As an avid shopper of Target (I go at least once a week) I can always count on the following: a few special deals sprinkled throughout the store, quality products at a reasonable price, very clean bathrooms (which really does matter), and receiving a gift receipt along with my receipt upon check out. Recently though I was surprised to receive, in lieu of the gift receipt, a very smart email subscription offer at the point of sale.
The receipt (pictured to the right) was handed to me by the cashier and my eye was quickly drawn to the bolded text offer to receive a “Sneak Peak of the 2-Day Sale” by signing up for an email reminder. Now you must envision my reaction as I told the cashier “what a fantastic way to continue to build the brand and relationship by providing this offer in the store and driving me to the site at home to only bring me back to the store.” I think my excitement might have actually thrown the cashier a little - but I knew the power behind this simple and smart messaging.
Upon returning home I immediately fired up my laptop and entered the enclosed URL on the receipt. The sign up process was quick and seamless, and then I anxiously awaited the first sneak peak message to reach my inbox.
In just a few days I received my first New Target Weekly Ad and was gratified with the clear subject line and From Address, as I clicked on the message I was truly filled with excitement to view the sale preview for the coming week.
Sadly my expectations were instantly dashed by viewing basically nothing at all (see the message below):
My mind starting ticking off the missing elements:
- No header text providing an option to view the online version
- No visible text prompting me to right click to download images
- No use of text in the body of the message
- No clear call to action other than: In stores this week: November 11-17, 2007
Frustration set in quickly, as I scanned the bottom of the message the only element that grabbed my attention was unsubscribe in a bright bold red font.
As I shook my head back and forth in disbelief I just kept saying to myself “they are smarter than this - they are better than this”. It killed me to think of someone like my mother, also an avid Target shopper, signing up for this weekly ad special and receiving the enclosed email only to say “this email ad is worthless - I can’t see a thing”.
The careless mistakes made in this message could easily deter novice email subscribers from signing up for any future retail email offers. It is very apparent that no one at Target is viewing these messages from the consumer’s viewpoint. I’m deeply disappointed because I have a passion for this great brand, and looked forward to learning about their special deals. The cross channel marketing from store to site was brilliant but the execution, to be quite honest, was very poor.
Testing how a message renders and understanding the audience who is receiving the message is critical to every email marketing campaign no matter how large or small. I would highly recommend that Target create a consumer email marketing test pool and send all new email campaigns to the pool before a launch. This test pool of consumers will provide an extremely valuable insight into the shopping experience via email.
I truly believe if a test pool had been in place they would have uncovered the missing elements and the message would have exceeded my expectations. So, lesson learned, to protect your brand make sure you test your messages to assure you don’t miss your email marketing target.
Kimberly Snyder
Account Manager at Bronto
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Excellent post and simple real life case study! I completely agree and know where your coming from.
Here’s a major player Target, of course they have all this figured out and maybe I can steal some ideas from them and their email marketing campaign… only to find out that I could run it better than they do. *Sigh* oh well at least it’s a big morale booster for myself. :)
Kyle -
I am glad you found the post impactful. It is great example of how even the largest online retailers need to continually work on becoming better email marketers as well.
Hi,
I work in the interactive marketing department at Target. Our team plans Target’s web-based marketing campaigns (including e-mails).
Sorry you were disappointed in the Weekly Ad e-mail. That’s no good! As you might imagine, e-mail is a very large part of our business that we’re always testing and improving. Unfortunately, things don’t always work perfectly.
I’ll pass this post along to the person at Target who manages our e-mail program and see if he has any insight, or at least to let him know of your experience.
Thanks! Hope you keep shopping at Target. :)
Aaron Miller
Aaron -
First I would like to say “kudos” to you and the Interactive Marketing Department at Target for reading and commenting on the post.
I appreciate your teams efforts to continually “test and improve” your email marketing campaigns - this is the key to providing the most robust/optimized messages to your valued customers.
Your effort to “be better email marketers” only strengthens my passion for your great brand.
You can bet I will be shopping at my local Super Target tomorrow.
Kimberly Snyder at Bronto