How to encourage sales through email? Bluefly
May 26, 2009 1 Comment
Bluefly is one of the best email retail marketers. They do send very frequent emails, but they have encouraged me to order from them twice in the past month due to the great discounts and sales they constantly have.
On Friday and Saturday, I received an email from Bluefly promoting their handbags and shoes sale. The great thing about the two emails is that they are very similar with only very subtle differences (see if you can spot them below). The email sent on Saturday pushed the limited time remaining and urgency around the offer – it also provided an even bigger discount.
There are a couple of differences between the emails:
- Discount rate: changes from 55% to 60%
- Final hours image on the second email
- Subject lines: highlight the urgency of the offer (see below)
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OBSERVATIONS
- Adapt rather than create – if an offer is time dependent, it is best to ensure that there is another communication to highlight the urgency. Rather than developing another piece of creative, why not just adapt or update the creative you have. A very cost effective way to remind the customer base to engage.
- Subject line updates – use caps within the subject line to highlight the key message or offer.
- Relevant frequency – even though I received two emails within 10hours of each other I didn’t mind. The key reason was the second email offered me an added incentive/bonus/offer. If emails are going to be sent frequently (or within 24hours of the previous one) ensure there is something that the customer base will want.
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- What & when retailers send emails? Tesco, Coles & ALDI
- Coles Supermarket – great email communications & templates
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Written by Dominique Hind