good reasons for changing direction. Don't switch things up just because you as a marketer are personally sick of the proverbial redhead.

Posted by lfharmon at 08:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From: Coach.com
Subject Line: Introducing the first fragrance from Coach
Date: Monday, March 5, 2007

A lot of us have been feeling like Coach has turned into a big old logo machine as of late, watering down the product in order to appeal to a broader market. I guess that's one way to grow. And so is launching a fragrance! Reed Krakoff puts it nicely: "I wanted to create a fragrance that embodies the many personalities of Coach women." So are we targeting everyone after all, or only schizos? (I think we might want to reword that quote. Is there a copy editor in the house?)

Posted by lfharmon at 09:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)