In a post at the Email Wars blog, Dylan Boyd praises a recent message from Banana Republic. The minimalist email used simple text on an all-black background to announce an online sale that took place on 09.09.09. The copy read like this: "9 Hours Only! 20% off our favorite styles or 25% off when you use your Banana Republic card + Free Shipping when you spend $99 or more."
Boyd's approval begins with the retailer's habit of rotating the types of messages it sends. "I love the creativity of the separation of the item-driven email campaign [from] the event-based campaign," he notes. "They've been building a great cadence of breaking them up each week, and are getting rather aggressive early into the holiday retailing season."
He says Banana Republic gets it right in this email with elements like:
- A deadline that drives immediacy. Recipients have only one 9-hour window in which to make their purchase.
- A date chosen solely for its interesting configuration. No one expects a sale on the 9th of September, and unexpected sales can produce good results. Boyd offers this caveat, however: "I like to look at sales the night before [or the day of] the 1st/15th … as pay days equate [with] money in the bank and impulse purchases."
- A prominent location for the promo code. Boyd would prefer a code that loads automatically when subscribers click through, but he concedes this one is easy to find.
The Po!nt: It's almost the 15th! Any ideas? Remember: Event-driven campaigns can add variety and interest to your usual item-driven offers. No time like the present to try one out.
Source: The Email Wars. Read the full post here.
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by Christina "CK" Kerley
