Missing the Mark With Design
In my dreams, I have a perfectly manicured lawn, with the nicest shrubs and accent plants that leave my neighbors green (no pun intended) with envy. The truth is, I don’t.
I recently received an email from Scotts inviting me to join the “Scotts Lawn Advisory Panel”. I opted-in to receive messages from Scotts about a year ago. The messages are generally targeted to my region in the country; however I receive them too infrequently to build brand loyalty.
Yesterday’s message missed the mark when it comes to design. I was interested enough in the subject line: “You’re specially invited to join the Scotts Lawn Advisory Panel” to see what exactly I was invited to do.
In the preview pane I was only able to see the Scotts logo four small images and the first line of text. “You’re invited to join Scotts’ exclusive new”
If I chose not to scroll down, I would have missed that by filling out the 10 minute survey, I had an opportunity to win one of ten $500 gift cards from Smith and Hawken.
I did like that my expectations were set up front. I knew before getting started approximately how long I would need to spend on the survey. I also liked the link to Smith and Hawken. If I hadn’t planned on filling out the survey before, one look at the partner site was enough to make me reconsider.
I also liked that there was an explanation of what benefits I would receive if I was selected to be a part of the advisory panel.
According to the email this includes:
Great Stuff! I hope they select me and my miserable lawn.
There were a few things that Scotts could have improved upon.
There were no links to the Scotts website. The most logical place to add a link would be the Scotts logo that was above the fold.
The four above the fold images were so small they were difficult to see and they weren’t clickable. These are both missed opportunity to drive traffic to their website.
The call to action – the chance to win a gift card and the explanation that taking the survey automatically enters the subscriber in the sweepstakes could have been mentioned in the subject line or at least above the fold. With it buried deep in the message, Scotts will surely receive less conversions than if it had been more prominent.
Scotts could have improved the sweepstakes language at the bottom of message. It ran right into the standard footer information and just looked like a jumbled mess.
There could be a lot of potential with a campaign such as Scotts. Unfortunately, in this case, the creative design hinders driving traffic to Scotts website as well as conversions.
Posted by MindComet on Jan. 31, 2007