Leap to it

A friend of mine, who I’ve known for more than 20 years, is convinced my birthday is 29th February. It doesn’t matter how many times I tell him my birthday is in January, the notion has taken on a tradition status, that I now look forward to the leap year to receive birthday greetings from him.

Email marketers have also cottoned on to the fact that an extra day is sort of special and have been sending me offers to ensure I spent my “spare” day shopping with them. I tallied a dozen emails in the past few days promoting leap year deals. And some were executed much better than others.

Lingerie etailer Figleaves.com sent me an email with a 29 percent off discount code, making it the most generous marketer of the bunch. Similarly, Presents for Men also offered 29 percent off, but customers had to shop from a special “leap year” range. Other offers included “up to” 29 percent off, with an additional 10 percent discount code from Asos, while apparel and maternitywear specialist Isabella Oliver included a free mystery gift to leap year shoppers. 

As well as the best offers, Isabella Oliver and Figleaves also stood out in my selection of 12 as having the most enticing subject lines. Isabella Oliver went for “Fashion for free, TODAY ONLY! Receive a special gift with every order” while Figleaves went straight for my wallet with “Because it only happens every 4 years! 29% off - Email Exclusive!”

Beauty and cosmetics etailer CheapSmells, seemed, well, cheap in comparison. The subject line was punchy enough: “One Day Only Leap Year Saver - 5 Percent Off Everything Voucher Code”. But upon opening the email, the code only applied on orders of £50 or more. As it only happens every four years, perhaps CheapSmells could have pushed the boat out a little more.

Clearly keen to capitalise on the leap year concept, QVC also sent a themed email. But I felt it missed the mark: “Miri, spread the cost of your favourite brands with QVC this Leap Day”. My first thought was “what, no special offer?” The email copy went on to say: “Leap Year only happens once every four years so to help you celebrate in style we are offering all on-air items and selected online items in 4 Easy Pay instalments. Enjoy a full day of your favourite shows and brands, including beauty from Laura Geller, home electronics from Bose and much more”. Is it just me, or does this email leave you feel a bit deflated?  Have we all become “too trained” to expect money off?

Another marketer I wanted to see more from was The Last Detail, which sells wedding favours and table decorations. Its email was definitely on the right tracks—with plenty of calls to action for subscribers to get involved in its debate as to whether women should propose to men (well, it is a leap year tradition). There were links to The Last Detail’s Facebook page, where subscribers could take the quiz to see if they’d found Mr Right (I have, it says), videos including “Our top 5 Wedding Proposals” and a blog post on the “Top 10 places to pop the question to your man...” Plenty going on in the email, but it wasn’t selling me anything. I would have liked to see at least a couple of product offers—after all, we have a whole four years to wait until the next leap year.--MT

Christmas covers 2011

Christmas is a time of traditions and in the Direct Commerce office one of my favourites is the Christmas covers blog post. Although most of the catalogues received in the run up to Christmas were taken to ECMOD on 30th November, I kept a few favourites in a secret drawer until I was ready to reveal this year’s top four. And they are...

1. Continuing with the spirit of tradition, here’s a catalogue cover that could have been produced in the mid-20th century. Is that a good or a bad thing? You decide. For us in the Direct Commerce office, this cover from The Original Gift Company encapsulates Christmas—creeping down the stairs to check whether Santa’s been, a beautifully decorated tree with presents galore—all from The Original Gift Catalogue, I assume. I like the tagline too: “Delivering the magic of Christmas”, which works on a number of levels. Finally, remembering that a catalogue has to do more than just look appealing, the cover carries a message that gift personalisation is free and sets out the last-order dates to reassure customers that The Original Gift Company really has thought of everything. 

2. The Little White Company caught my attention purely because of the little girl whispering to the little boy. I like to imagine what they’re talking about. My favourites are “that big stocking’s mine” or “I’ve got more presents than you”, but we’ve had lots of fun coming up with other captions. I also like the set The White Company created for its cover and how it effortlessly hints at everything a customer can find inside, from furniture to rugs, from giant stockings to childrenswear. 

