Email Marketing

For this post I will be analyzing two emails I received based on criteria for effective email marketing campaigns that I learned from Professor Pepe’s Digital Marketing Class. One email is from Starbucks and the other is from CVS.

The first email I will be analyzing was one I received from Starbucks. I was at a local Starbucks and in order to use the free wifi I had to put in my email address, which actually put me on their email list. This was the first email I have received from them since I prefer Dunkin Donuts coffee over Starbucks, so I do not look at their emails, besides this one.

The subject line was “Welcome to Starbucks.” It was inviting but did not entice me to open the email because there really was no strong call to action. When I clicked on “Coffee inspiration and need to know news | View online” this brought me to a page that showed me a larger version of the graphic, which I think it should of brought me to the Starbucks website in order to be more effective.

I think the content was too brief and the graphic included in the email did not include any image of food. I think that it would of been more effective to include a picture of at least one food or beverage item sold by Starbucks in order to entice users to go to a Starbucks store. This email went to a segment which is comprised of consumers who signed up for the email list recently and it accomplished the goal of making the consumer feel welcome, and offered the option to unsubscribe to the emails at the bottom of the email itself if a consumer did not wish to receive any emails from Starbucks. I do think that there should of been something to entice users to visit the website and view the product offerings. As of right now, the only way to be brought to the website is if you click on the logo, but every individual may not be aware that if you click the logo you will be brought to the website.

The next email from Starbucks should include images that provide information as to the kind of products Starbucks sells including seasonal items that are popular and well known to consumers. There should also be more of a direct link that brings consumers to the website, which an example could be a call to action regarding a sale on a drink, and the landing page from the link will provide more information on the sale.

 

The next email I received and will be analyzing was from CVS. I received this email because I am signed up as an ExtraCare member, which is a discount card and rewards system that also keeps track of your spending and what items you have purchased, and uses that information to provide you with discounts to those items as well as similar items that you might be interested in purchasing.

The subject line of the email was “Tara, Last Call: BOGO Free Nature Made, Nature’s Bounty, CVS Health Vitamins & More!” which enticed me to open the email because of the CTA (Call To Action) of “BOGO” which expressed that there was a deal, and the urgency of “Last Call” made it seem like the deal would only last for a little while longer. This CTA was effective in that it prompted me to open the email and then click on “View weekly ad” which successfully brought me to a page with the discounted products that were advertised.

I think that the content in the email was appropriate because it was relevant to the products listed in the subject line and contained an image of those exact products to provide consumers with a visual. This email seems to of been sent to a segment, one that has purchased vitamins in the past, including myself since I have purchased vitamins from CVS recently. This email accomplished it’s objective in advertising their BOGO sale on specific vitamins by sending this email to consumers who have purchased vitamins in the past. The view weekly ad option also helped build the brand and advertise their ExtraCare rewards system by spreading how a weekly email/ad is sent out to consumers giving coupons for the most recent sales.

In order to continue with the awareness of the ExtraCare rewards system I think that the next email CVS sends out should be similar to this one, in that there is a sale to entice consumers to read the email and accept the coupon offer. It would be important however that CVS utilizes their database (purchase records of each consumer) to effectively advertise products that are relevant to each individual consumer and is something that they may actually want to buy.