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 do-it-yourself home improvement segment: The Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Menards.
OPT-IN PROCESS
The opt-in placement on these 3 competitors’ websites ranged from poor (The Home Depot – entry area at the base, requiring a considerable amount of scrolling to discover) to well done (Lowe’s right at the top and Menards near the top left displaying a recent example).
Both The Home Depot and Lowe’s only collect your email address, however Menards capitalizes on this opportunity by allowing you to set your preferences based on interests and the frequency of messages you wish to receive (All emails, 1 per week, 1 per month, 2 per month). Offering the opportunity to specify your preferred frequency can prevent future subscriber aggravation by setting expectations in advance.
Both Lowe’s and Menards utilize a double opt-in system that has the subscriber confirm their opt-in by clicking on a link in a welcome message. The thank you pages for these competitors both describe this process well, but Menards steps ahead of Lowe’s by guiding subscribers to add their from address to their address book on this page.
WELCOME MESSAGE
Greetings from both Lowe’s and Menards arrived within seconds beyond opt-in – a very timely response to begin the email relationship… whereas The Home Depot failed to send any confirmation or thank you via email.
Lowe’s has crafted their welcome message to be very well formatted for images being disabled, as the email is mostly text that asks the subscriber to click on a link to confirm their opt-in. In addition the email includes a reminder to add their email address to your address book to assist with future delivery and it points you to information on how you can find them on Facebook – promoting their social media presence.
The welcome email sent by Menards avoids the images off issue all together by being entirely text (however, this does nothing to establish the brand styling related to the company in their emails). The email asks for the subscriber to confirm their opt-in by clicking on a link which then takes them directly to the Menards home page with no confirmation that the process was completed… not quite as clear as the confirmation page used by their competitor. However, Menards does go above and beyond typical best practices by providing you with a link to view exactly how you opted-in, listing details such as the date/time of opt-in, page opt-in occurred, and the IP address collected at opt-in.
These 2 competitors fail to provide any true discount or offer in their welcome messages to entice the new subscriber to begin shopping right away – clearly a missed opportunity, but still a step above The Home Depot, 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.
Every time I hear the word “assume” I can’t help but recall the old saying (say it with me now): “when you assume you make an ass out of u and me.”
But when it comes to email marketing, making assumptions about your subscribers only makes you look the fool.
Here are a few assumptions I’ve seen email marketers make before, and why a subscriber would disagree:
• Assumption: You subscribe to my emails, therefore you likely visit my website often.
• Reality: Not exactly, in fact I might not have visited your site for a long time. It doesn’t mean I don’t read your emails, I just haven’t seen anything that made we want to click to the site in awhile. Don’t be afraid to make mention of the cool new features or special offers you have on your site; assuming I’m going to discover them on one of my “frequent” visits could lead to me never seeing them at all. Your emails shouldn’t be an exact replica of your site content, but some overlap can help keep email subscribers in tune with what is going on with your business beyond the inbox.
• Assumption: Using a “teaser” subject line will make recipients want to open my message.
• Reality: Risky move. If I’m not in a rush I might take the time to scan a preview or actually open your message, but don’t bet on it if your subject line doesn’t give me at least some idea of what to expect from your message content. Vague subject lines ["Have you seen what's new at ABC Company?"] are only going to work for those email marketers whose messages I loyally open most or all of the time. Which leads us to…
• Assumption: You open my messages all or most of the time
• Reality: I get email from dozens of different marketers, often in rapid succession. Some of them I don’t even read the subject line, let alone the message content. Of all the marketers who send me email, I would consider myself a “loyal” reader of a very small percentage. That percentage often shrinks over a given time period, but it rarely grows. Even if your metrics show that I am an engaged, active recipient, it’s your job to win me over again every time you email me—the line between “loyal reader” and “delete upon receipt” is perilously thin.
• Assumption: If the unsubscribe link is on there, you’ll find it.
• Reality: Have you looked near the bottom of your emails lately? I need a magnifying glass. I need the ability to read light gray letters against a white background. I need to deduce that I think we should see other people is your quirky way of saying click here to unsubscribe. If I don’t want your emails anymore, make it easy for me to part ways, or else I’m just going to mark you as Spam.
Avoid making assumptions about your email subscribers, and you’ll be better off. Unless, of course, you’re assuming that any assumptions you have are not entirely accurate—in that case, you’re just being realistic.
These are just a few assumptions email marketers should avoid—do you have any others? Post to the Comments section!
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 fast food hamburger restaurant segment: Burger King, McDonald’s, and Wendy’s.
OPT-IN PROCESS
Wendy’s easily outpaces their competitors regarding promoting email opt-in, as their website highlights the ability to opt-in for “WendyMail” on the center of the page. They even boast a $1 coupon that you will receive by email – always a great strategy to reinforce the value of your email communications during the signup process. In comparison, McDonald’s has a fairly general “Subscribe/Unsubscribe” link at the base of their website and Burger King practically hides their opt-in form. To opt-in for Burger King messages you must hover over the “Explore BK” area at the base of the website and then click on “BK Promotions” to find the option to sign up for emails – not a process I feel many visitors will be compelled to search out.
