We're on an ongoing quest to investigate how various UK retailers use email marketing, and this week we're looking at how brands handled Black Friday and Cyber Monday. We've assessed frequency, subject lines, and quality of content to distinguish which emails annoyed us the most.
We’re on an ongoing quest to investigate how various UK retailers use email marketing, and after revealing our thoughts on sign-up process and follow up emails, we’re moving onto how each brand handled Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Mainly, we’re going to be assessing: frequency, subject lines and content in order to distinguish which companies annoyed us the most, and which convinced us to buy a load of things we don’t need.
To refresh your memory, I successfully signed up to receive marketing emails from:
First up, here is a screenshot revealing a small fraction of my inbox right now.
It’s inundated with Black Friday emails, with some brands appearing constantly, and others not at all:
Frequency
Below shows the number of emails I have received in total since November 19, and in the bracket – the number of Black Friday/Cyber Monday specific emails (27th-30th) I have received.
The “right” amount of emails to send to subscribers is up for debate (for me, large quantities don’t bother me if content is varied and useful), but what’s for sure is that none at all is a bad decision.
In terms of Black Friday specifics, there is no need for more than one or two of these emails. Debenhams sent 5, Homebase 7, and House of Fraser 8. Most of these weren’t great quality emails, and so the quantity was deeply irritating. Rather than clicking through, I was tempted to unsubscribe.
Subject lines
As a general point, ALL CAPS, lots of punctuation, and brash promotional messages are all a huge turn off. As are the same subject lines repeated over and over again, exemplified below by the emails I’ve received from “Amazon Deals” since I signed up. (Note: Amazon didn’t bother sending a Black Friday or Cyber Monday email at all).
House of Fraser’s Black Friday emails were particularly annoying. No thought went into the subject lines. The language isn’t personalised, it’s totally generic and overly promotional. There is no specific style that is unique to the brand.
I’m looking for relevant, original, and personalised Black Friday email subject lines, which New Look were pretty good at. Compare House of Fraser’s spammy NOW ON! 50% OFF!!!! subject lines to New Look’s more subtle subject line below:
The Christmas tree is a great touch. Thought has gone into this, and I would definitely click through over the others. They’ve even used my name.
Debenhams’ pre-Black Friday email was also a winner. No caps, no percentages, no space breaks, no exclamation marks: it’s calm, cool, and informative. It also cleverly uses non-spammy terms like “treat”. Compare this style of subject line to others sent by different retailers:
The others are too noisy, and sending a large quantity of them are an easy way to lose subscribers.
Premier Inn do something a little different and hijack Black Friday, calling it purple Friday instead. The email subject line is personalised and original.
Content
Here, I am going to test if the brands with appealing Black Friday subject lines follow through in terms of content within the email.
New Look
The banner that says ‘this is Christmas’ is a GIF with moving snow! BUT….
The content isn’t personalised to me – it’s for both women and men – even though I entered my gender in the sign up form:
Another let down: each pictured item does not link through to its product page, rather if you click anywhere on the email, you are directed to a general “deals” page for either women or men:
If you want to buy a specific item that is in the email, then this is pretty annoying.
There also isn’t much copy in this newsletter – mostly images. Content is a great way to show a bit of personality.
ASOS
ASOS’ Cyber Monday email is immaculately designed, and comes with a code, which feels more like a gift than a generic offer.
Items in the newsletter link through to the item on the site rather than a generic landing page, and…
…the brand’s returns policy, delivery details, and generic information is clearly listed at the bottom.
Conclusion
A successful Black Friday email newsletter is personalised to me (it might use my name, or tailor content towards me according to gender), unique in tone (has a distinct and clear personality), doesn’t use generic promotional language, CAPS, or punctuation, and is filled with engaging content and products that are link me to the site.
Rather than fill my inbox with low quality spammy emails, the brands that succeeded over the Black Friday period sent fewer but high-quality emails.
