Posted by Kate Fleming on Thu, Feb 19, 2009 @ 08:48 AM
Where the story begins....
I have a favorite pair of running shoes. The Brooks Adrenaline. I know them, I love them. I've gone through dozens of pairs in the last nearly ten years. I ran the NYC marathon in these shoes.
I bought the first pair at a specialty running store, where I tried on about 15 different pairs and ran around city block while a very serious runner type monitored my gait and then peppered me with questions. Finally, we settled on the Brooks. I was hooked.
At $90 a pair, these shoes were actually cheaper than a lot of the other shoes I'd tried, but they still weren't exactly cheap. Still, I went back to the same store for the next few pairs, just out of loyalty. Finally, three pairs in, I realized I was wearing through them too quickly-it was time to look for a bargain on the Internet.
And I found it. One company was offering two (2!!) pairs of my beloved Brooks for the same $90 I'd been paying for one. Wow. And free shipping. Done.
And done again. The next time I went back they had the same deal, and I bought my shoes again. And I guess in some fit of enthusiasm, I signed up to receive emails.
And there the love affair ends.
What makes a good email marketing campaign? I'm not an expert in the sense of knowing the exact science of how people react to text alignment, colors, and page layout, but I do know what I like-and don't like.
Some of the things I like:
- A targeted email that takes into account past searches I've done or past purchases I've made. (Kate, Looking for great deals to London? Why, yes, I am! Expedia's done a great job of sending me emails with cheap ticket deals for places to which I've clearly expressed an interest in travelling.)
- A great sale email. When the sales are really, genuinely good and rare. (J.Crew does this; so does Neiman Marcus. Sure, I can't remember the last time I bought anything, but they make me check them out just in case.)
- Clever copy or design. This says the company isn't just sending out crap-they've actually put time into thinking about their audience, and what they might like. (Planned Parenthood does this. They send me emails that open with issues-the repeal of the global gag rule or birth control advocacy-I'm really concerned about. But the emails aren't pedantic-they're usually engaging and well-written, and I'm inclined to read them.)
Which brings me back to the company that sold me my cheap running shoes...
I started out loving them (they sold me cheap shoes!) but with persistent and ill-advised use of email, this company squandered all of my goodwill. So what happened?
Well, first of all, remember all those things I like that I mentioned earlier? NONE of those. Not one targeted email taking into account what I had shopped for (Running shoes. That's all I ever wanted. Brooks running shoes.), not one email for a really good, rare sale (as you'll see in the screenshots that follow, it's pretty clear that every day is a sale at this company. If that's the case, why they ever need to send me an email about it is beyond me.), not one piece of clever copy or design. Ever. (Oh, except maybe that barn. Get it? It's the "bargain barn." Clever.)
There's even one tantalizing email that suggests they might know something about me--they wouldn't pitch me on a women's sale if they didn't know I was a woman, right? But, alas, it's a tease--there will be no segmenting of more specific audiences for this intrepid company.
Add to that the fact that they send me an email almost every day-the nine (9!!) screenshots below are from January 30 to February 17, and I even left a few out because they pretty much looked the same as other ones, and I wanted to mix it up a little. Really? These emails are supposed to make me want to buy from you? To encourage customer loyalty?
So, without further delay, here is what NOT to do in an email marketing campaign:
Wow--they know I'm a woman!:
The aforementioned "barn":
And that is how you lose a customer.
The end.