Bronto Blog

Even though the AAA forecasts a small decline in the number of Americans traveling during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, they predict that nearly 4.54 million (11 percent) plan to travel by airplane. As an email marketer, the first thing that jumps out at me about that statistic is the 4.54 million number. That number translates to at least 4.54 million opportunities for airlines to email travelers.

4.54 million.

United was smart enough to capitalize on that opportunity. Last week, 7 days before my trip to Buffalo, NY, United sent me a friendly reminder email (above the fold portion below):

What I loved about the United email

1. Images Off: It rendered very nicely with images off (only lost the United logo).
2. HTML-Images-Text Ratio: United used images where appropriate, but really focused on the text.
3. Relevant Content: United led with my confirmation and mileage plus #s above the fold and included my detailed itinerary immediately below.
4. Upsell (Secondary Call-To-Action): Great, subtle use of the upsell. Well below the fold, but still gave subscribers the opportunity to learn more about travel options. I wonder how many conversions this drove.

What I liked about the United email

1. Subject Line: “Prepare for your upcoming United flight on Wed, Nov 26.” I liked that it was direct, clear, short, and to the point. They took advantage of subject line branding (United) and some personalization (Wed, Nov 26). However, I think they missed the opportunity to personalize a bit more. Why not include my destination (Buffalo) and my flight departure time?
2. Footer: Very clean. No need to have a forward-to-friend or any other call outs. Simple.

What I disliked about the United email

Believe it or not, I only disliked one aspect of this email: The from name. PreFlight Notification? Ahhhh. While not as bad as “donotreply,” why not just keep it simple? United? United Airlines? UAL even…

Overall, United Airlines nailed it. If they are smart, they’ll use the opportunity to remind me once or twice more (day before, day of).

4.54 million subscribers. Take advantage, United!

DJ Waldow
Director of Best Practice & Deliverability at Bronto

I know that I tend to very (overly?) critical of email marketing campaigns. Can you really blame me, though? It is my job.

But…every so often, I get an email that rocks my world. An email that nails it. An email that practices what all of us crazy, passionate email marketers (you know who you are) preach.

Buckle up.

Sidestep emailed me on October 21st to tell me that they were breaking off our email relationship. As you can see with the 2 screenshots of the email below - images off (left), images on (right), they got it right on many levels.

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A fellow Bronto recently IM’d me a fantastic article from Slate author, Michael Agger. How we read online is a sagacious, witty piece outlining how:

We.

Read.

Online.

(Once you read his article, the 3 “paragraphs” above will make more sense)

Mr. Agger talks about reading online (aka, the Internet, World Wide Web). Much of what Agger writes is relevant not just to “online” but also to email marketing. Specifically, he recommends:

1. A short paragraph at the top of the page…surrounded by white space…in small type
2. Bulleted lists
3. Occasional use of bold to prevent skimming
4. Short sentence fragments
5. Explanatory subheads

Simple, yet brilliant.

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