The First 2 Weeks – Retail Office Supplies: Part 1 of 2
Posted by Nic Winters on June 9th, 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 office supplies retail segment: OfficeMax, Office Depot, and Staples.
OPT-IN PROCESS
Both OfficeMax and Staples have done a decent job of providing an easy to find email opt-in area on their homepages (with Staples even having no scrolling necessary to reach the opt-in area). OfficeMax commits an email sin on their homepage opt-in form as they utilize pre-checked boxes that automatically select your preference to opt-in not only for email, but also for a rewards program.
The opt-in process for Office Depot however is quite difficult, as they provide no ability to opt-in for emails without fully creating an online account. This extensive process includes providing full billing and shipping address information and also asks you for credit card information (not required). Like OfficeMax, this form also incorporates pre-checked boxes opting you in for their emails (resulting in questionable consent).
Staples does a great job at taking a proactive approach at white-listing by taking requesting that you add their from address to your address book on their thank you page. However, as this same page could lead to confusion as it also states “changes may take up to 10 business days to take effect”.
WELCOME MESSAGE
OfficeMax was the clear winner in quick welcome email delivery – with their message arriving moments after opt-in in comparison to Staples email arriving within 24 hours. As for Office Depot (which required the full online account setup to receive emails), we did not receive a welcome message for 15 days – a clear failure to capitalize on a new subscriber’s interest. While recency was not a strong suit for Office Depot, their welcome message did include a compelling offer ($20 off an order of $100), as opposed to their competitors’ hollow offers to begin shopping now. However, the key message content indicating this offer at the top of the message was not optimized for images being disabled as this content was contained within images without alt tags (a shame, as the look of this content could have been preserved while still using formatted plain text and background colors).
OfficeMax takes a great proactive approach in their welcome email as they offer a link at the top to view a version optimized for mobile devices. Both OfficeMax and Staples wisely provide links to begin shopping and also not only the fairly typical top-of-email notice to add them to your address book… but additional notices within the body of the message not only reminding about this key item, but also providing links to instructions on this process (a great practice to help ensure delivery of future messages).
Watch for Part 2 in the coming weeks in which we will evaluate campaigns sent beyond the welcome message and preference editing options.
