Newsletter Monitor Blog

The new face of Sephora via email

Federica — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 18:56:33 +0000

Does the launch of a new website become an opportunity for brand to communicate via email? Of course yes! Subscribers must be updated about the new communication, the new areas of the website and everything that could enrich their experience as users (and e-shoppers).
This is the case of Sephora launching a new version of the website; and this is the newsletter sent in the middle of April to their subscribers.
The interesting elements to be mentioned as best practice of email marketing are:
- reference to the mobile version of the email
- the presence of the menu as header of the email, in order to give subscribers several touch points to the website
- a list of advantages given by the new website
- mention to the fine-tuning process due to the update of the website (and contact for any case of inconvenience)
- an area dedicated to the ongoing contest on Pinterest
- social icons to follow the brand in several online networks

The email marketing approach by Sephora is always inspiring: would you like to see more? Check out NewsletterMonitor, the benchmarking platform for email marketing, and you will get the most out of top brands and their communication via email.

Easter email marketing seen up close

Emanuela — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 12:51:30 +0000

Easter is the topic: after subject lines we focus now on email marketing creativities and strategies for the special occasion, with a look to some examples of newsletters catalogued on NewsletterMonitor, the benchmarking platform for email marketing.

Dean & De Luca exploits the occasion for the launch of a digital project; it’s interesting to notice they promote a virtual Easter catalogue with some suggestions to enjoy the celebration. Their approach is interesting: the occasion gives the opportunity to add value to the customer experience.

Hallmark dedicates a newsletter to Easter greetings and goodies with special offers to specific products (Easter cards, baskets, …). The communication in the newsletter is well-organized with a central main message teasing the upcoming arrival of Easter. Take a look

West elm‘s newsletter gives a nice insight to Easter with a graphic composition: the main area of the email is dedicated to spring and Easter. Even the call to action is strongly connected to the occasion, mentioning Easter Sale as a way to say hallo to spring with a special discount.

West elm Easter newsletter

Mini Bolden sent a nice newsletter where children are called “Easter bunnies”. Take inspiration by the special communication dedicated to the Easter card: some designs and tips to decorate them, after printing. In this case we can see another example of value-adding resource for the subscribers, with a double target (children and parents).

Mini Boden Easter newsletter

The last example is the newsletter sent by Amy Adele where we see an nice way to engage customers. For each product shipped, a surprise Easter egg is included. What is the surprise? A special discount coupon ranging from 10% to $100 off. It seems a nice idea to make customers become repeat!

Amy Adele Easter newsletter

Are you looking for new ispiration? Check out NewsletterMonitor!
You can choose among more than 2 million newsletters to find some original communication and get the most out of email marketing.

Email marketing: subjects at Easter time

Emanuela — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 18:39:43 +0000

Each occasion offers a new opportunity to engage users with a dedicated newsletter. As usual, let’s watch some subject lines concerning the special occasion of Easter:

Happy Spring! Easter Special Offer + Black Label
sent on 03/04 by Samsonite

EGGcellent Easter Ideas
sent on 06/04 by Planning Family

Happy Easter from Crocs
sent on 06/04 by Crocs

Easter Egg Hunt…find your voucher!
sent on 06/04 by Alex Blake

A Special Pinko Gift for Your Easter
sent on 06/04 by Pinko

Last Days! Easter Sale with Extra Saving Coupons
sent on 06/04 by Belk

Hop To Our Easter Deals
sent on 06/04 by Marc Ecko

Pick Your Easter Savings!
sent on 06/04 by Pro Sports Memorabilia

Hippity-hop! $10 OFF…Happy Easter weekend!
sent on 06/04 by Yves Rocher

Are you looking for more inspiration? Check out NewsletterMonitor, the platform for benchmarking in email marketing.
Set up the Brand Alert with the keyword “Easter” and you will receive a summary of the upcoming newsletters containing it, directly in your inbox.
In the meantime, enjoy Easter time!

Email marketing: newsletters for St. Patrick’s Day

Federica — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 18:01:38 +0000

In honor to St. Patrick’s Day, it follows a list with some examples of newsletters sent just the days before the 17th March.
In this blog we collected posts on email marketing strategies for special occasions such as Easter, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, … And let’s see if email marketing turns into green for the celebration of the Irish patron.
In the newsletter by Maurices we can see some green across all the layout; the icons refer to being lucky (as the main message) and remind as well to the celebration, even if Saint Patrick is not mentioned directly.

Another example is coming from Dean & De Luca: the celebration is used an opportunity for the brand to promote special Irish products and Irish folklore, including a short tail from the mythology.

Luck is a key message for another company, Gordon’s Jewelers: in this newsletter we can find again clovers and green.
According to this communication strategy, we’d like to say that it’s not best practice to put the main call to action of the same color of the background. Can you find it?

In the touristic industry, this become the occasion to focus on specific destinations, such as Dublin and New York, where to celebrate the day.
It’s interesting to find something adding value to subscribers of Hostels, such as a mini-guide on tips to enjoy the Day in Dublin.

