Bronto Blog

In August of 2007, I registered to attend Shop.org’s annual summit (2007 conference recap). I don’t recall receiving a welcome email, but I’ll save that commentary for another post. Since that date, and especially immediately leading up to and shortly after the conference, I began seeing various emails from Shop.org in my inbox. Around the time of the conference, I read - and engaged with - most of the emails. However, for the past 8 months I’ve pretty much deleted all Shop.org-related emails as they haven’t been relevant.  The timing was not right; the next conference is not until September.

Since Bronto is now gearing up for the 2008 conference, I’ve started to pay a bit more attention to emails with Shop.org-related content. Last Tuesday, I was eating lunch at my desk when it happened. The “it” that I’m referring to is the email from Shop.org below:

Again, I’ll save the detailed critique of the email for another day, but I loved the message for many reasons:

Subject Line
Last Opportunity To Stay Informed - Direct. Clear. Concise. Created a sense of urgency (”last”). Hooked me with “stay informed.”

Copy/Creative

• “Personalized” message: from the Executive Director of Shop.org (picture and title)
• Informative, easy-to-understand message: “final issue” in bold, “takes just one minute to subscribe” sets expectations around time
• Strong, clear, call-to-action: 3 different ways to sign up. “Let us know” and “sign up” links and “Sign Up” button.
• Critical information is above the fold: the email continues on with other news, but their call-to-action is what they really want me to see.

What Happened Next
Just to see what would happen, I chose not to click on any of the links or the button. Did they fulfill their promise that the July 22nd email would be my “final issue?” Yes, for the most part. Exactly one week later, I received the following email. Note that this email does not include any content (”the issue”).

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Another great email for several reasons:

Subject Line
You’re Not Receiving Your Online Retail News - As with the first reengage email, this subject line was direct, clear, and concise.

Copy/Creative

• They dropped the personalization this time, which I think was the right move. It would not have added value to me. Remember, they’re pretty close to breaking up with me.
• Two very clear calls-to-action: link (”final opportunity to subscribe”) and button (”Sign Up” - same as before).

How It Ended
Due to their persistence (2 emails in 2 weeks), catchy subject lines, clear calls-to-action, and my genuine interest in hearing more from Shop.org, I did it! I clicked on the the “Sign Up” button. I was redirected to…a blank page. Maybe a dead link. Bad, but I gave it another shot. Unfortunately, after clicking on all 5 links (3 in first email, 2 in next)…same result: Blank page.

Even though most would give up, I tried the links/button later in the day. This time it worked.

I’m not sure why I had to enter my email address again. Don’t they already know who I am? Other than that, the subscription landing page was great. They offered me an up-sell (”Yes, I would also like to receive…”), a clear call-to-action “Sign Up Now” button, and even a link to view past newsletters.

When I clicked “Sign Up Now,” I was redirected to this page.

Again, another great up-sell opportunity. I chose to not provide more information. Then came the welcome message. It was timely (immediate), contained a clear subject line (Shop.org SmartBrief Welcome Kit), thanked me, welcomed me, asked me to forward to a friend, add email address to address book, provided an opportunity to once again “update profile.”

Great job.

Takeaways
Shop.org was so so close to a perfect execution of an email re-engagement campaign. Timing, subject line, copy, creative, calls-to-action, welcome message - all were brilliant. But…the initial dead links may have lost many. It’s hard to tell if this was a temporary issue or one that was going on for some time. How many potential reactivations did they lose? Overall, I’d consider Shop.org’s reactivation campaign a raving success. Well done Shop.org!

DJ Waldow
Account Manager at Bronto