Missguided’s success with email marketing

Feelin’ the chill this winter? Why yes I am actually… and that’s how Missguided sold one more sweater this weekend. An ‘ophelita knitted jumper in wine’ to be precise.

How did this happen I hear you ask? A rather well planned and effective email marketing campaign, that’s how.

Permission based emails are on the rise (Cho and Khang, 2006) and produce twice the ROI than other methods of online marketing, if done right (Pavlov et al, 2008).

Scrolling through my emails, I tend to ignore most from Missguided, as I don’t need more clothes or ever have any money, however this one in particular caught my eye, entitled ‘Feelin’ the chill?’.

As it has started to get a little cold in Brighton and I definitely have been feelin’ the chill, I opened it (foolishly). Had it not been a catchy and personal subject header I would most likely of ignored it, however a subject header including a question is more likely to be noticed as it makes the recipient of the email think about how it applies to their own life and arouses curiosity leading to the opening of said email (Beashel, 2014).

The subject line of an e-mail is highly important and often hard to get right,  it needs to grab the initial attention of the reader and encourage the opening of the e-mail; otherwise the message can be deleted and never seen again (Ellis Chadwick and Doherty, 2012).

Once I’d opened the email, the overall design was very well laid out and easy to read, with a prominent logo and eye catching images. The use of interactive features encourages engagement from the reader and there was a soft use of colour. In fact, it’s been proven that women prefer soft colours so using muted and pastel tones work better when marketing to females (Jirbandey, 2015).

Geisler et al. (2006) state that complexity influences consumer attention and too much information, too many graphics, and too many hyperlinks have a negative effect. Complicated emails can lead to the reader feeling lost and overwhelmed which causes them to lose focus and interest in the email (Ellis Chadwick and Doherty, 2012).  Missguided have successfully integrated simple images and content without overloading the email and confusing readers.

 

 

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Looking analytically at this email campaign, Missguided checks most of the boxes. Good length, good subject line, good branding and good content. It even includes a third party display advert and link. What could be improved on, in my opinion however is the landing page.

Missguided’s landing page is just its website, directed in this case, to the knitwear section.

While there are no ‘set’ guidelines for the perfect landing page, it is generally assumed that the page should be simple, free from navigation and easy to look at i.e. well designed. I understand that as a clothing retailer Missguided want you to browse their shop for further products, but what I found was that I couldn’t be bothered to go through all the pages of knitwear and while I chose a jumper, had it not have been right at the top of the page I would of likely clicked off knitwear, losing my 30% off and ultimately not bought anything.

Removing navigation means removing distractions (Sobal, 2014) and leaving just the offer the reader clicked through to. For example, a page of selected clothing with clear headers could be more successful and adding a link (similar to the ‘not your style?’ link in the email) to take the reader to the main site would allow the reader to browse the knitwear without distraction and then have the option to view the whole site, I feel would work just as well, if not better for Missguided.

Ultimately, there’s no denying the effectiveness of this campaign, it was well targeted and well delivered and did what it was meant to do. Overall, what made this campaign so effective was the email’s relevance to me, a cold female student who appreciates money off vouchers…

 

References:

Beasel, A. (2014) Are you using these 8 subject line formulas to get your emails opened? [Online] Available at: https://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/email-marketing/2014/09/subject-line-formulas/ (Accessed 11/11/15)

Ellis-Chadwick, F and Doherty, N. (2012) Web advertising: The role of e-mail marketing. Journal of Business Research. Volume 65, Issue 6, June 2012, Pages 843–848

Cho, C and Khang, H. (2006). The state of Internet-related research in communications, marketing, and advertising: 1994–2003 Advert, 35 (3) (2006), pp. 143–16

Geisler, G et al. (2006). The influence of home page complexity on consumer attention, attitudes and purchase intent. Journal of Advertising, 35 (2) (2006), pp. 69–80

Jirbandey, A. (2015). Psychology (and deliverability) of colors in email marketing. [Online] Available at: https://www.mailjet.com/blog/psychology-of-colors-in-email-marketing/ (Accessed 11/11/15)

Pavlov, O et al. (2008). Toward a sustainable e-mail marketing infrastructure. Journal of  Business Research, 61 (11) (2008), pp. 1191–1199

Sobal, A. (2014) 7 Basic landing page guidelines that make or break conversions. [Online] Available at: http://www.weidert.com/whole_brain_marketing_blog/bid/206472/7-basic-landing-page-guidelines-that-make-or-break-conversions  (Accessed 11/11/15)

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