From: Bliss Beaut-e-mail
Subject Line: scared to tan-it-yourself?
Date: Monday, July 21, 2008
See the email >
BTW: Dude, use HTML text, especially when your graphical text already looks like HTML!

I like how Bliss embeds product promotions into a useful how-to in their "scared to tan-it-yourself?" mail pictured here. Adding the expert photo brings some personality to the advice...although Donna's not looking particularly bronze. And despite the editorialization, I still find self-tanning a scary proposition ;)!

Posted by lfharmon at 03:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From: Starbucks.com
Subject Line: Starbucks Card rewards are waiting for you
Date: Tuesday, July 1, 2008

From: Amazon.com
Date: Depends on Prime Sign-up Date

Notably difficult to depict are the ephemeral benefits that come with products like gift cards and membership subscriptions. Starbucks does a lovely job with this mail promoting their souped-up Rewards Card. The simple three-column structure, illustrative photography and concise text communicate the new rewards clean and clear. Starbucks' big challenge with email, of course, is tracking effectiveness, as emails drive customers to retail locations rather than trackable URLs.

Speaking of ephemeral benefits, Amazon.com also does a lovely job outlaying the perks of Prime membership here. Have you tried the program? I checked it out and got addicted to ordering stuff like shampoo.

Posted by lfharmon at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From: west elm
Subject Line: See the chicest new sofa in town
Date: Tuesday, February 5, 2008

User-generated content and product reviews are popping up in email more and more, with reports of success, proving that we do want to hear what people like us have to say about the brands and products we shop. But what to do if you're just not there yet technically, and/or you're a more aspirational/less democratic brand?

west elm has found good ground by including quotes and images of people like us (only perhaps slightly cooler!?) in their emails and catalogs. Alex brings personality and perspective to this mail, no Web 2.0 required. I actually read her quote, spending perhaps 10 seconds more with this message than I otherwise might have.

Posted by lfharmon at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From: shopbop.com
Subject Line: Busy Girls Need Fabulous Clothes
Date: Friday, December 7, 2007

I like how shopbop contextualizes their product here, diary-style. For the girl who dreams of days floating from one retail location to another, properly-attired...

Posted by lfharmon at 08:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From: Neiman Marcus
Subject Line: Fabulous stationery + test your thank-you writing know-how
Date: Monday, January 1, 2007

I really like this message from Neiman Marcus. It's timely: we all have thank-you notes to write, don't we? It's engaging: we all want to know the "right" time to send those notes, don't we? It's brief: I think they featured the right amount of content. This isn't a hugely long email newsletter about thank-you note writing that we don't have time to read. It's an easy-to-digest quiz question that clearly prompts us to click through for satisfaction. (I did!)

One recommendation for improvement: use a clearer headline. "In a word" is cute, but basically meaningless and easy to gloss over. Instead, feature "How soon should you send a thank-you note?" in the large pink type. I guarantee it will improve click-through.

Posted by lfharmon at 10:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This season, apparel retailers have struggled with how to acquaint customers with a bevy of new and novel styles including skinny jeans and winter shorts, as well as trapeze tops, dresses and coats. As the leaves collected in enormous piles in the yard, "How To" EDM campaigns collected in my email inbox. Banana Republic produced a number of these "How To" campaigns, and I think they did it well. They provided quick, digestable tips (avoiding the temptation to write paragraph-upon-paragraph that no one will read), which, combined with illustrative photos, made casual, work and evening trends easy and accessible.

I feel like Banana's fashions are rebounding a bit after several suck-out seasons. I bought something there for the first time in ages this month - a "wool military caplet." It wasn't inspired by the "How To" campaigns, so I can't attest to their effectiveness, but I rather like the sweater.

On an unrelated note: is anyone else sick of these two models? I'm sure they're nice girls, but I'm tired of seeing them in every campaign. I see these gals more often than I see my actual friends and family...Although perhaps that says something more about my at-the-computer:away-from-the-computer ratio than it does about Banana Republic's model variety.

From: BananaRepublic.com
Subject Line: Fall's best new silhouettes are here...
Date: Tuesday, September 19, 2006

From: BananaRepublic.com
Subject Line: How to wear the season's chic new layers
Date: Tuesday, October 10, 2006

From: BananaRepublic.com
Subject Line: Defining your work style + the classic pump
Date: Tuesday, October 24, 2006

From: BananaRepublic.com
Subject Line: Dress the part(y): petite going-out looks for every occasion + evening shoes..
Date: Tuesday, November 7, 2006

Posted by lfharmon at 10:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From: Coach.com
Subject Line: Spring Blooms for Mother's Day at Coach
Date: Monday, May 1, 2006

From: Sephora Beauty Editors
Subject Line: Perfect Brows: A How-To Guide
Date: Tuesday, May 2, 2006

From: Room & Board
Subject Line: Room & Board from coast to coast
Date: Wednesday, May 3, 2006

In order to offer customers helpful information, establish their voices as authoritative, and (at the end of the day) hawk product, retailers have been putting lots of effort into creating long-winded, text-heavy Email Newsletters. In most cases, I do not recommend sending these types of messages for two main reasons:
1) The email inbox is a "fast and furious" locale. When we log into our email, we do so to dash off a quick message. When we want to read an article, we pick up a magazine or visit a website. Email isn't the right environment for content-heavy advertising.
2) Newsletters require lots of time and money to produce. A simple, graphical "Free Shipping" or "Sale" message will pretty much always drive more revenue than a newsletter, so why not send one of those instead?

This Coach.com Newsletter is the perfect example of what not to do. The folks at Coach flatter themselves if they think people want to read ad blurb after ad blurb. Folks will consult "In Style" or "Lucky" magazines (which are generally perceived as neutral third-party authorities) for this kind of information. For Coach, showing larger images of each product would be more aesthetically pleasing, more informative, and I would venture, more profitable. I would recommend separating the topics featured here - "Whites", "A Fruitful Season" and "Techno Savvy" - into three separate email messages, each featuring large product shots and a sentence or two at maximum. Also, on a technical level, this newsletter suffers from the same deficiencies noted in my April 5 entry.

The Sephora Newsletter at least attempts to present useful information rather than just describe what's for sale. They've done a really nice job integrating pointers with product; I admire this email for it's content quality and organization. Still, I believe we'd rather read this type of article in "Vogue" or at a makeup artist's website. I'd recommend sticking to a simple, product photography-based email message that perhaps links to an article like this, or even better, links to a multi-buy landing page that allows us to put any number of these products into our shopping basket with a single click.

Last but not least: Room & Board. If you're going to send an Email Newsletter, this is really the right amount of content to present. Rather than overwhelming us with tons of text, Room & Board chooses a theme - "American Craftsmanship" (which at the moment is taking a serious hit from low-priced foreign manufacturers) - and offers us simple intros to full-length topical articles hosted on their website. Again, I doubt many direct sales will result from this type of message, but at least Room & Board has delivered something manageable and coherent.

All of that said, next time you're considering producing an Email Newsletter... just send a "Sale" message instead ;).

Posted by lfharmon at 09:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)