From: DKNY.com Subject Lines: Various Date: Monday February 1, 2010 - Monday, March 1, 2010 DKNY seems be stuck in a design rut. Since summer of 2009, I've been seeing a reoccurring trend in their designs (an image of a group of girls taken at the same distance & camera angle, paired with a headline). Every now and then they'll throw in a different email like a sale message or something for purses, but overall the repetitive design style has lost my interest. I might suggest trying some new & creative imagery, having the girls break out of the grid, adding in some color or additional imagery or trying a new template structure.

From: crewcuts
Subject Line: cooper's D.I.Y tips
Date: Saturday, March 6, 2010

This is actually a spread from the physical catalog, but it completely grabbed my attention, and I'm hoping for crewcuts to create an email campaign based on the DIY idea. I have always been into crafting and all things creative, and particularly adore the ruffled seasaw dress with the dots. There's part of me that has an aversion to the idea of spending $64 for a kids dress and then messing it up with a marker, but really, the dot-finished look is like cuteness personified.

From: BananaRepublic.com
Subject Line: Chino goes chic-every day of the week
Date: Tuesday, February 16, 2010

I really like the originality of this design. The partial image with an arrow to "See More" really grabbed my interest.

It can be difficult to think up new ideas for email. When the "horizontal scrolling email" was introduced everyone thought, "Why didn't I think of that?!" I urge you to find your own unique ideas and styles. Set yourself apart and watch user engagement soar!

From: The Zoe Report
Subject Line: TZR: Best Overall
Date: Thursday, February 25, 2010

Don't tell me that because your technology is limited or your staff is small that you can't achieve relevance. This Zoe Report email is a miracle of relevance, sans stated or inferred preferences.

It's true: the looks of the nineties are coming back. To get myself ready to re-embrace the era, I downloaded Season 1 of the original Beverly Hills, 90210, which I happily watch while I work out on the elliptical each morning. Anyway, this morning, circa 5am, Luke Perry made his first appearance as Dylan McKay, "Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know," wearing (what!?) OVERALLS. Yes, overalls, with just one strap buckled. I almost fell off the elliptical.

So what appears in my inbox circa 7:47am? Yes, overalls, courtesy of Gaultier via Rachael Zoe. Despite her - er - debated flaws, Zoe knows what her market is obsessing about, and cover(all)s it.

Yes, advanced technologies and robust support teams are important parts of building an exceptional marketing program. But so is simply thinking about your subscribers and creating content that strikes a cord with them. I know that's something all of us can do, with just one strap buckled ;).

From: Dell Direct
Subject Line: 8-Hour Sale! Today Only - 7am-3pm CT!
Date: Friday, February 19, 2010 2:30:12 AM

When we create email campaigns to drive a response, most experts will agree that urgency is a key component of an offer. Without it, subscribers can save an offer to come back to at a later date, become distracted and eventually fail to respond at all.

With that said, short notice sales are very popular and often drive huge response rates by requiring the recipient to take immediate action. Personally, I love a good weekend sale or 3-day event where I know I need to act in order to get my savings. Keeping this in mind, advance notice has to be close to the short-term event and be delivered the morning the event starts. Sadly, Dell's email may have cut that window too tight and possibly turned subscribers off.

8 hours is a very short-term sale. While I received this email notification on the morning of the sale and before it started, I wasn't sitting at my computer waiting for it to come in. By the time I did see the message the sale had already ended. Email is a relatively immediate response medium, most opens and clicks happen in the first 72 hours and in the case of this message, that left out a majority of the response this email could've received.

It would've been better to send this message one or two days early, providing email subscribers advance notice (even exclusive notice) to the event, allowing them to plan for it and take advantage. This could even have been followed up with a reminder the day of the event. This way, instead of being disappointed that I missed a chance to pick up a new netbook at a great price, I might have instead been utilizing the express ship component and had it in my hands before my next business trip.

From: Clinique
Subject Line: 3 tips to make eyes pop | FREE Shipping + 2 FREE minis!*
Date: Wednesday, February 10, 2010

From: Clinique
Date: Wednesday, February 10, 2010

I was thinking about buying some eye shadow -- easy right? Nope. There's matte, sheer, shimmer, gloss, pearl, powder, stick, cream, roll-on, liquid... and the list goes on. Makeup can be a bit overwhelming, so I was glad to see Clinique's eye-opening tips included in their email. The jumbo-sized products take me back to my pre-school picture books when life was a bit simpler, and there's plenty of clean, white space that leave me feeling calm and relaxed. I can totally do this.

