Usability: Email Newsletters

Author: ralyjones25

3 May

Not too long ago, I did a post on “Welcome” emails. Since I had to sign up for all those accounts — and newsletters — it only makes sense that I take a look at newsletter emails sent by ecommerce Web sites.

Email newsletters offer great opportunities for highlighting products and services, as well as creating a sense of urgency for a potential customer (special 24-hour Internet-only sale!). And, if done with personalized linking, it is possible to offer customers great deals on products and services they actually want. Unfortunately, most of the email newsletters I received did not address my personal preferences.

One of the exceptions is Amazon. When my husband bought me a piece of jewelry off Amazon, the company began sending me email newsletters geared toward the jewelry line:

Other aspects of this email newsletter that I enjoyed include the following:

Ability to go to shopping cart from the email.
Additional products I might be interested in.
Visible savings.

However, despite the fact that this email was aimed at a personal preference, it wasn’t personalized with my name. That sort of bothered me, since the point of personalized email newsletters is to personalize them.

Perhaps PacSun did a better overall job with its email newsletter. It offers full ecommerce Web site navigation, as well as options for better email viewing, signing up (in case a friend forwarded the email) and to unsubscribe to the list. Additionally, there are customer service links in this email newsletter, including to live help.

Cafe Press sent this email in a timely fashion, advertising its St. Patrick’s Day merchandise. This is a smart idea, since the email newsletter arrived early enough that I can receive any ordered items in time for the holiday. Timeliness is a good trait for email newsletters. Additionally, note the “send to friend” option:

Ace Hardware offers a full search function from the email newsletter, which is something I like.

One that I thought interesting was this from the Food Network store. I’m not sure whether it was my browser or what, but something went awry with the picture.