3. The Scarlett Willow mailer arrived early in the season to announce that the Christmas boutique was now open. It was a favourite right from the start—I love the snowflake motif and the twinkly lights creating a flare effect on the cover; I like the simplicity of the propping—a silver spoon, a paper placeholder; I also like the tableware specialist’s emphasis on personalisation and the call to action to see the whole range online. The mailer only has eight pages to capture the imagination, but it gets it spot on. There were stocking fillers, kids’ gifts, best sellers and personalisation ideas. As a driver to encourage me to visit the Scarlett Willow website, this definitely succeeded.

4. The Christmas wildcard comes courtesy of gardening supplies cataloguer Wiggly Wigglers. This cover certainly made me stop and think: What’s a bull got to do with Christmas? What’s so special about this bull? Who is Trojan Fred? What does he have to do with Wiggly Wigglers? I feel like an outsider stumbling on a private joke. Do existing Wiggly customers already know Trojan Fred’s story and I don’t? I’ve scanned the catalogue from cover to cover to try and find out more, but failed. However, despite a frustrating front cover, the Wiggly Christmas catalogue does a lot right. There’s a special offer on the cover that encourages customers to spend more than £40 on their order and I love its “why buy Wiggly” spread on pages 4 to 5, which has some very convincing reasons to shop at Wiggler Wigglers. Also, I fear that if I say no, Trojan Fred might come after me.

I can’t end this post without a mention for my favourite back cover. While the males in the office would probably disagree, I much prefer the back cover of the Figleaves catalogue. The front seems the obvious choice—a seminaked woman. The back cover took a little more thought, fairy lights and baubles instead of a log fire, stockings hanging from the mantelpiece and a selection of gift boxes either side of the fireplace. It has a more Christmassy feel. But like I said, I’m sure at least half the population would disagree.--MT

  

February Catalogue Log

More than two-thirds of all the catalogues we received and logged during February 2011 featured some sort of special offer on the cover. That makes February the most promotional of the past 12 months. Up until now, the honour belonged to August 2010, when 65.6 percent of the front covers we tracked mentioned a sale, discount, free shipping, or free gift offer.

In February 2011, we noted a rise in each type of promotion tracked. Almost half of the covers featured a sale or discount—49 percent, compared with 44 percent in January. Among those touting a sale were promotional products marketer 4imprint, angling supplies catalogue Fishtec, and shirt maker Charles Tyrwhitt, which used inserts and mailings to promote its latest deals. In fact, we received three Charles Tyrwhitt catalogues in February, one with an offer for Sunday Times readers, one with an offer for Lands’ End customers and a third carrying the rather curious offer code of Elliot.

Free delivery was the second most popular offer, with 22 percent of catalogues promoting free shipping on the cover. That’s up from 16 percent in January, but only marginally ahead of December, and behind September’s crop of catalogues, which saw the highest percentage of catalogues promoting free delivery, 24.3 percent. Some merchants, like Boden, Figleaves, Healthspan, and Hotter Shoes, combined free delivery with a price-related promotion for an even better deal for customers.

Also on the up was the popularity of free gifts. Eighteen percent of the covers we tracked featured a free gift with purchase, including gardening supplies business Wiggly Wigglers, which gave away three bars of Divine chocolate with orders of £30 or more. It’s the highest percentage we’ve seen for several months, up from 16 percent in January and three times more what we logged in December.

Now compare this with February 2010 and you’ll find stark contrasts: Last year we only received 89 catalogues during February, and promotions were down across the gamut of offers we track. What conclusions can be drawn from this? Does increased volume herald a strengthening of the sector? Are mailers confidently investing in upping circulation to lift response? On the other hand, does a more promotional approach indicate that direct sellers are focusing on sales in expense of margin? All thoughts welcome.--MT

Mighty odd merchandising choice

I just received a press release from High & Mighty on the launch of its new website. As well as the usual “we’ve made it easier to shop” and “we aim to offer advice, style tips and a discussion forum”, High & Mighty has also announced it was selling home and electrical goods online.

