The First 2 Weeks – Outdoor Sporting Goods: Part 1 of 2
Posted by Nic Winters on May 11th, 2009
Welcome to the newest addition to the Digital Spin blog – The First Two Weeks, where we will choose three competitors and analyze their email marketing strategy 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 outdoor sporting goods retail segment: Gander Mountain, Cabella’s, and Bass Pro Shop.
OPT-IN PROCESS
All three competitors failed to optimize their homepages for gathering email subscriptions as an interested party has to scroll to the bottom or near the bottom to find a form to opt-in.
The Gander Mountain opt-in process is very quick (requiring nothing but email address), but perhaps they are not gathering enough information. For example, Cabella’s is still quick but gathers valuable zip code information so that offers related to your local store can be sent to you, etc. Their thank you page is very well done as well – including images of prior email campaigns as examples of what you will be receiving. The opt-in process for Bass Pro Shop however, gathers much more information and not forcefully – making only email, first name and zip code required, but giving you the opportunity to provide plenty of additional optional information such as birthdate, choosing your favorite local store, and 18 different interest categories that you can specify to customize the emails you will receive. In addition, they offer two formats of their email – both standard and retail.
WELCOME MESSAGE
Both Cabella’s and Bass Pro Shops send out welcome messages very quickly (within 20 minutes) – whereas Gander Mountain failed to send any confirmation or thank you via email. Cabella’s takes an interesting approach with their welcome email, sending a text only email (not reflecting the look/feel of their website) from their Chairman of the Board thanking you for subscribing. One great feature within this email is that they inform you of the timeframe that you should expect to get your first message (within the next 10 days). Bass Pro Shops’ welcome email goes the HTML route, however it is mainly images, causing only the small paragraph of text in the body to display with images off. When viewed with images on the message is quite beneficial, showing you examples of past emails and pointing you to a page to edit your preferences.
These two competitors fail to provide any offer in their welcome messages to entice the new subscriber to begin shopping right away – clearly a missed opportunity, but still a step above Gander Mountain, which didn’t send a welcome at all!
Watch for Part 2 in the coming weeks in which we will evaluate campaigns sent beyond the welcome message and preference editing options.
[...] our first edition we evaluated the opt-in process and welcome messages for 3 competitors in the outdoor sporting [...]