Every single one of us receives a large amount of marketing emails every day but how many of them do we actually open and find ourselves clicking through to the landing page? And why do we ignore so many others ?
After having read an article about the placement of call to action buttons and how this might lead to higher website conversion rates (Hernandez & Resnick, 2013), I started to ask myself how effective those marketing emails I receive actually are and whether they could ever lead to a purchase. Scrolling through my inbox, an email from Topshop stood out to me in particular. It instantly caught my eye due to its short and punchy subject line “Have an anti-cliché christmas”, which I found to be very intriguing.
This opt-in email follows a ‘catalog’ style (Ellis-Chadwick & Doherty, 2012), which fashion retailers commonly use to display their offerings. As I receive emails from Topshop almost daily, I rarely open them but after this one had grabbed my attention with its subject line, I just couldn’t help myself but open the email.
When opening and scanning the email, I found myself using the ‘Z- Pattern’, which can be seen in the illustration below. Following this pattern meant that my ‘gaze passed through all four basic quadrants’ and so I was less likely to miss any relevant content of the email (Hernandez & Resnick, 2013).
At the top of the email, you can find the brand logo and the distinct headline “The Anti-cliché christmas”, which links to the subject line of the email. The overall email has a very simple but attractive design, using multiple illustrations and body text underneath, making it less content-heavy. Lengthwise, it is kept fairly short with three main illustrations and offerings. It also includes interactive features, such as the website landing page which can be reached by clicking one of the call to action buttons.
The three call to action buttons “find your party look”, “shop the full shoot” and “shop our gift edit”, are all shaped similarly and found just below the illustrations and body text, making good use of negative space around the buttons. As can be seen from the first two images above, Topshop smartly made the call to action buttons black to match the headings and body text, while using white in the last image to match the white heading. The size and colour is crucial, as call to action buttons need to stand out but should not distract from the other content of the email.
Topshop has done this really well and thus I found myself clicking through to the landing page fairly quickly. The page portrays exactly what is offered in the email and is very attractive due to its simple design, using banners and images of fashion items. It allows you to look through and shop the new collection, whilst also having the option to shop other items of the current collection.
So, how effective has this email been?
Topshop followed some of the best practice guidelines pretty well with a punchy subject and distinct headline, its brand logo at the top and the use of a ‘catalog’ style with multiple illustrations. The email was not heavy content-based and the call to action buttons stood out, whilst also blending in with the overall design. However, the email lacked an element of personalisation, as well as animation, which is the ‘most prominent attention-getting device in web advertising’ (Ellis-Chadwick & Doherty, 2012).
Did it lead to a purchase? Unfortunately not but this may as well have been due to other factors, such as my current financial situation. Overall however, I believe this email has been very effective as it triggered my interest and made me click through to the landing page, which does not occur very often.
All this talking about having an ‘anti-cliché’ christmas… maybe Santa will read this and surprise me with something from Topshop this year, who knows!
Here are some guidelines and examples of effective call to action buttons:
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/call-to-action-buttons-guidelines-best-practices-and-examples/
http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/great-call-to-action-examples#sm.0019hsqxbfnrdh510u023ehs2e2y
Also, have a look at this list of some of the best email marketing examples:
http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/email-marketing-examples-list#sm.0019hsqxbfnrdh510u023ehs2e2y0
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