According to Pavlov et al. (2008), 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. Studies of e-mail marketing campaigns, however, are rare ( Cho and Khang, 2006). In this blog post, we have the aim to critically analyse an event triggered email sent by Pure Gym, a national low cost gymnasium. A screenshot of the email is provided at the end of this blog post.
The recipient was a member of PureGym however he cancelled his contract a couple of months ago. With this in mind, PureGym has now the objective to bring back the old member. They have implemented a promotion scheme to the author so that he is tempted to re-join the gym with a £0 joining fee and 25% off membership for the rest of the year.
The email is extremely well presented, as it is a sales focused email, they have done it short and simple. The email headline links to the subject line and both of them offer an incentive instantly and PureGym immediately states what is the email about “Joao, last chance to get 25% off your first 2 months and pay zero joining fee”. Direct to the point and the body copy of the email is aligned with its subject and headline. The message content is well described as it shows us how to re-join the gym and it sells themselves stating that “Unlike other gyms, our memberships are still contract-free so you can leave at any time.” PureGym have their brand logo prominent in the top left hand corner of the email, which doesn’t require scrolling therefore the recipient can be immediately engaged.
The e-mail marketing done by PureGym incorporate many interactive features such as: Website landing page, send an email to the company, gym locator, fitness & classes and a re-join button option. All of them are well shown and easy to click. In regards to hyperlinks, the email contains 8 hyperlinks to another web page, in this case, 4 of them forwards the recipient to a personalize web page that allows the recipient to re-join the gym. The rest of them, are hyperlinks of their main website page and their social media platforms so that the recipient knows exactly who the company is and their offerings. Too many links might obscure the message however each link has a purpose and they are all tailored to communication objectives. Last of all, PureGym used personalize email in the title and even content, this improves their click-through rates as the recipient immediately sees in the title his name therefore he will most likely be tempted to open the email and see their offerings.
Moving on to developing sustained attention or “engagement” with an e-mail message, personalization, interactive features, and hyperlinks to web pages seem to be the most effective tactics. Comparatively, the verbal text, especially the body copy, seems to be less important for e-mail marketers who choose to adopt a catalog approach, where body-copy text is often reduced to a brief description of each product. Personalization also influences the style and layout of e-mail marketing messages. Overall, the email marketing done by PureGym is straightforward and accurate. The recipient was away from his hometown for a couple of months therefore he cancelled his contract. On that period of time PureGym didn’t send any email to the customer, however, since he arrived back to his hometown they have started sending emails every week with promotions to re-join the Gym. Therefore, the email marketing content is appropriate and the frequency and timing of the email is precise. If the recipient wants to re-join the gym, it is very easy to do that as PureGym has provided easy ways to return to their membership.
Source used: Ellis-Chadwick, F., & Doherty, N. F. (2012). Web advertising: The role of e-mail marketing. Journal of Business Research, 65(6), 843-848.