AM Inbox: Turning your customers into brand celebrities

>>Join the eec’s new Facebook group: I know how to spell “email”

The Retail Email Blog monitors the email marketing campaigns of more than 100 top online retailers. Here are highlights from my inbox this morning:

Backcountry, 10/23 — Backcountry Newsletter - 20% Off Code, Boot Guides, Halloween Ideas
Retailers routinely incent customers to review products with discounts and sweepstakes, but how about notoriety? In Backcountry’s latest monthly newsletter, they forego their usual Employee Gear Closet (where staffers talk about the gear they use and love) and dedicate the space to highlighting one of their more prolific product reviewers and question answerer, Angus Bohanan, who they profile on the landing page. Essentially they’ve made Angus into a kind of brand *********. This is a nice way of acknowledging the contributions of your most vocal and loyal customers.



Bluefly, 10/23 — Rock the Coat
This is a well-timed, short and pithy subject line. Moreover, the subject is back up with Bluefly’s Fashion Decision ’08 feature, which asks customers about the fashion choices of the presidential candidates. It’s a light way of getting at a topical, heated issue while staying on brand.



Northern Tool, 10/23 — Chad, Save Big With Free Shipping
Northern Tool is mining the data on their website to generate content for their emails, specifically, they’re printing the most popular categories and searches. This is akin to highlighting best sellers. But what I don’t like about how they did this is that they alphabetized the results. Why not show them in the order of popularity unfiltered? Doing that would give it a certain newsiness, making it more relevant.



Linens ’n Things, 10/23 — Going Out of Business Sale - New Markdowns Taken!
Linens ’n Things follows up their “Liquidation Sale” email on Oct. 18 with this more direct messaging. These are certainly hard times for retailers.

SUBJECTIVITY SCANNER: Select noteworthy subject lines
Abercrombie & Fitch, 10/23 — Get The Latest Looks For Christmas.
Neiman Marcus, 10/23 — Ooh, Ah! The Christmas Book is here
Crate & Barrel, 10/23 — It's here...our 2008 Holiday catalogue, plus Free Shipping.
Circuit City, 10/23 — Scary good deals on cameras & more. Plus, get a Wii Fit today!
Bloomingdale’s, 10/23 — Take 15% Off, Today Only During The Shopping Benefit
Barnes & Noble, 10/23 — Save 20% in Our New B&N Home collection
_____________________
SEARCH... By Post Category / By Selling Season / By Retailer / By Topic / Monthly Archive</img> </img> </img> </img> </img>