Yes, it’s part of the N Brown stable--which through its myriad titles (just take a look at www.homeshoppingdirect.com) sells apparel, homewares, consumer electronics, white goods, and lots more--but seriously, is this the right move for High & Mighty?

The decision to sell electrical goods strikes me as a bit of a disconnect; the release says High & Mighty wants to be a “one-stop lifestyle channel for online shopping”—but why? For what it’s worth, I believe High & Mighty would be better off concentrating on getting deeper into its niche. Its database includes big and tall men that find it difficult to find clothes that fit on the high street, so why dilute the brand by adding fragrance and shaving products that can be bought in almost every other shop?

I once asked this question of consultant Meg Macmillan and she told me that “The most successful ventures have been those that built on existing core strengths of the brand, building on customer confidence in quality and value and offering products that were a natural progression and held true to the brand values.” I don’t see how High & Mighty selling plasma TVs fits into this (unless, as my colleague points out, it was a TV on a very tall stand!).

With Figleaves to become the latest brand to join the N Brown stable, does this mean we will see it selling fridges alongside knickers?--MT

What we learnt from 188 pre-Mother’s Day emails

As our UK readers are well aware, this past Sunday was Mother’s Day —a major event in the gift-giving calendar. You’d assume, as I did, that most of the email newsletters landing in my inbox in the days prior would have a special Mother’s Day offer—at the very least a cursory note not to forget 14th March. So it came as quite a revelation that out of a total of 188 promotional emails from cataloguers and online retailers received between 3rd March and 11th March*, 112 emails, or 59.6 percent of them, did not reference Mother’s Day at all.

As expected, business-to-business merchants didn’t promote Mother’s Day. I received emails from Slingsby, Machine Mart, Filplastic, and Teknomek that understandably did not factor Mother’s Day into their promotions. Out of those emails, my favourite was Teknomek, which used the opportunity to let recipients know of its presence at an upcoming trade show.

British mums must not be very sporty if the emails I received are anything to go by. Two golf-equipment retailers, County Golf and Direct Golf, sent out enewsletters during that (extended) week and neither suggested buying mum a new set of clubs for Mother’s Day. Derby House, a cataloguer that specialises in equine-related equipment and accessories, sent us at least four emails during the period and none gave us a mother-related special offer. Further, snow and surf brands Ellis Brigham, Extremepie, and Blue Tomato were just too cool to promote mums.

Also surprising was that quite a few apparel brands decided not to send out Mother’s Day-related offers. Kaleidoscope, Joe Browns, and Plumo were among those that didn’t mention Mother’s Day in any of their emails. The “worst offenders” in this category, however, were Wall London and Wallis. Wall sent three emails during that week and Wallis sent five—none promoted Mothering Sunday. This was made even worse by Wallis’s inclusion of a competition that would have been a perfect Mother’s Day hook. It was offering a two-night Champneys Spa break for the recipient and a friend. Why it did not add “or take your mum!” to the offer is beyond me.

Many of the retailers sent us more than one email during that week. This gave them scope to send one email with a Mother’s Day offer, and one without. Of those that sent us multiple messages, Roman Originals targeted the more organised of shoppers. It sent out an email on the 4th March with an offer for Mother’s Day; five days later, the offer was removed from the email. The same tactic was used by Baker Ross, Past Times, and John Lewis. Curiously, lingerie etailer Figleaves approached it the other way round. Its emails sent prior to 9th March were Mother’s Day-free zones. However, come the 9th, Figleaves’ subject line was: New spring arrivals, 20% off lingerie offer + 20% off nightwear - perfect for Mother's Day! Neom Organics also made a point of targeting last-minute shoppers on 9th March with the subject line: FREE Gift & Mother's Day Special Offers.

What did we learn from 188 pre-Mother's Day emails? That the majority of retailers aren't concerned with Mother's Day at all. So what were they promoting if not Mother’s Day? Seven percent promoted spring—or new arrivals for spring—whilst just two percent promoted Easter. Most of the offers focused either on specific ranges, promoting existing sales, or pushing product.