Do you want to see more examples?
Start researching on NewsletterMonitor, the benchmarking platform for email marketing, and discover more about Saint Patrick’s Day newsletters.
Use the Search function to find all the newsletters referring to this special occasion.
Enjoy!

Email marketing for the launch of a digital project: Dior Mag

Emanuela — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 15:03:24 +0000

This is a hot period for the fashion industry, due to the recent week of runways. We remind you about a post dedicated to the different email marketing strategies for fashion runways, available on NewsletterMonitor Blog. In this context, we’d like to provide an example on how email marketing can become a key support for the launch of a new product or service: how are brands using any connection with subscribers to convey news about a digital project?

The case of Dior is an interesting example: during the fashion week, the layout of the newsletter already introduces some insights about the digital magazine.
In this newsletter, users are invited to participate in real time to the live streaming of the runway in Paris (general context) but the communication includes a connection to Dior Mag with a huge title and a link at the bottom. The message says “do not miss” as a teaser for subscribers.

During the same day (2^nd of March) another newsletter gives true visibility to the project: a sentence is quite explicative and the call to action of the email is dedicated to discover the digital magazine.

It’s interesting to find out the strategic choice to launch a new editorial product at the right moment. As said, the context gives the opportunity to get in touch to subscribers adding a value to their experience in the relationship with the brand. And the newsletter plays a key role in being a channel for the launch of the editorial project.
It’s interesting to notice how both subject lines refer to it, giving evidence to DIORMAG

DIORMAG – Ready-To-Wear Fall Winter 2012 show live

DIORMAG, the new digital magazine

You can read an article on Washington Post dedicated to the launch of the online magazine.

Discover more about the next step in the digital communication of Dior (or other fashion brands) on NewsletterMonitor, the platform to see email marketing close.

Fred Flare email marketing approach: how pop is it?

Federica — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 17:08:36 +0000

This week we focus on the email marketing approach of a single brand, to watch deeply subject lines, layout, connection with social networks and so on.

The chosen website is Fred Flare; it belongs to Apparel industry.
The company define itself a sparkling pop shop of make-you-smile fashion and home items. Let’s see how pop is the shop in digital direct marketing.
Subject lines are very short: it follows a list of the latest subjects where no more than 4/5 words are included.

Subject lines by Fred Flare

A key promotional message is repeated in contents such as “Sale”, prices and “Free shipping”. Anyway, subject lines don’t give any anticipation of the newsletter content.

The structure of the newsletter is always focused on a main message, where a layout based on one image catches the subscriber’s attention. Here are the thumbnails of the newsletters sent in the last couple of months (mid of January – end of February)

Newsletters by Fred Flare

We want to give relevance to the message in the layout: as said, the main element is a big image.

It follows an example from the last newsletter, sent on 24th February.
Subject says The time is NEW… and the wheel becomes a clock, to remind the concept of time; again we see the reference to money, in the text: Time Is Money Game Show Clock

Fred Flare newsletter

It’s interesting to find social references at the bottom; beside the message to “forward a friend”, we see connection to share the newsletter on Faceebook, Twitter and Add this to social sharing.

A consideration about Fred Flare email marketing approach: they convey promotional messages, strongly connected to sales and prices. Though, their communication is fresh and follows the philosophy of less is more: one message from the subject to the layout, one big image and one call to action.

To keep an eye on the newsletters by Fred Flare, use NewsletterMonitor, the benchmarking platform for email marketing. Find out broadcast data, monthly average and any other curiosities on email by this (or other) brand: monitor over 2 million newsletters in 5 languages from more than 10,000 brands and 20 industries.

Best emails of Valentine’s Day

Emanuela — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:41:34 +0000

It follows an overview of some of the best newsletters sent in occasion of Valentine’s Day, as announced in the previous post: let’s have a look at the best templates and ideas used in email marketing. All the newsletters collected in this post were broadcasted on 14^th February.

Urban Outfitters’s approach is fresh and interesting: the brand catches the opportunity to renew the importance of the relationship with subscribers.
The tone of the communication is focused on love (in the graphic approach, in the code UOLOVSU) and connected to Valentine’s Day with the use of an Ecard maker at the bottom of the newsletter.

Samsonite chooses to insert some customized elements, such as the layout background. References to the special occasion in the main message, with a coupon dedicated:

Interesting approach by Jack Daniel’s: the main message of the subject point on the importance of sharing. At the bottom is visible a dedicated pool connected to it, where users are asked to indicate how are they sharing a bottle of the product for the special occasion. The subject, as said, is Share the Love this Valentine’s Day!

A topic strongly connected with the occasion is to share love: in this case Jessica London chooses to highlight it starting from the subject Share the Love! 50% OFF for Valentine’s Day. CODE: JLOVE followed by the pre-header Shop in the Name of Love! 50% Off Highest Priced Item. Code: JLOVE. Shop Now and it is present as well in the email:

A very nice tone and mood in the email by Crocs where the main image refers to Valentine’s Day in the message and in the graphics.

Do you want to see more?
Let’s keep on researching on NewsletterMonitor, the benchmarking platform for email marketing: you can start your research inserting the keyword “Valentine’s Day” and find all the newsletters collected on the database with reference to it in the subject or in the body content. Enjoy it!

