Posted by Nic Winters on November 19th, 2009
Welcome again to The First 2 Weeks, where we analyze 3 competitors’ email marketing strategies when it is most crucial… the opt-in process, welcome message, and first few campaigns as these marketers attempt to establish relationships with subscribers.
In our last edition we evaluated the opt-in process and welcome messages for 3 competitors in the arts and crafts retail segment: Hobby Lobby, Jo-Ann, and Michael’s. In part 2 we will now investigate campaigns sent beyond the welcome email and preference editing options.
INITIAL CAMPAIGNS
Both Hobby Lobby and Michael’s sent out additional campaigns beyond the welcome email within the first 2 weeks, both sending 2 additional emails. Both competitors were much more aggressive than Jo-Ann, which didn’t send anything beyond the welcome message within the first 2 weeks – missing out on this chance to quickly establish a solid foundation with subscribers.
The emails sent by Hobby Lobby include very heavy image use, however they did a good job of using informative alt tags so that all is not lost with images off. They did a very good job of sticking with a template for their design as well, as additional messages arrive in the inbox with the exact same design setup. Thus, subscribers quickly learn what to expect and where they can find the information they are looking for. However, within this design they have pushed the coupon far too low in the design – as this is an item that should be featured near the top to drive redemptions and maintain high interest in their email offerings. This design framework also always includes a quirky quote at the base of the email – a creative touch that I could see some subscribers seeking out on future emails.
Hobby Lobby incorporated a few other best practice items, however each of them was slightly flawed as they are all hidden too low in their email. They linked to their RSS feed capability, allowed you to forward to a friend and gave the ability to subscribe if you were forwarded an email… but each of these become lost as they are low in the email.
On their first additional message, Michael’s did a great job of using both text and background colors to develop an email design that is images off friendly. However, even though they have incorporated this tactic, they fall behind at the same time since none of their images included alt tags. This is especially evident when you reach the coupon section of the email (like Hobby Lobby… once again too low in the creative) and you have no indication there is a coupon without images enabled. They also successfully incorporated a forward link at the top of their message and remind their subscribers to add them to their address book to ensure delivery.
We have identified some flaws in this first message from Michael’s in addition to some successful best practice items, however in their second message it is hard to find a single item to praise. The email is comprised entirely of images… and not a single one contains an alt tag – leaving you with a completely blank email with images off. This leaves me wondering why they didn’t take the same text and background color approach they used on the first message as the entire right side of this message could have been achieved with text.
EMAIL PREFERENCE OPTIONS
In offering preference options Michael’s falls behind their competitors, as they only provide a simple unsubscribe link on all messages. Both Hobby Lobby and Jo-Ann instead provide robust preference capabilities that may assist in retaining subscribers.
Hobby Lobby features an “Update Your Subscription” link at the top of each message which takes you to an easy form to check off the subscriptions you would like.
Jo-Ann takes a slightly different approach with their link (at the base of emails) leading to a page that allows you to select to receive all emails or fewer… even spelling out the estimated frequency related to these options.
Watch for our next edition in the coming weeks in which we will evaluate the campaigns of 3 new competitors!
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Posted by Dave McCue on November 16th, 2009
Evidence is the difference between theory and fact, and—as it relates to email—between saying email marketing is valuable and proving it. Any organization using email marketing is going to want to see evidence that results are being produced, and if you are the individual in charge of producing those results, your best friend in such situations is your data. If that word strikes fear into your heart, don’t worry, a term as all-encompassing as “data” can be intimidating in the big picture. But if you break it down, attaining the data you’re after is as simple as answering three questions:
1) What do I want to measure?
2) How am I going to measure it?
3) How can I make sure there is actually something to measure?
What do I want to measure?
Answering the first question is a good exercise, because it requires you to step back and define exactly what sort of results you need to see in order to consider your email program a success. Are you using email as a way to drive sales? If so, you’ll want to track visitors who arrive at your site via email to see what percentage of that traffic results in conversions. If your emails function mainly as a vehicle to sell advertising, keep close tabs on any factors that could contribute to higher/lower response to those ads—day of week, ad format, newsletter content, time of day, etc—and adjust accordingly to drive the results that will keep advertisers coming back.
How am I going to measure it?
How you measure your data is largely dependent on the resources available to you. Using an email service provider such as SubscriberMail will provide you with a reporting toolset that makes it easy to track and organize your email performance data. However, the data provided by your ESP can only tell the story up until a recipient clicks one of the links within your email. From that point, you’ll need to rely on your web analytics platform (whether a paid platform or a free service such as Google Analytics) to track visitors’ activity on your website. By adding the proper parameters to the links within your emails, you can make sure email traffic is tracked separately from regular web traffic in your web analytics platform. Once both of these systems are in place, and working in tandem, you’ll be able to create a variety of filters and funnels that make it easy to track the data that is most important to measuring the success of your program.
