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 luxury car segment: Jaguar, Mercedes, and Porsche.
OPT-IN PROCESS
All 3 competitors did well regarding opt-in promotion on their websites, as the no scrolling was required to opt-in. Mercedes places a standard opt-in entry field area in a prominent location at the top right of the page, while Porsche requires a little more searching as the link doesn’t stand out in the bottom left with a message that doesn’t exactly scream email – “Dialog and Newsletter”. Jaguar takes it a step further by promoting opt-in in 2 areas, both on the left and bottom.
The opt-in page for Porsche is very simplistic, only asking for your salutation, first name, and last name – but all are required. One great feature about the Porsche opt-in process is an intermediary page you see before arriving at this form, which explains what you can expect and includes a link to the latest newsletter. Jaguar and Mercedes both provide the ability to specify the car models you are interested in (a great piece of data for future email segmentation). However, this and many other fields on the Jaguar form are required – something that may reduce the number of interested parties looking for a simple opt-in. They do capitalize on this opportunity though, as they even ask about your current vehicle and when you plan to purchase again.
WELCOME MESSAGE
Of these 3 competitors, only Porsche sent a welcome message. Their text email arrived around 2 minutes after the opt-in – a very timely response to begin the email relationship. The message serves just one purpose – to confirm your subscription, as Porsche utilizes a double opt-in list. The all text email lacks branding and the style one might associate with a luxury auto manufacturer, but obviously nothing is lost with images disabled in this key message to confirm your subscription. Porsche also used a very generic subject line of “Newsletter Subscription” – not exactly the friendly greeting in my inbox that I expected. Their off-putting from name matches the cold subject line – as “no-reply@porsche.de” also doesn’t extend a warm welcome.
Even with these faults… at least I know that Porsche received my opt-in and I’m officially on their list – something that isn’t so clear with their 2 competitors.
Watch for Part 2 in the coming weeks in which we will evaluate campaigns sent beyond the welcome message and preference editing options.
I recently received an email from the The Cheesecake Factory. The “From Name” seemed to be more appropriate for a welcome message, “Cheesecake Factory Greetings”. It was confusing in particular because Gmail truncated it so I only saw “Cheesecake Factory Greet.” As I’ve been on their list for some time, the “Greetings” comment made me pause-why not just have “Cheesecake Factory”?
The subject line also left me a little cold, “Announcing More Small Plates & Snacks”. What’s a “small plate”? I see there are more of them now! And oh boy…more snacks. Perhaps the snippet text would provide further insight and make me want to open the email? Here’s what I saw “To ensure you continue to receive email from THE CHEESECAKE FACTORY® , please add …” Yep…I’m drooling now…
Joking aside this illustrates the growing importance of snippet text (aka preview text). Increasingly, email clients are adding this feature after the subject line as a third means for a recipient to decide whether to open an email. At this point I know who wrote me, but unsure why they’re sending “Greetings”, the subject line is vague and there’s not really any snippet text driving me to open the email. I probably wouldn’t normally have opened it to be honest.
But for the sake of a full review of the message I pushed on.
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 upscale clothing retail segment: Banana Republic, Eddie Bauer, and J. Crew. In part 2 we will now investigate campaigns sent beyond the welcome email and preference editing options.
INITIAL CAMPAIGNS
All 3 competitors made a definite impression over the first 2 weeks by sending additional emails beyond the welcome message. Both Eddie Bauer (6 emails) and J. Crew (5 emails) however were a little more aggressive than Banana Republic – who sent 2 emails over that same timeframe.
Each of these e-marketers utilized designs with large images that contained mainly text (thus not optimizing their creative for images being disabled). Banana Republic featured an eye-catching design, but the text across the top and down the left side was actually included in the image – causing a blank appearance with images off. Eddie Bauer sent an email that was nearly all text but as they coded this in images, it too appeared blank with images disabled. J. Crew followed in their footsteps with this email boasting a sale with what appeared to be all text, and once again with images off… all is lost. Compounding these issues is the fact that both Eddie Bauer and J. Crew are using image mapping on some of their emails (making sections within images linked to separate URLS) within these large images – a feature that is not supported by all email clients.
However, even though these emails are not designed with images off in mind – all 3 competitors are incorporating various best practices as well. Eddie Bauer and J. Crew are both reminding subscribers to add them to their address book (to ensure future message delivery) and provide forward to a friend capabilities. J. Crew even takes this a step further by including a link for your friend to opt-in if the message has been forwarded to them. All 3 are promoting their involvement in social media within their emails (including Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and YouTube). Each of the competitors are also using snippet text above their creative, however J. Crew is hampering their efforts by placing this text below their link to view a mobile version – causing the mobile link text to appear in the inbox next to the subject line instead of the snippet text, etc.
In my eyes, Banana Republic committed the worst crime of this group in only their second email to me post-welcome message. To my surprise I received a promotional email from one of their other stores, Piperlime, stating that they thought I would enjoy hearing about these deals… even though I chose not to select to receive messages from their other brands during the opt-in process. Even worse, at the base of the email I found that they weren’t just supplying me with a chance to opt-in for further Piperlime emails… I was required take action if I wished to remain on the Banana Republic list but not receive Piperlime emails!
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 upscale clothing retail segment: Banana Republic, Eddie Bauer, and J. Crew.
OPT-IN PROCESS
The opt-in placement on these 3 competitors’ websites was fairly poor, placing the opt-in opportunity at the very bottom of the page below a large image – requiring scrolling. However, Banana Republic and Eddie Bauer did a much better job of calling attention to the opt-in area than J. Crew – which practically hid this capability by using just a small line of text asking you to opt-in.
Banana Republic’s opt-in form wins the data collection prize as they allow you to specify your interest areas, provide your birth date (as they will send you an birthday offer), and ask if you are interested in receiving emails from any of their other brands. The other 2 competitors allow for much fewer options, however at least J. Crew lets you specify your sex in order to potentially customize offerings – unlike Eddie Bauer.
All 3 competitors do an excellent job of pushing you to start shopping with messages on their thank you pages. However, only Eddie Bauer’s page suggests that you add them to your address book to ensure the delivery of future emails.
WELCOME MESSAGE
Greetings from all 3 retailers arrived within minutes of opt-in – a very timely response to begin the email relationship. Both Eddie Bauer and J. Crew utilized very large images within their messages. However with images off these messages appear very differently as Eddie Bauer has coded their email to limit the image size – leaving only a small piece of alt text in what appears to be an extremely short email. J. Crew did not utilize any alt tags for their large image of stylized text (which could have been coded as a solely as text), thus resulting in what appears as a blank email in the preview pane. J. Crew also utilized a poor from name of “ContactUs” on their welcome email – an issue they resolve on all following emails (where they change this to “J.Crew”)
At first glance it appears that Banana Republic crafted their welcome message considerably better with images off in mind – and also sport a welcome offer for free shipping (a great way to reinforce the value that will be supplied within your future emails). However, when viewed with images off one sees that they have made each of the blocks of text contained within images – resulting in only alt text within the email with images disabled.
Watch for Part 2 in the coming weeks in which we will evaluate campaigns sent beyond the welcome message and preference editing options.
I recently received an email from the 
