What & when retailers send emails? Tesco, Coles & Aldi

After looking through my blog stats, I found that two of the most popular posts have been about the Tesco and Coles emails. So I thought I would look at the other retailers emails I receive and see if there is anything else of interest.

When looking at my archive of retailers emails (Aldi, Coles, Tesco), it was interesting looking at the summary of the emails and when they had been sent, the collective subject lines and the file size.

ALDI LEARNINGS

1. Subject lines: ALDI have only recently updated their subject lines to be more meaningful – rather than being ‘upcoming ALDI special buys’ they include the email focus and the date they were sent.
2. Timings: ALDI always send their emails on a Friday. They are not sent at a consistent hour, but they are sent between 12 – 5pm.
3. Email size: The file size of the emails are between 41 – 52Kb, which is a reasonable file size.

ALDI Email Overview (AU)

It seems that ALDI are starting to pay more attention to the emails they send out to consumer (opted-in base). The focus is more on the subject lines than the creative. Unfortunately the emails are still extremely long, don’t have any personalisation, include too many different categorise and no segmentation (see example below).

ALDI Email - 18 September 2008

COLES LEARNINGS

1. Subject lines: Coles don’t have any consistency with their subject lines. They don’t include Coles or a common theme between them.
2. Timings: Coles doesn’t have a strategy around their email send times.  There is no consistent day or time that their emails are sent meaning that they are a surprise when they arrive in consumers inbox.
3. Email size: The file size of the emails are between 25 – 50Kb, which is a huge variation. The latest emails are reducing in file size (high 20s), which is great because it means they are quick to download (not including images).

Coles Email Overview (AU)

Coles have two different email databases. One for promoting their weekly specials and the other for promoting their special feature newsletters and sections: Pets and seasonality (spring).

Coles eNews Overview - Special Interest Newsletters

TESCO LEARNINGS

1. Subject lines: Very consistent and always include Tesco in the subject line.  Most subject lines are quite short (under 50 characters), no matter what the email is.
2. Timings: Tesco doesn’t have a strategy around their email send times. Tesco have so many different emails they send out. There may be some thought around each email, but it doesn’t look that way.
3. Email size: The file size of the emails vary between 19 – 62Kb, which is a huge variation. The ‘Top Offers of the Week from Tesco.com’ are the biggest emails.

Tesco Email Overview (UK)

LEARNING SUMMARY

There are a few things that need to be considered before you send out emails/newsletters on random days and at random times.

• Think about the subject line. Anything with less than 50 characters gets a higher click through rate than those with long subject lines.
• Think about when the emails are sent. Is the key to be focused on a time, day or date? Whatever is decided it must be maintained and enforced no matter what.