How can I make sure there is actually something to measure?
There are a few things you can do to make sure you have data to measure. First of all, don’t be so excited about the idea of running reports and seeing the results of your hard work that you forget to spend the necessary time on the “nuts ‘n bolts” beforehand. Assuming you are using both an ESP and a web analytics platform, take time to double-check (and test!) that the steps have been taken to enable proper tracking. Are the right parameters being added to all links within your emails that you want to track? Do all pages of your site have the appropriate web analytics tracking code installed (including any sub-domains)?
Once you are sure that data from your campaigns will be tracked the way you would like, optimize your emails to give recipients a “nudge” in the most important direction. If your goal is for recipients to fill out a registration form on a page of your site, make sure an enticing link to that page is the main call-to-action of your message. Include a link to the page in your pre-header. Some recipients will have your images blocked, so use ALT text behind images to persuade these recipients to visit your page as well. Point email links directly to the page with the registration form (i.e. not your homepage), and try to design the landing page in such a way that it is easy for visitors to take the next desired action—why add a hurdle so close to the finish line? Lastly, be sure to set up some sort of confirmation/thank you page that displays once visitors submit the registration form—it’s this confirmation page that represents the point of conversion you’ll want to measure in your analytics platform. Give your “goal” the best chance to be realized by making the conversion process as quick and easy as possible for visitors.
Check back for Part 2 in the coming days, where I’ll look at different types of email data.
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Posted by Rob Ropars on November 12th, 2009
I recently received an email from wine.com, and it was one of the best email marketing emails I’ve seen in some time. They managed to incorporate the vast majority of email marketing best practices, had a simple clean layout and detailed information about their products/offer.
The “from name” clearly identified the sender (“Wine.com”-though they seem to use “Wine.com” and “wine.com” interchangeably) and the subject line detailed the special offer and its limited-time availability, “2 days only – up to 30% off select Geyser Peak wines”.
Opening the email I saw one of the best “images off” layouts in a long time. No “all image” email here! Right from the top they get so many things refreshingly right.
They have preheader/snippet text, “Two phenomenal wines in limited supply” reinforcing the subject line and available for mobile devices and email snippet preview in the inbox. That is immediately followed by a link to a web copy and their white listing/safe sender info. The header area has a small logo with an alt tag so I can clearly see it’s from “Wine.com” and it’s not taking up a lot of preview pane real estate.
There are a few images to its right that are so small I can’t see what they are at least in Yahoo’s images off rendering and then a forward to a friend link for viral promotion. Right below that is a site navigation row with links (as text-awesome) to key parts of their site (“wine shop,” “fine wine,” etc.).
That’s always a great addition in case I want to look around your site and do/buy something else if the featured offer isn’t of interest. Right below that is an extra section with an intriguing pitch for free shipping for a full year followed by a personalized greeting (Dear Robert…”), and a summary of the offer with links to learn more about each wine featured.
All of the above should fit in most preview panes and provides everything I could want and know more. I cannot stress enough how utterly fantastic work that is all around! About the only thing I’m puzzled about is the two or three small images top center next to the forward, but that’s obviously something small and hopefully not critical.
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Posted by Nic Winters on November 10th, 2009
Welcome again to The First 2 Weeks, where we analyze 3 competitors’ email marketing strategies when it is most crucial… the opt-in process, welcome message, and first few campaigns as these marketers attempt to establish relationships with subscribers.
For this edition of The First 2 Weeks, we have chosen 3 competitors in the arts and crafts retail segment: Hobby Lobby, Jo-Ann, and Michael’s.
OPT-IN PROCESS
The opt-in placement on these 3 competitors’ websites was fairly similar, placing the opt-in opportunity near the top right of the homepage – not requiring scrolling. However, Hobby Lobby did the best job of calling attention to the opt-in area. Jo-Ann’s opt-in area blends into the background a little too easily, and Michael’s is practically trying to hide the opt-in area with a very small “Register” link that is quite muted (on top of the fact that “Register” doesn’t exactly scream opt-in for emails).
All 3 competitors’ opt-in forms are quite lengthy, collecting a great deal of information that could be valuable for email segmentation efforts. Both Hobby Lobby and Jo-Ann do however provide the interested party with the opportunity to quickly sign up and skip these additional details (with Hobby Lobby highlighting a required section and Jo-Ann offering an express sign-up section). On the other hand, Michael’s requires an immense amount of fields including a username and password, postal address, and birth date (items that could detract from getting email subscribers). However, overall, all 3 competitors offer some great options during the opt-in process such as your various interests and which types of e-newsletters you would like to receive.
