The First 2 Weeks – Home Improvement: Part 2 of 2
Posted by Nic Winters on September 1st, 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 do-it-yourself home improvement segment: The Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Menards. In part 2 we will now investigate campaigns sent beyond the welcome email and preference editing options.
INITIAL CAMPAIGNS
Both The Home Depot and Menards sent out additional campaigns beyond the welcome email within the first 2 weeks, but there was a vast difference in timing and quantity. Menards capitalized on the interest of a new subscriber by sending 7 emails spread throughout this timeframe while The Home Depot sent 2 emails arriving around 1 and 2 weeks beyond opt-in. Please note that 7 emails over 2 weeks may be considered to be too many by some Menards subscribers, however as described in our last post they allow subscribers to set their frequency preferences during the opt-in process. Both competitors are much more aggressive than Lowe’s, which didn’t send anything beyond the welcome message within the first 2 weeks – missing out on establishing a solid foundation with subscribers.
Emails sent by both The Home Depot and Menards included various best practice-related items. The Home Depot emails included links to their involvement in social media and an excellent use of snippet text above the email creative. Menards included a prominent forward to a friend function and provides the email address that is subscribed. As noted in past reviews, this can assist in reducing a subscriber’s confusion in cases of old email addresses that have been forwarded, etc. Both competitors include reminders to add them to your address book to ensure future delivery and view in a browser links (The Home Depot displaying this link above the creative and Menards putting this archive copy link below the email – a trend we are beginning to see with some e-marketers that are seeing a low amount of activity on these links).
The Home Depot has done a decent job of employing alt tags on images so that all is not lost when images are off. However, they employed an ever better technique within small sections of some emails (like on the “$50 to $200 OFF” section at the base of that screen shot) – utilizing text as opposed to relying totally on images. However, in that same email this technique could have been applied to the main content item about crime prevention month, using text and background colors/images to achieve the same look and feel without resulting in blank section relying only on alt tags with images off.
Menards, on the other hand, has relied greatly on images within their emails and incorporates alt tags – however they are not greatly informative (compared to the content with images on). In this same email, they also used a fairly “spammy” subject line (These Savings Will Blow You Away) and have a call to action within an animated gif as the “Click Here For Additional Savings” option does not appear until the last frame (note – some email clients do not support animation and thus only the first image will display).
EMAIL PREFERENCE OPTIONS
Menards provides the most options for subscribers of these 3 competitors. They include an “Update your preferences” link on all messages – taking you to a preferences page that allows you to add/remove yourself from their various email types, as well as setting a frequency for emails from Menards.
The Home Depot has an “adjust your account settings” link on all messages – taking you to their version of a preferences page. However, it turns out that regarding email preferences this is basically a glorified unsubscribe page with no additional options related to email type or frequency.
As we did not receive an email beyond the opt-in confirmation message from Lowe’s, we cannot evaluate their typical preference options. However, within the confirmation email there was only a very indirect method of performing an unsubscribe request…clicking on a Privacy link and then scrolling through their privacy policy to find out that we must send an email to remove@lowes.com with a particular subject line. 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!
