Breaking the rules: Brooks Brothers

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Elliot Ross

Earlier today on Twitter, Chad White over at Retail Email Blog posted this great campaign that breaks the rules, but in doing so stands out from the crowd. The Brooks Brothers email features a huge stack of polo shirts, in every colour under the sun. Much like the water slide email we saw a few years ago, it’s very long and against the usual ‘best practice’, but in breaking the rules it communicates the breadth of the product range.

It also shows why we need to change our approach to “the fold” – instead of filling the top area with product details and buttons, there’s something that engages the user and entices them to scroll down, eventually finding the call to action buttons at the bottom.

Wonderful email from @BrooksBrothers today: The $2,000 Polo… yfrog.com/nzps7yoj
— Chad White (@RetailEmailBlog) April 16, 2012

Retargetting via Email: John Lewis Example

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Elliot Ross

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Behavioural retargetting is a technology that’s recently been popularised on the web – it’s the process of targeting users via banner ad networks after they’ve visited a brand’s site, with an aim to get them to return and convert.

This triggered campaign from UK retailer John Lewis uses this methodology in email. I received the email a few hours after browsing the John Lewis site for iPad accessories, reminding me to go back to the site and providing more reasons to shop with them.

As with the retargetting ads online, it’s easy to go overboard with this kind of thing, so it’s important to pay attention to the tone of voice of the message. John Lewis do a good job here, gently reminding the user why they’re receiving the email but not being too pushy.

Pinning to Pinterest from Email: Toys R Us Case Study

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Elliot Ross

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Social network-of-the-moment Pinterest* allows users to collect photos and images from websites into curated ‘boards’. Whilst it’s been around for a year or so, it’s usage from the start of 2012 has really taken off – especially amongst the typical demographics that frequently shop online – and therefore it’s worth having a look at how email marketers can leverage Pinterest to support their email campaigns.

Here’s two immediate ways you can start to integrate Pinterest with your emails:

“Follow us on Pinterest” links

These are very easy to add – and if your brand already has a presence on Pinterest then you can add these links to email campaigns easily. It’s simply a link to your brand’s Pinterest page, or if you require, you can also link to a specific board.

Pinning to Pinterest from Email

This recent campaign from Toys R Us allows the user to post a product shot to Pinterest straight from the email creative:

The code that allows this to happen is straightforward, and similar to the code used in “share with your network” links:

<a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=[1]&amp;media=[2]&amp;description=[3]">Pin this on Pinterest</a>

* Snippet thanks to E-Mail Marketing Tipps

Using the snippet above, marketers can specify:

the “pinned from” url, that Pinterest will link back to (for example the product page on the brand’s site).
the URL of the shared image (so it doesn’t have to be the exact image in the email)
a suggested description of the pinned image (for example a product name)

Once the ‘Pin it’ button in the email is clicked, the user has the option to post the product onto a Pinterest board, and has the option to share that post on Facebook and Twitter. Other users can then repin the image onto their own Pinterest boards.

Of course this is still new functionality, and the social site as a whole is still growing and evolving, so it will be interesting to see how marketers can use this to their advantage and add innovation to their campaigns. If you use Pinterest in your email campaigns it’d be great to hear about it in the comments!

* For more background on Pinterest, take a look through this great slideshare deck by Michael Litman

The Ultimate Guide To Pinterest

Email Inspiration: Made.com The Making campaign

Posted on September 8, 2011 by Elliot Ross

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We’ve featured Made.com‘s product mailings before, but more recently they’ve also started to send an occasional behind the scenes email. Part of their proposition is that you can order an item of furniture from a limited production run, and therefore the customers are perhaps more interested in this than they would be for more high-street brands. Nevertheless, it’s a quirky way for a retail company to lead with a message that isn’t a direct product sell.

Email Inspiration: Kiehl’s Customer Favourites

Posted on August 31, 2011 by Elliot Ross

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I like this Kiehl’s email, simply because it features products that are customer favourites. A lot of ecommerce emails out there are all about products the store wants to shift, which is great, as long as they’re also what the customer is after. Even if these products aren’t strictly the top 5 sold, simply positioning these as the favourites makes the tone of the email a lot friendlier.