Urban Outfitters is a multinational clothes distributer with operations all over the world. They have shops throughout England and a strong online presence. Email marketing is a cheap distribution channel to reach mass markets with promotions such as discounts and coupons (Ellis-Chadwick & Doherty, 2012). This also works in favour for businesses as they gain your personal information and can track trends and customer behaviour. Therefore, it is in the interest of both the customer and the business for the customer to provide their personal information.

Emails produce approximately twice the return on investment than other forms of marketing (Pavlov et al, 2008). It is therefore crucial that the subject line acts as a trigger to entice the reader to open the email as this is the first thing that the reader will see. Otherwise, it may simply be deleted before it has even been opened. The subject line for the email which I received from Urban Outfitters was “Party dresses + up to £20 off in-store & online!” . This eye catching subject line enticed me to open the email as I often shop for dresses in Urban Outfitters and with Christmas coming soon I was hoping to get a bargain with the £20 off. The offer in the subject line was enough to entice me to open the email, which may have been moved straight to ‘deleted’ if the subject line did not grab my attention.

Another strength of this email is that there was not much word content; the emphasis on the email was the advertisement of dresses and other clothes that I frequently purchase. This is advantageous when it comes to a clothes retailer as the email is rather self-explanatory, so little effort and commitment is needed to find the marketing message of the email. The large images of the clothes make you want to open the email and see what else they have to offer. The email design is simplistic, with a large photo being the main focus of the email, this is the first thing you see when opening the email, with a call to action link in the middle of the picture which goes straight through to the dresses landing page. I scrolled down the email and below were other items which I regularly search for. For example sequins, these immediately lead me to click on the link to the page which was dedicated to sequin clothing. Furthermore, as you continue to scroll down the page there were other items, which I regularly search for with the links to the landing pages too. This acts as strength of the email, due to it being based on my previous browsing history and purchasing history.

I often shop in Urban Outfitters, and usually online, therefore I have an account which is logged into the website when I browse. As a result, Urban Outfitters know which products I often browse and purchase; consequently, the email has sent me an offer focusing on dresses. A weakness of the email from Urban Outfitters is that the email was not addressed to me therefore the lack of personalisation may reduce the chances of me scrolling down to read the email. Whereas an email I received from Booking.com was personalised to me with offers for places that I have recently visited and also recently searched for on their website, which makes it feel more exclusive to me. A further strength of the Booking.com email is that, not only is the subject line addressed to myself, the headline once you open the email is also personalised to me. It feels as though Booking.com have spent the time to create an email that would give the best chance of me booking a hotel.

As well as the links on the images, which click straight through to the dresses page, at the top of the email are further links which went straight through to the women’s, men’s, and home section. These are clear call to actions for the potential customer and a further strength of the email, as you still have a link which goes straight to the website. Thus, even if I was not interested in buying the dresses, which was the caption in the opening line, but I wanted to browse other areas of Urban Outfitters, I could go straight to the website by clicking on the other links. Therefore, I wouldn’t have to open the website via the internet on my phone where I may be distracted and not actually go to the website. Once you click on the call to action link, the landing page of Urban Outfitters reinforces the offer again.

A further critique of the email is that although there is a call to action on each image, all the calls to actions are at the bottom of the image and therefore you have to scroll down to see these. Chadwick & Doherty (2012) suggests that the subject line of the email should relate back to the headline of the email, this is not something that Urban Outfitters have done. Therefore, once you have opened the email there is nothing else to remind you about the offer which first enticed you to open the email. Although there is a small caption saying “Ride to the party” this relates more to the image of the car in the background rather than the £20 off in store offer.

References:

Ellis-Chadwick, F. and Doherty, N. (2013). Web advertising: The role of e-mail marketing. Journal of Business Research, 65(6), pp.843–848.

Pavlov, O., Melville, N. and Plice, R. (2008). Toward a sustainable e-mail marketing infrastructure. Journal of Business Research, 61.