Valentine’s Day email marketing subjects

Federica — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:45:33 +0000

As the special occasion is getting closer, users’ inboxes become full of messages concerning love and presents for Valentine’s Day.
Would you like to find a key message for a subject copywriting that would light up in the inbox? As a suggestion, we now focus on subject lines of newsletters recently sent by companies belonging to different industries:

Cherry Red is the colour of love and you’ll love an extra 20% off of all Sale products [Dr Martens | Jewels/Watches/Accessories]

Last chance to get Personalized M&M’S for V-Day! [M&M’S| Food]

Valentine’s day gifts and sale ends tomorrow [Paul Smith | Apparel/Personal Objects]

Fall in love with Groupon’s V-Day deals [Groupon | Mass Market Distribution]

There’s still time to shop for Valentine’s Day with free overnight shipping [La Perla|High Fashion]

4 New Recipes to Love! [Betty Crocker | Food]

Love to Save 50%? Details Inside. [DNKY |Apparel/Personal Objects | Jewels/Watches/Accessories]* this is the subject of an email planned on severals newsletters for advertising of Annie Sez.

Looking for inspiration for your Valentine’s Day email marketing campaign?
Discover the innovative platform for benchmarking NewsletterMonitor.
Activate an Alert on the specific keyword “Valentine’s Day” and you will see all the upcoming emails concerning this special occasion.
Keep on following our blog: a post dedicated to Valentine’s Day with a selection of the best email marketing campaigns is coming soon. Stay tuned!

Mobile marketing: tips and Estee Lauder email anatomy

Emanuela — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:52:29 +0000

According to the increasing use of smartphone devices among users, we should be ready to optimize communication for mobile. Simple and useful advices must be considered for mobile email marketing campaigns, if you want to be effective with those subscribers using a mobile phone.
How do you want your email to look like?
Consider at least three key elements while thinking to a mobile device:

Font: the importance of fonts is affected by size, colours and type. Use bold fonts to highlight and give relevance to the main messages. Remember that the screen on mobile is smaller, so be clear in getting to the point.

Images: scale properly the images; get a few of them and make sure they are resized correctly.

Spacing: spread out your text in order to help the user’s reading; be sure not to make the subscribers get lost in a compact amount of information.

Use these best practices to optimize your email marketing campaigns in mobile version.

The previous post concerning this topic was taken by an example from ToysRus; check out on another example showing highlights on the three elements (font, images and spacing) in the email anatomy of the welcome email by Estee Lauder.

Fonts: as we can see, the main messages and the product offer are in bold; it’s interesting to notice the use of capital letters to stress some messages.

Images: In this case, no images are included in the mobile version; would you consider it a missed opportunity? Or they have forgot them?

Spacing: find a good balance in the composition of the text; each sentence is well distant to the others and blocks of messages are divided with lines.

Other elements to be noticed in this email, concerning best practice in the communication strategy, are:
- integration with social networks: notice the presence of double links to the Facebook corporate fanpage (in the top and again at the bottom)
- introduce touch points, such as the number of customer service
- preference centre, which lets the subscribers select areas of interest to get the most out of email program
- benefits: notice how they are welcoming the user with a special offer code (FIRSTORDER0112)
- signature: the presence of the signature gives reference to the email and strengthen loyalty to the brand

Notice that a good practice is not respected: we can’t see any unsubscribe link in the mobile version. The user should instead be able to opt-out from each communication easily and quickly.

Let’s watch the version of the newsletter for webmail:

Did you get useful tips to improve your email marketing for mobile?
Keep on looking for new examples on NewsletterMonitor, the innovative platform to see email marketing close.

Email examples concerning the Year of the dragon

Emanuela — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:54:47 +0000

Does Chinese New Year become another special occasion for email marketing?
Let’s see some examples of different brands communicating with their subscribers to engage them. It’s interesting to notice the use of the dragon as iconic symbol, often present in the layout or for the special edition products.

Let’s find a couple of examples in the newsletters sent by Shanghai Tang, a company belonging to apparel industry.
In the first one it’s interesting to see how the development of a partnership gives as a result the mixture of the Chinese culture in a special edition of customized products by Nespresso. Let’s see how the occasion becomes the opportunity for a product launch:

Beside the experience of co-marketing, we can expect various ways to celebrate the year of the dragon, starting by the production and the launch of customized accessories.
This is the second newsletter concerning Chinese New Year sent by Shanghai Tang. We want to mention the customized layout with the image of dragon and the link to the dragon collection giving a suggestion to find a whole scenario of customized products.
This newsletter was sent the 17^th January:

A third example is given by Beau Coup, a company selling online favors and belonging to the gifts industry; this newsletter shows the use of the occasion to give users an insight into Chinese culture to promote decoration, gifts and food. We notice the use of a special code for the benefit of Free shipping, which is CNY and means “Chinese New Year”:

Another New Year, another special occasion to get in touch with subscribers.
To find new examples of email marketing curiosities connected to the Year of the Dragon, keep on monitoring it on the innovative platform NewsletterMonitor. A tip could be to set up the keyword “dragon” and see which emails are going to be sent during this year concerning this symbol.