Over the years, companies have been on a quest to find the marketing method which not only grabs the attention of the customers but also keeps them engaged. With the advancements made within the digital world since the noughties, it is evident that using emails has been one of the most successful ways of marketing as such ‘campaigns produce approximately twice the return on investment of the other main forms of online marketing such as Web banners and online directory adverts’. However, the way that the emailing platform is used differs from business to business. For example, some may use a snappy heading and then use mainly images to attract their customers. This is usually seen with clothing companies who want to advertise their latest items on sale for instance. Mostly, these are the emails that I tend to open just to get rid of the little number next to my inbox!
Contrastingly to those emails, are the ones that I receive from MCM Comic Con for example. This is an event I have been interested in since I was in high school therefore any email I receive from them will at least be opened for me to have a read, if not following the hyperlinks that are dotted around the email, even though there is nothing personally addressed to me. As it is one of ‘The UK’s biggest modern pop culture events’ that comes around only twice a year, it is highly unlikely that I would miss going to at least one, hence why the email is of importance as it would keep me informed of upcoming events.
There are a number of factors which effect whether or not a person would open the email which includes the subject line. This consists of two parts which are used to grab the recipients’ attention. Firstly, it is who the sender is and secondly, what the subject of the email is. The sender of this example, is MCM Comic Con which would immediately appeal to an audience who are interested in things like manga, anime, games and movies. The subject of this email is ‘Sunday Extravaganza at MCM London Comic Con!’ which shows that it is specific to only one of the three days that the Comic Con events are held for.
The landing page of the email is eye-catching as the company has used comical fonts and bright colours to draw the consumers’ attention. Also, the fact that the logo for MCM Comic Con is the first thing that people would see is relevant because not only is it outstanding and vibrant, it is undeniably well known which would give a sense of familiarity to the recipient.
Because the event has already passed, when the ‘call to action’ to buy the tickets is clicked, it says that the page is not found. The way that this could be improved is if there was a link to the page where tickets for the upcoming shows could be pre-purchased, to ensure that people who are interested would not feel disheartened by the fact that they missed the recent events. However, what shows that the company does send emails that are up-to-date is the fact that they added an image of a balloon figure that was made for the event the day before the date that the email is advertising.
Although the email serves its purpose and is able to successfully attract the attention of its recipients, a way that it could be improved is if there were more information for people who are not as familiar with what exactly the event consists of. This means that only the people who are particularly interested in things that are relevant to comic con and the celebrities attending that year will be drawn in and not the ones who have less of an idea of what is involved. However, it is understandable why this can be done because MCM Comic Con usually use permission-based email marketing therefore it may be of more use to stay specific to the people who subscribed. The idea of permission-based emails are an important method of marketing because ‘If you do not ask for permission, customers will likely tag your email as spam’.
What may improve the appearance of the email is if the left and right sides of the email were a lighter colour. This is because it tends to draw the attention away from the actual email. There are a number of emails that are compatible for mobile devices which have white edges, ensuring that the attention is payed only to the middle where the information is.
Overall, it is evident that MCM Comic Con knows what would attract its customers and understands how to keep them engaged. If they hadn’t, they would not see ‘130,560 people pass through the doors of Excel’ that did for the most recent edition!
References
Ellis-Chadwick, F., & Doherty, N. F. (2012). Web advertising: The role of e-mail marketing. Journal of Business Research, 65(6), 843-848.
http://www.mcmcomiccon.com/london/
Mohammadi, M., Malekian, K., Nosrati, M., & Karimi, R. (2013). Email Marketing as a Popular Type of Small Business Advertisement: A Short Review. Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, 7(4), 786-790.