McDonald’s falls behind their 2 competitors regarding having a visually appealing opt-in form, as they rely upon a fairly non-branded form in comparison to Burger King’s and Wendy’s forms surrounded by food items. Each form collects a considerable amount of fairly similar information with a few items that stand out. McDonald’s takes a two step approach that allows you to specify the type of offers you would like to receive on their second opt-in page. Burger King asks you to specify how often you visit their restaurants and how many children you have in your household (a useful item for inclusion in kids-themed promotions). Also, both McDonald’s and Burger King offer the option of receiving mobile alerts as well.
Finally, in response to an opt-in Burger King displays a humorous thank you message (matching the off-kilter style of their advertisements) that proclaims filling out the form “That makes you a really great person. Seriously.” Wendy’s takes advantage of this chance to gather more information and provides you with the opportunity to complete a survey to further increase the relevancy of future emails.
WELCOME MESSAGE
A greeting from Wendy’s arrived just a few hours after opt-in – a fairly timely response to begin the email relationship. On top of the timely welcome, this email includes the $1 off coupon that they advertised during the opt-in process – a great incentive to establish value and relevance. This email utilized personalization fairly well as it incorporated the subscriber’s first name in at the beginning and pulled in the subscriber’s email address at the end (a great feature to assist in confusing mess that occurs once you forward an old email address to a new address). Wendy’s has done a decent job of using a significant amount of images but still maintaining a text portion of the email that can be seen with images off.
Both Burger King and McDonald’s failed to deploy welcome emails, missing out on this key opportunity to set the tone for future communications.
EMAIL PREFERENCE OPTIONS
None of the 3 competitors sent any additional emails within the first 2 weeks (and through the first 9 weeks only Wendy’s ever sent email). Thus, we have been limited to evaluating the email preference options provided by Wendy’s on their welcome message.
While Wendy’s fails to offer any preference center (only providing you with the ability to unsubscribe at the base of each message), their unsubscribe page does capitalize on this opportunity to collect additional information about those removing themselves from their list. It gives you the opportunity to inform them why you are unsubscribing – allowing Wendy’s to gather further insight.
Watch for our next edition in the coming weeks in which we will evaluate the campaigns of 3 new competitors!
Regardless of your political inclination there is little doubt that the CARS program (or Car Allowance Rebate System) has been successful in its effort to increase new car sales. (Six months ago I would have bet heavily against the odds that 250,000 new cars would be sold in the US in July or that Ford Motor Company would post its first car sales increase in 19 months.) While the costs associated with kick-starting the auto industry and who will ultimately bear the burden is debatable, there is little doubt that the offer itself has caught hold and is gaining traction both inside and outside the auto industry.
Just this morning a large, local furniture retailer began a campaign that offered a “cash for clunkers” rebate to anyone purchasing a new sofa, armoire, dining set, etc. between now and August 16 including pick-up and removal of the “old” furniture.
This is a great idea from a variety of standpoints. First of all the offer is easy to understand, it provides a valuable incentive on a limited-time basis and, perhaps more importantly, it solves a perceptual problem (what do I do with my old sofa?). It did not address the environmental benefits touted in the CARS program or any philanthropic donation benefit and my feeling is that doing so could have enhanced the cash-for-clunkers offer.
Xerox has announced its version of this offer called the Trade-In Promotion by offering rebates of up to $1,200 on eligible Xerox printer(s) purchased or leased between January 1, 2009 and September 30, 2009 with an eligible laser or multi-function trade-in.
Like the furniture retailer the Xerox offer also indicates “Xerox will pay shipping on your eligible laser or multifunction trade-in(s) which for many will be highly attractive. Unlike the furniture retailer, the Xerox offer also includes a Donation Program component which indicates that, “Xerox may also donate functioning equipment to the National Cristina Foundation” and furthermore that, “The NCF works to ensure that technology resources are given a second productive life as a tool for non-profit organizations, public agencies, disabilities, students-at-risk and the economically disadvantaged.”
From a What’s-In-It-For –Me perspective, it’s a triple winner: it gets me a new printer/mfp at a discount, it alleviates any real or imagined concerns about having to pay high shipping costs and it makes me feel really good about where my old, but-still-operable piece of equipment will end up.
If the cash-for-clunkers offer is as strong as I suspect it is in both the b2b and b2c arenas, we’re going to see many more iterations of it in the weeks and months ahead. The question becomes how to make it work within the context of your business. I’d love to hear how this has worked (or not worked) within your particular industry.
Every time I hear the word “assume” I can’t help but recall the old saying (say it with me now): “when you assume you make an ass out of u and me.”
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.
Regardless of your political inclination there is little doubt that the 