WELCOME MESSAGE
Greetings from both Jo-Ann and Michael’s arrived within 10 minutes beyond opt-in – a timely response to begin the email relationship, whereas Hobby Lobby failed to send any confirmation or thank you via email. However, this is fairly forgivable as they provide you with a coupon right on their website the moment you complete the opt-in form… but they should have promoted this perk on their homepage to entice subscribers!
Both Jo-Ann and Michael’s remind subscriber’s to add their from address to their address book to ensure future delivery. Jo-Ann includes a couple more best practices by including a prominent forward link at the top and by listing the email address that is opted-in (to avoid confusion in cases of old email addresses that have been forwarded, etc.). Both competitors also establish the value of their email programs quickly by providing a coupon in these welcome emails. Michael’s doesn’t feature any sort of graphic representation of this coupon within their message – instead they rely upon a fairly simplistic “Print Coupon” button. Jo-Ann does feature a graphic of the coupon, however they bury below the preview pane… thus it is a good thing that they place a simple link above the body of their message linking to the print location.
Overall Michael’s takes a non-flashy approach to email design, utilizing mainly text – thus, very little is lost with images off. Jo-Ann has incorporated alt tags for many of their images so when images are disabled the reader is not left clueless… however, the largest portion of the preview pane is used by 2 large images that were left with no alt tags. Michael’s also experienced some alt tag issues, exposing a lesson for all of us. As you build an email design, be careful with labels that you intend only for internal use – or you may end up like Michael’s, who display 2 alt tags that say “spacer” within the areas that blank images display with images on.
Watch for Part 2 in the coming weeks in which we will evaluate campaigns sent beyond the welcome message and preference editing options.
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Posted by Nic Winters on November 2nd, 2009
Welcome again to The First 2 Weeks, where we analyze 3 competitors’ email marketing strategies when it is most crucial… the opt-in process, welcome message, and first few campaigns as these marketers attempt to establish relationships with subscribers.
In our last edition we evaluated the opt-in process and welcome messages for 3 competitors in the luxury car segment: Jaguar, Mercedes, and Porsche. In part 2 we will now investigate campaigns sent beyond the welcome email and preference editing options.
INITIAL CAMPAIGNS
Within the first 2 weeks only Jaguar sent an email beyond any welcome communications to capitalize on this opportunity to establish a solid foundation with subscribers. This first email was received just over 24 hours after opt-in, and it was fairly important that Jaguar send this message quickly since they had been one of the competitors who did not deploy a welcome message.
This email relied heavily upon images, an issue that was made even worse since they did not employ alt tags to convey what the reader is missing. Thus, when this message is viewed with images off, it appears very blank within the top portion of the preview pane.
Jaguar did incorporate a text area in the message, however it is too low in the design to offset the damage done in the top area. The email does include a couple best practice-related items by utilizing personalization. They bring in both the subscriber’s first name and identify the email address the message was intended for. As noted in past reviews, listing this email address can assist in reducing a subscriber’s confusion in cases of old email addresses that have been forwarded, etc.
EMAIL PREFERENCE OPTIONS
Mercedes appears to provide the most options for subscribers of these 3 competitors, as even though we did not receive an email, we can make some assumptions based on their website. When you view the “Policies” area, you can then navigate to the “Manage Email Subscriptions” section. When you enter in your email address it pulls up all of the preferences that you selected selected during opt-in, allowing you to make updates as needed.
Jaguar doesn’t feature any preference options, only including an unsubscribe link which doesn’t lead to any of the numerous fields that subscribers enter during opt-in.
As we did not receive an email beyond the opt-in confirmation message from Porsche, we cannot evaluate their typical preference options. Within the confirmation email there was not even an unsubscribe link (as it was a transactional-type email), thus we needed to explore the website extensively to find the unsubscribe functionality. This requires a multi-step process – clicking on “Dialog and Newsletter”, then “Porsche Newsletter”, then the “Subscribe” link (a fairly odd link to have to click in order to reach an unsubscribe capability!), and then hitting an unsubscribe link on the far left which allows you to finally enter your email address for them to remove. We would assume for CAN-SPAM compliance that their usual email marketing methods include at least a clear unsubscribe link on messages beyond this confirmation email.
Watch for our next edition in the coming weeks in which we will evaluate the campaigns of 3 new competitors!
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