MindComet

Let’s Go Rangers!

Geotargeting is an excellent way to provide your subscribers with timely and relevant content.  Its easy to implement by collecting either the users’ zip code or state.

My favorite hockey team has always been the New York Rangers.  My folks grew up in NY/NJ.  My dad always watched their games. I was born into it.  Recently I signed up for their mailing list and my first email by them was a doozy.

This is an extremely well-executed example of geotargeting-based messaging done right.  They know I live near Tampa, so they sent me an email to buy to tickets to a Rangers /Lightning game on two separate occasions.  All it entails is to segment your database by state or zip code.  Elementary stuff, really.

If anyone reading this will be in Tampa on Wednesday, November 26th, come by the St Pete Times Forum… Say hello.  I’ll be in section 203, row K.  Let’s Go Rangers!

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Posted by MindComet on Sep. 23, 2008

Style.com “Gets” Promotional Emails

Take a look at this email:

I’ll put it bluntly… Style Magazine pulled off an awesome promotional email. The iPod alone is a very strong call to action and I clicked immediately.  Win an iPod touch?  I’m there.  Strong, straight-to-the-point subject line: “Win an iPod Touch from Style.com”.  My only criticism is that I would have liked to see the text to the left be embedded in the HTML rather than the image.

As a result of getting this email, I just may purchase a subscription for some friends near Christmas time.  And if I win the iPod?  Oh, you can guarantee my business.

I would love to know the click-through rate for this email.  I imagine that it would be above 75%.

At any rate… job well done, Style.

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Posted by MindComet on Sep. 17, 2008

Birthday Email Communications

Considering all the spam that arrives in our inboxes today, birthday emails are almost as good as getting an unexpected letter in the mail from a friend or family member.  Although most birthday emails I have seen are tied to some sort of sales offer, they act as a great added touch point between the brand and the customer outside of their regular communications.  Additionally birthday email messages:

• Become anticipated once you see one brand’s birthday message land in your inbox
• Can be used as a marketing/sales tool - $10 off product/service, just for you on your birthday….
• Leverage personalization at its best
• Show a good likelihood that they are going to get opened especially if the subject line contains “Happy Birthday”
• Allows brands to measure a subscriber’s response in regards to relevant and personalized messages vs mass communication
• Allows brands to show their customers that they care, one of the reasons they ask for your birthday upon sign up or on your preferences page

My two favorite birthday emails based on my preferences and the brands I subscribe to are Cold Stone Creamery and Origins.  Cold Stone Creamery gives their customers a free “Love It Creation” aka medium sized cup - come on now, who doesn’t love ice cream while Origins is giving me $10 off my next purchase.  As a repeat customer, I’ll be sure to use it.

Don’t you just want to sign up for your favorite brands email communications now to see what they send you on your birthday?!

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Posted by MindComet on Sep. 09, 2008

Quiksilver: 3 Welcome Messages In A Row

After reading this post at Email Wars, I was inclined to sign up for some Quiksilver emails.  I always wore this brand as a kid… Whether it was some baggy boardshorts, stained t-shirts or a ripped pair of jeans; I sported Quiksilver quite often in my “quiet little beach community.“ 

Now I’m older and I’ve ditched most—if not all—of my surf-wear.  But that doesn’t mean I’m not curious to see what one of my most cherished brands as a kid is up to nowadays… Especially in the email realm.

So I signed up, and after going through a pretty standard process (name, email, birthday, zip) I was looking forward to see how they would go about engaging me.

But instead of positive engagement, I was inundated with the same welcome message for three days in a row.  The same message…  Over and over and over.  I was annoyed, sure, but after the third email, I was strangely compelled to click through and see what the preferences page looked like.  As you can see below, it’s not daunting at all.  One thing I would have liked to see is my email and zip (already on file, mind you) auto-filled. 

Another thing worth noting is that each welcome message was received between 8:02am and 8:04am.  Auto generated?  Me thinks so.

Quiksilver needs to understand that this is NOT the smartest way to initially engage a new subscriber.  I’m sure if I wasn’t in the email marketing industry, I would’ve unsubscribed after the second email.  I hope they make up for this with relevant offers and announcements. You know, now that they have my preferences and all.

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Posted by MindComet on Sep. 09, 2008

Snapfish: A/B Testing Fail

I’ve been a subscriber of Snapfish’s emails for a good year and a half now.  Overall, I’ve been content with their emails (although they do have a tendency to over-send sometimes).  And lately, it seems as though their content has become less and less relevant to me.

Smart email marketers always conduct some sort of A/B testing to determine how their subscriber base reacts to certain aspects of email.  Whether it’s a varying subject line or call to action; knowing what your customers like and how they react is crucial to a successful campaign.

But what happens when you send both the “A” test AND the “B” test to the same subscriber?  Well, they tend to opt out or report you as SPAM…  Which is what I had to do last Friday.

I first received an email at 9:47am with the subject line “Start school with 20% off a photo calendar” with a CTA that read “new school year, new calendar!“.  Not really interested or relevant since I’m not in school.  I also need to mention that I had received this same exact email 5 days prior.  Frustration was starting to set in.
Then 4 hours later I received yet another email which looked very similar.  The subject line this time around read “Just 3 days left - 20% off photo calendars” and the call to action was “Get 20% off on Calendars”.  This email is more my speed, but by this time I had overlooked the offer since I was so annoyed.
This is sloppy email marketing, plain and simple.  Always make sure you split your database down the middle and exclude any subscribers from the previously sent list.  This prevents any duplicates and overlap in your subscriber base.

And I’m sorry to say that Snapfish has lost this subscriber.  And if this issue was across the board, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who hovered over and clicked the “unsubscribe” link.

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Posted by MindComet on Sep. 02, 2008