Digital Spin by SubscriberMail

The First 2 Weeks – Upscale Clothing Retailers: Part 2 of 2

Posted by Nic Winters on September 28th, 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 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!

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• Category: Email Marketing Reviews | No comments »
• Tags: Branding, Email Marketing Best Practices, email rendering

Safeguard Your Brand & Email Reputation with User Roles

Posted by Nic Winters on March 25th, 2009

You work hard and invest great amounts of money to establish your brand, thus your company likely wouldn’t send out a direct mail piece or push a TV ad without reviewing it. Why would you treat your email marketing differently? …especially when it can be forwarded and spread for further exposure quicker than other marketing mediums!

Thus, when teaming with an email service provider, make sure that you will have access to variable user allowance controls. These could be as simple as a few basic user types (those who can create content, manage lists, deploy messages, etc.), an advanced allowance system such as SubscriberMail’s soon to be released User Feature Access Management tool, or a channel marketing solution for large organizations sharing corporate approved content to multiple divisions.

With the many restrictions brought about by CAN-SPAM, your email reputation could easily be damaged by an eager salesman entering the email address of a prospect who has not formally opted-in or an under-informed employee who deploys messages to an incorrect email list. In these highly regulated times, it’s always best to take a “safety first” approach.

With our new User Feature Access Management tool, clients have the ability to create various user roles within their accounts, specifying exactly which features should be exposed for each user type.

With SubscriberMail’s patented channel email marketing solution, a client can create corporate-approved content and email templates for use by independent marketing divisions, ensuring that messaging is uniform across channels and maintaining your brand identity.

Incorporating these types of technologies into your email marketing plans assists you in reducing your risk and safeguarding your precious brand and email reputation.

…which brings to mind a question – what potentially damaging features do your users have access to today?

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• Category: Email Marketing Best Practices | 1 comment
• Tags: Branding, Channel Marketing Solution, Email Reputation

Self-inflicted Brand Damage

Posted by Dave McCue on December 17th, 2008

I use Hotmail for my personal email account, and usually don’t have any issues. For the past week or so, however, a rogue advertisement for LG Electronics has been terrorizing me as I try to navigate the MSN site. Without provocation, I’ll be taken to a page that is completely blank save for a small LG ad in the upper left corner. There is no way to close the ad, or skip the ad, or even to navigate away from the page. I have to use my browsers’ Back button to get away from it. Suffice to say, it’s very annoying.

The irony of the situation is that I recently purchased an LG television, and have recommended the brand to anyone who has asked. Does the situation with their banner ad make me think less of LG as a brand? Not necessarily, but if you asked me about LG today, the first thing to pop into my head would be that annoying banner ad, not their latest ad for “Scarlet.”

That type of self-inflicted brand damage is easier to incur than one might think, as the public can be a pretty fickle bunch. If you send email communications, a slip up here or a slip up there may not seem like a big deal, but it could be enough to change what registers in one or more recipients’ minds when they think of your brand. An email that accidentally gets sent twice, an email with a badly formatted image, or typos—”oh yeah, those are the guys who can’t spell”—can do lasting damage.

Rigorous testing of your messages is the only way to prevent avoidable mistakes. It can seem excessive at times, but taking a few extra minutes to review your communications helps make sure your recipients are left with the impression you had in mind.

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• Category: Email Marketing Best Practices | 1 comment
• Tags: Branding, Email testing