Pretty Little Thing – A Critical Evaluation of a Marketing Email

Being somebody that is particularly interested in fashion and beauty, my emails are flooded everyday by high street and online retailers sending me offer codes and information regarding why I should shop their website. One company that I receive a frequent amount of emails from is the online women’s fashion retailer, Pretty Little Thing. Pretty Little Thing is a women’s retailer that has the target market of young female women aged between 18 and 28. They offer clothing that is on-trend, yet affordable, and often have celebrity endorsements from the likes of the Kardashians and supermodels, such as Hailey Baldwin. This is a critical evaluation of their daily newsletter that they send out to customers, and one that I receive on a regular basis.

Analysing The Email and Landing Page

“E-mail marketing campaigns produce approximately twice the return on investment of the other main forms of online marketing such as web banners and online directory adverts” (Ellis-Chadwick and Doherty, 2012). With that being said, it is clear why companies, especially those like Pretty Little Thing that run solely online, would utilise email marketing as a way of creating revenue and pushing sales further. With this particular email (figure 1) sent out on a Thursday night, just before the weekend, they title it ‘Out on the town with 30% off’, with an emoji that looks like a martini. By offering 30% off, it gives customers an incentive to shop, as well as an excuse to spend money as they believe that it won’t be as much as it usually would. By sending the email out Thursday evening, it encourages consumers to purchase an item for their “weekend of partying” using their express delivery service OR their unlimited next day delivery for £9.99/year, which are both offered on the email.

Figure 1

They have buttons on the email that makes it easy for the customer to access their website, using buzz words , such as ‘shop’ and ‘claim it now’. They’ve kept a theme throughout, also, that advertises their clothing, especially those that fit in to the category of what they are trying to sell (party-wear). By sending out this email, they are also advertising the products that they have included in their new line with supermodel, Hailey Baldwin, that has been released just in time for Christmas a New Year, which is known for glitter dresses and sparkly outfits, like the ones shown in this email. This links to the theory of ‘event triggering’, where the business is aware on what events are coming up soon and they can advertise their products as a need for that event; Pretty Little Thing know that their target market are soon going to be looking at purchasing these dresses for Christmas and New Year and are showing them what they have available for purchase.

Figure 2

As they know their target market is likely to be enticed by these items, especially loyal customers that frequently shop and would be interested in new lines, it creates a new level of relationship between the customer and the retailer, which makes the customers feel like they are being kept up to date with what is happening within the company (Ellis-Chadwick and Doherty, 2012). Limited words and high quality pictures also pleases customers that view these emails, and works well for a fashion company that is trying to push sales on clothing.

Once clicking on the buttons available, their landing page is their “New In” section, which is heavily linked to eCRM (Customer Relationship Management), as it is looking at retaining their customers, aswell as extending, as it helps frequently returning customers see what new stock they have added to their site, as well as new customers seeing what is in fashion at the moment that they can purchase directly from their store at a discounted price.

Strengths and Weaknesses of the Email

Regarding eCRM, we can see that with their emails, they have spent a lot of time focusing on selection and retention, as they have made aware of their target market, and highlighted that they will most likely, at this time the email is sent, be looking for an outfit for the weekend, and will be enticed by the offer being handed. I received this email as I am a frequent purchaser from their website, and they are aware that, being in their target market, I am most likely to be interested in this offer, too. As their target market is the majority portion of their customers, I think they do skim over custome acquisition, and do not personalise or target different emails to different groups, which could benefit them if they decide to do this in the future (Chaffey, 2012). Dma.org (2018) also suggest that businesses should treat customers independantly through their marketing strategies, as it builds the trust and relationship between the two parties (B2C). This could be a potential improvement that could be made by PLT in regards to future emails as it could build brand loyalty. Comparing it to other emails in my inbox that are similar to this, other online retailers, such as Beauty Bay and Look Fantastic personalise the email subject name by adding their message then posting my name in the title, for example, “Kira, look what’s just gone on offer!”. Pretty Little Thing could take this in to consideration for future emails.

The DMA also suggest that emails should be used as a shortcut to the website. This is clearly a factor that Pretty Little Thing follows as they use buttons on their emails to provide easy access for customers to go straight to their website. At the bottom of every email that they send, they add an “interactive table” (figure 3) that gives the customer more incentive to click on to their website. Not only do they offer a prize that can only be won by purchasing from their website, they also advertise other categories that they have available for clothing, as well as “student perks”, “free returns” and also a photo collage of celebrities and ‘social media influencers’ that are endorsing their products, which could push fans of those people or those that admire the individuals to purchase items from their website, or purchase more frequently. Dma.org also suggest that emails stay ‘on-brand’ so that customers become ‘familiar’ with the company; Pretty Little Thing do this well, especially by adding their sugar pink panel at the bottom of each email, as well as the picture of the unicorn which their company logo, and is found on all of their packaging that the items are sent in.

Figure 3

Chaffey (2012) gives options of drivers that companies can use to push their email campaigns. These include items being easy, cheap or discounted, the content being flexible across platforms and being interactive by inviting immediate action from consumers to their website. PLT have utilised all of these drivers, especially in this particular email, as they have offered discounted products, showing items in the same layout as they do on their website, and given a variety of buttons that the customer can press that will take them directly to their website. Ellis-Chadwich and Doherty (2012) also mention that ‘new fashion emails’ are more likely to “adopt a catalogue approach” that showcases their new products, which is directly the approach that this email has taken, by presenting a grid of their top new products that links to the topic of this email.

Key Word Analysis

Keywords are utilised to describe the content of a website and the service they are providing (Shopify, 2013). These also include ‘longtail keywords’ that are a string of a few words put together. According to Wordstream (2018), the most popular keywords for online fashion retailers are as shown in figure 5. For Pretty Little Thing, when you type in any of these top 10 keywords, their website does not come up on the first two pages, however their main competitors of Missguided, ASOS and Boohoo are all available in the top searches of all of these. For future reference, PLT may want to look at their keyword search online and see what they could do to become one of the top searches, like their competitors. Linking back to the email, keywords they use on there are “shop” (seen multiple times), “new”, “dresses” and “partywear”. In regards to their most desirable persona that they are targetting their products towards, these words will be desirable in their shopping experience and will entice them to click on the buttons.

Figure 5

References

Chaffey, D. (2012) E-Business & E-Commerce Management, Pearson

Chaffey, D., Ellis-Chadwick, F., Mayer, R., & Johnston, K. (2012). Internet marketing: strategy, implementation and practice. Prentice Hall.

dma.org (2018). Email Marketing Guide 2018. 4th ed. [ebook] London: DMA, pp.8-46. Available at: https://dma.org.uk/uploads/NEW_email_18%20July_53c8d94d437ea.pdf [Accessed 26 Nov. 2018].

Ellis-Chadwick, F., & Doherty, N. F. (2012). Web advertising: The role of e-mail marketing. Journal of Business Research, 65(6), 843-848.

Shopify’s Ecommerce Blog – Ecommerce News, Online Store Tips & More. (2018). The Beginner’s Guide To Keyword Research For Ecommerce. [online] Available at: https://www.shopify.co.uk/blog/14207073-the-beginners-guide-to-keyword-research-for-ecommerce#DisqusComments [Accessed 26 Nov. 2018].

Wordstream.com. (2018). Popular Online Stores Keywords | WordStream. [online] Available at: https://www.wordstream.com/popular-keywords/online-stores-keywords [Accessed 26 Nov. 2018].

Please note: I am a student studying at university, and any information/opinion stated in this blog post is my own, and not from an academic source. This is purposely utilised for my ‘Digital Marketing’ module.