Of the 112 emails that didn’t promote Mother’s Day my favourites were:

Boden
Sent on 4th March with the subject line “Today's your last chance for 15% off at Boden, online. Shop now or miss out‏”, Boden’s email appeals to my cute receptors. It sent a similar email six months ago, I liked that one too!

Hotel Chocolat
Although the email has a tab labelled Mother’s Day, it didn’t directly promote Mother’s Day offers. What it did promote were Easter eggs—and lots of them. The email has an almost irresistible selection of chocolate eggs (irresistible because I cannot justify spending £22 on one Easter egg). Despite the amount of product featured in this email, it’s not confusing and doesn’t seem crowded. Hotel Chocolat called it its “Easter Eggs-ibition”, and it certainly seems to have a gallery feel to it. I particularly like the graphic at the bottom which compares the egg sizes to one another—a little “happy” egg right through to a giant chocolaty “Ostrich” egg.

Oli
This gets top marks for concept rather than execution. Received on 10th March—three days after the Academy Awards ceremony—the email from fashion etailer Oli is titled “The Oli Awards are here‏”. The categories are Best red-carpet dress, Hottest heels, and Must have accessory. There are three nominees and a winner. I like the idea—but the follow-through is lacklustre. Why did that green dress, or those platform shoes, win? Are they the most popular with customers? What makes them better than the other pieces in the list? The pieces were chosen by Oli staff, but there’s no reason behind their choices. What I’d liked to see is a pre-Oscars competition where Oli customers vote on their favourite pieces. The winner gets her favourite item and the reason for loving it into the email. Maybe next year?--MT

* Why did I choose the 3rd to 11th March? For a start, I factored in delivery dates; the 11th fell on a Thursday which still enabled delivery by Saturday. The 3rd was chosen to allow for emails with an early-bird offer to be included.

What we learned from 150 marketing emails

In this day and age, you’d think that a significant portion of marketing emails would be personalised to some degree. I’m not talking about something sophisticated like a product recommendation based on previous visits to the company’s website; a simple “Dear Sherry” would do. But of the 150 emails that Miri and I tallied during the past week, just 13 had some sort of personalisation. That’s a scant 8.7 percent--even though studies have indicated that personalising an email greeting can increase both open and click-through rates. (For instance, in a study by MailerMailer, emails with a personalised message had an average open rate of 15.15 percent, compared with 13.01 percent for nonpersonalised messages. And personalised messages had a 4.12-percent click-through rate, compared with 2.59 percent for nonpersonalised ones.)

Personalisation, or the lack thereof, was just one of the basics that the majority of companies that emailed us got wrong. And even when companies did try to personalise a message, there were snafus. Stainless-steel equipment seller Teknomek tried, bless ‘em, but the salutation read “Dear –”. And health-food purveyor Higher Nature evidently thinks I’m a man (“Dear Mr Chiger”).

Judging by the emails, social networking is something direct marketers love in theory more than in practice. Only 25 of the emails—16.7 percent—included a link to the company’s Facebook page, Twitter feed, or other third-party social-media site.

Granted, more of the messages included some sort of “forward to a friend” link. But not that many more: only 29.3 percent. And it’s not as if adding this sort of link to an email template should be all that difficult. As Tink Taylor of DotMailer wrote recently for Catalogue e-business, “viral and word-of-mouth marketing is an inexpensive way to spread your marketing messages, drive traffic, collect contact information, and ultimately boost sales”.

Nor should proofreading the emails be all that difficult either, yet too many had obvious misspellings. The subject line of a message from menswear cataloguer Jolliman, for instance, read “Jolliman Summer Bargins”. A Pet-Supermarket subject line read “New website, 4,000 new product & 3 new animal categories”. Office and industrial supplies mailer Slingsby urged recipients to “Safeguard your employee’s health”, which would have been fine if that particular subject line appeared only on emails to people who supervised just one staffer. It was particularly depressing to see a company misspell its own name in the subject line, as The Children’s Furniture Company did: “The Childrens Furniture Company Summer Sale Now On!” Ironmongery Direct ended an email with this caveat: “30% Offer ends: 5th July 2009”; unfortunately we received the message on 16th July. In one of its emails, Staples labelled a link "Click here to view our full range of clearance itmes". Am I being pedantic? I don’t think so. Spam tends to be riddled with typos, so I think many consumers are immediately suspicious of messages that are misspelled.

