This mailing dropped into my inbox at 8.55am – literally the last minute, as it contains offers for quick selling event tickets that go on sale at 9am. A risky strategy, but a clever one as it’s right at the top of the inbox when London’s workers check into the office.

In terms of design there’s some minor areas of improvement (where’s the hosted link and whitelabel stuff?) but it’s pretty much on the money. Lastminute has such a strong ownership of the pink colour and their company font that it is less reliant on the lastminute.com logo – this strong branding allows them to push the key offers right up to the top of the preview pane.  Throughout the mailing there’s a good balance of web text vs. branded image copy, and a slight changes to the layout of each module helps differentiate each area.

This short New Years Solus email from boutique hotel site Splendia is a great example of how social media activity can be combined with email in a non intrusive way.

The “Share on Twitter” links are high profile and above the fold, but their understated design doesn’t detract from the overall creative. Selecting the three most prominent social networks and skipping the rest can be a brave move, but will probably play off given their popularity. The ability to  “Share on Linkedin” is increasingly appearing in the Share With Your Network section of mailings – as Splendia typically caters to the professional and business market it seems a good fit with Linkedin.

Underneath the main offer in secondary modules are also links to Splendia’s activity on Facebook and Twitter. The modules are clear, easy to follow and explain why users should connect with them on a social network – these days simply saying “join us on Facebook” just won’t do.

Aside from social media implementation, there’s plenty that could be built upon here in terms of overall best practice – particularly the main offer and call to action, which are all held in one large image, and would result in a less interesting experience for viewers with images disabled.