The Eye Shadow Duo? I can rock that. And now I know how to put it on like a pro! As an added bonus, clicking on the Shop Now button takes me directly to the Eye Shadow Duo page and right below the product information, there's a How to Use tab with instructions, a Video tab with a demo and an Expert Tips tab that shows me how to bring out the best in my eyes.

Providing product tips increases my confidence and makes me much more likely to buy. I still have to make the all-important decision of matte verses shimmer, but at least I'll know how to put it on once I do. Thanks, Clinique!

From: Kate Spade
Subject Line: our favorite gifts, for the guy(s) on your list
Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2010

After receiving so many fun emails from Kate Spade in my inbox, I find this Valentine's Day message for the "guy(s)" perplexing for one main reason: What is the copy on the gift-wrap supposed to be saying? "I love you, I'm sorry?" Sorry for what? This almost feels like Valentine's Day break-up gift-wrap paper. "I love you but it's not working, I'm sorry. Here's a wallet to commemorate our time together." Personally, I wouldn't buy something for my husband wrapped in paper that says both "I love you" and "I'm sorry." I think he'd have some questions! This would be my excuse,"I love you and I'm sorry I spent so much money."

I think the cleanliness of the design is recognizably "Kate" but I appreciate how it's a little different since we're also being introduced to Jack. When I click on each featured product I'm taken to a landing page with other gifts in that monetary category. It'd be nice if product names were listed in the email so I could learn more about these gifts without having to search for more information. By the way, what's wrong with buying a gift under $100 for the one you love?

Overall, I guess I just like-like this email. I think I'd love it more if I could make a more positive connection between what it means to buy a gift for someone you like, like-like or love while also saying you're sorry.

From: Lisa Harmon
Subject Line: Email Idols
Date: Wednesday, February 3, 2010

For those of you who didn't make it to the EEC's 2010 Conference, I'd like to share with you the fun of and the learnings from our Wednesday morning keynote session, "Email Idol." Creative teams from Smith-Harmon, Mighty Interactive and eROI took to the stage to show their best efforts at email stardom: Each redesigned email campaigns from USAA and National Geographic.

The good news? We were all Email Idols. Mighty Interactive's creative won the USAA audience favorite vote, Smith-Harmon's creative won the National Geographic audience favorite vote, and eROI's creative garnered the most orders when National Geographic ran an A/B/C/D split test between their control and our challenger versions.

Special thanks to Marc Haseltine of National Geographic, John Leistra of USAA, Sam White of eROI, Mike Corak of Mighty Interactive and Jim Spence of Smith-Harmon for rocking EEC 2010! I hope their efforts inspire you to do some creative testing of your own :).

Watch the Round 1 USAA video >
Watch the Round 2 National Geographic video >
Download the Powerpoint >

From: Lisa Harmon
Subject Line: Beyond Best Practices
Date: Wednesday, February 3, 2010

I was lucky enough to meet and talk with Marc Borgers and Michael Straathof of Borgers&Straathof at last week's EEC 2010 Email Evolution Conference. We chatted about moving beyond email creative best practices. Now that there's a general understanding of what the best practices are, there's an opportunity to find leverage in (and have fun with) breaking the rules! Watch the video >

From: MobileMe
Subject Line: MobileMe account notice: update your credit card
Date: Monday, February 8, 2010

Technology is not my friend today. It all started at 6:30 a.m. with this email from Apple MobileMe. Apparently, my credit card on file had expired, so they needed me to update it on my account. Okay, no problem. But, um, how about a link to my Mobile Me log-in page? No? Too much to ask? Just a button? An underlined word? Heck, I'd even settle for a clickable logo. I found some small links at the bottom, but none of them specifically said 'GO HERE TO UPDATE ACCOUNT'. Making your subscribers do the work is not the way to get them to spend more money with you. Especially with a service-oriented feature like Mobile Me, which is supposed to make my life on the go easier. Sorry, Apple. This one was a major miss for me. On a positive note, I love the headline and the body copy. It's short, sweet and friendly.

Follow-Up Note: Stefan Pollard, our resident strategy genius, offered some interesting insight that I think is important to share. (See below) One thing that's interesting is that AT & T includes a button in their "your bill is ready" emails, so I guess it really is about the individual company and what they're comfortable with.

"Some financial institutions will provide links to "sign in", others are afraid to do so. What often makes the difference is the brand and the likeliness of being attached by phishing and fraud. The bigger the brand, the more likely they become a target and many FI's will include language that says they will never ask you for information or to log in directly, but rather simply remind you to visit their home page. This works well if you provide a URL that isn't tracked by your provider so it is fully branded. Consumers have learned to mouse over images and links to make sure the destination matches the target for protection."