Not all of the emails were dire. Some were simply uninspired. Nearly three-quarters (71.3 percent) of the messages we received promoted some sort of sale or discount in the subject line. Yes, I know that “Free” does translate to opens and click-throughs, and that “sale” and “one-third off” are similarly magical. And yes, chances are good that the people who receive your marketing emails probably don’t have as many competing messages in their inbox as we do. But the similarity of the promotional subject lines left me both overwhelmed (by the sheer volume) and underwhelmed (by the sheer tedium).

That’s why I liked the subject lines that added a sense of urgency to the promotion (“Free delivery on holiday shop - 3 days only!” from Figleaves.com) or did something clever with the offer (from Peeks Party, “How low can you go? Summer party limbo kit 27% off”).

Because I don’t want to end this lengthy post on a down note, I’m going to close with a few more examples of emails we liked:

* The sales promotion email from fashion brand Ben Sherman (above) had some eye-grabbing cartoon graphics that set off the silhouetted product shots gorgeously.

* The subject line from supplements mailer Trust William certainly stood out: “Every 10th Order Refunded!” Trust William planned to notify the lucky 10 percent within seven days after the specified time frame, so recipients couldn’t try to cheat the system. The notification emails also provided the company with an excuse to contact its customers again.

* The “denim heaven” email from plus-size womenswear retailer Evans (above) promoted a sale (two pairs of selected jeans for £30), but the email text gave additional reasons besides price to buy jeans from Evans. In bullet points, it spelled out “why our jeans are a great fit”: three leg lengths for most styles; stretch added to the fabric; “a higher waist for an amazing fit”; “we fit all our jeans on real women, which means you get a better, more-flattering fit every time”. That’s great, benefit-driven, easy-to-digest selling copy.

* In addition to promoting its summer sale, womenswear retailer Wallis used its email to encourage recipients to take a survey about the company, by offering participants the chance to win £150 in vouchers. Menswear merchant Brook Taverner did something similar: It included a link to its survey but rewarded all participants with a £20 voucher.

* The “minimail” message from Firebox (above) featured just one product, the Cool-er eBook Reader, but the graphics and the copy made a real hero of that item. My favourite line from the product description: “…this wafer-thin eReader is the greatest thing to happen to literature since Jeffrey Archer got banged up”.

My number-one lesson learned from this experiment? That next time I come up with a brilliant idea along the lines of "let's log and analyse all the marketing emails we receive in a week; how long could it possibly take?", I should ignore it.--SC

Twittering on

Now that Catalogue e-business has jumped on the Twitter bandwagon (twitter.com/catalogbiz), I've been checking out how some multichannel marketers are using the channel.

A number of retailers simply use their Twitter feeds to advertise their promotions and offerings. Lingerie etailer Figleaves, for instance, touts the addition of womenswear, menswear, and children's apparel to its product line and asks readers to vote for it in the Prima Fashion Awards. It also contributed this intriguing post: "Getting in some training for our attempt at breaking the world record for most bras unclasped in one minute!"

Upscale fashion etailer Net-a-Porter.com dresses up its promos with fashion advice ("For office cool, we're giving our peg leg pants an urban edge with a tucked in tank!"). Jackson's Art goes one better and links to artists it (or at least Julie Caves, who runs the feed) likes and quirky articles.

The best feeds make the most of Twitter by encouraging a dialogue with readers. For years lots of lip service has been paid to communicating directly and personally with customers and prospects; Twitter enables it, easily and quickly, and that may be its greatest value to merchants.

Gadgets marketer Firebox, for one, understands this: Its posts in response to reader queries and comments far outweigh its self-promotional posts. (Firebox also won me over by posting a link to Cake Wrecks, a blog that posts photos of... well, see for yourself.)

In short, companies that view Twitter only as a means of pushing out their message are missing out. Doing so is like going to a Michelin-starred restaurant and ordering only a cheese toastie.--SC