AM Inbox: Send $30 to a friend

>>I’m back from the Email Insider Summit and getting back into my daily routine. Rather than hit you with a huge post covering the past six days, here’s an AM Inbox covering Friday through Tuesday. Tomorrow’s AM Inbox will bring us up to date.

RetailEmail.Blogspot monitors the email marketing campaigns of more than 100 of the top online retailers. Here are highlights from our inbox this morning:

OfficeMax, 12/11 — $30 Coupon Enclosed for You and a Friend
OfficeMax incentivizes their subscribers to send a $30-off coupon to a friend. When you send it to a friend, the email’s subject line says “____ has sent you a gift of Savings‏” and is personalized with the sender’s name. The sender can include a message that shows up at the top of the email along with a message from OfficeMax saying:

You received this email from a friend who is an OfficeMax customer. You will not receive additional emails from OfficeMax as a result of receiving this message. If you would like to receive OfficeMax emails directly in the future, please sign up now.

The message is slightly different from the original message, so it’s not a true forward. On the downside, if it were more of a true forward the friend would have been able to send the coupon on to their friends. As it is, the message received by the friend doesn’t include a way to forward the savings along again. That’s a bit of a missed opportunity, cutting the viral process short.



RadioShack, 12/10 — 'Tis The Season To Do Stuff
More evidence that retailers are focusing on content to differentiate themselves, RadioShack has launched the RadioShack Learning Center. Perhaps in the days following Christmas they’ll use this offering to reach out to subscribers to engage with those of them that received gifts from RadioShack. Sony did this last holiday season (see Jan. 8 AM Inbox).



Norm Thompson, 12/10 — FREE SHIPPING is just a click away!
This email does a great job of drawing your eye down through the email to follow the stocking. Sam’s Club had a recent email that used a Christmas tree with the same effect; you instinctively want to see the rest of the image so you scroll down. It’s a nice little design trick to get people scrolling down through the email.



EB Games, 12/8 — By Invitation Only
EB Games is tapping their subscriber base to recruit online survey panel participants. Since your subscribers are among your most engaged customers, they are an ideal group to receive this kind of message.



SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER:
Lands’ End, 12/7 — $15 gift, free shipping, 20% off women's (no French hens)
Neiman Marcus, 12/7 — What's your favorite Big 100 Gift? Plus FREE SHIPPING AT ANY PRICE & Free Gift Wrap
Harry & David, 12/9 — 12 Gifts Your True Love Will Appreciate (More Than Birds, Milkmaids, Pipers, etc.)
Saks Fifth Avenue, 12/9 — Santa's Hip List
Barnes & Noble, 12/10 — Final Week for Free Delivery by Christmas
Home Depot, 12/10 — Last Chance for Free Shipping with Christmas Delivery!
Costco, 12/10 — We've Saved the Best for Last on costco.com!
TigerDirect, 12/10 — Monday Madness: 30 Great Deals That Won't Last...
Sharper Image, 12/10 — Monday-Only Specials: Save up to 50%
Buy.com, 12/7 — Alert: Black Friday III
Circuit City, 12/9 — Deja vu: Black Friday prices are back!
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