Bronto Blog

As Brontos, we think about email marketing every single day (even on the weekends and evenings). However, we also are consumers just like everyone else in the world. Most of us here at Bronto sign up for various newsletters and promotional emails for both personal and professional reasons. Yesterday, Adam (Product Manager), Kimberly (Account Manager) and I rifled through a few of our favorites. What was interesting is that not one single email had all of the elements that we loved; however, each mentioned below had something worthy of the “Best of” tag. Enjoy, learn, and comment with your thoughts.

“Holidized” Logo (history)

The Target logo is easily recognizable. Adding a bit of holly for the holidays never hurts.

Shipping Deadlines

Seems like it’s all about shipping this year (when is it not?). What we like about this “above the fold” portion from a recent Orvis email is that it states the “in time for Christmas” in a clear, friendly message in the header as well as in the first line of the copy. Way to go Orvis!

Gift Guides

Target again wins the “Best of” for providing simple, clean gift suggestions. Too often online retailers err on the side of showing every single item they sell in one email. KISS and Zero-Calorie Emails are the way to go!

Simple Emails That Entice

adidas provides a nice, simple list with quite a bit of variety (something for everyone?). Our favorite part about this email is how it renders - a great image to text balance. Even with images off, the entire list is clear and readable!

More “Best of…” in 2008, stay tuned.

DJ Waldow
Account Manager at Bronto

Update: Read the Blooms Today Case Study

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If you’re an advanced marketer, you’re not only looking forward to the holiday season, better known as the “feast,” you’re already planning on how to generate sales for the “famine” season of Q1 2008.If your business is seasonal, you have to work harder for off-season sales. Bronto customer Blooms Today was featured recently in Marketing Profs, for their ability to increase off-season sales.Every business has “famine,” it’s typically a time that a company recognizes as off-peak, which they use to regroup and prepare for their “feast.” However, for those businesses looking to grow by leaps and bounds, a “famine” is an opportune chance to work for unplanned sales.

For Blooms Today, they started by focusing on non-traditional holidays. They feast on traditional holidays like Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day, but by offering specials on Teacher’s Day and Grandparent’s Day, they can encourage sales outside of their anticipated sales cycles. Think about how you can emphasize the need for your product or service outside of the normal pattern of sales. This goes hand in hand with promoting your strengths. I may not be interested in buying a bathing suit in February, but if you combine strong messaging; promoting its high quality fabric and how the style and color is “in” for summer 2008, along with a super saver deal for purchasing early, you’ll be looking at some hot sales in January for a very summery item.

Another tactic that made Blooms Today so successful, is changing the way they asked customers to register for their email list. Instead of asking simply to be added to the list, ask if they would like to sign up for special discounts, coupons, or sales. Make them feel that this is an invitation to exclusive deals, and you are bound to increase your email list. Once you have increased your list, makes sure you email regularly and also resend to those who did not open your email.

To confirm that these tactics work, Blooms Today:

• Increased their click through rates 35-40% on average
• Increased their email list 40% in just over a year
• Using remailing, have increased their open rates 30%
• And above all have substantially increased their ROI

Think about how you too can plan for a dreary January while feasting on hot sales.

Caroline Smith
Marketing Program Manager at Bronto