Hewitt & May is a high quality shirtmaker targeting buyers in the City, business owners and lawyers who appreciate exceptional quality with a stylistic edge.

The objective of this email was to acquire new customers. The approach was to use a special offer to encourage potential customers to try the brand for the first time. The experience would lead them to become regular customers.

The email was successful in generating click-throughs but failed to make many sales.

Analysis

1. Website navigation at the top of the email is a good idea as it serves the added purpose of setting out what you do, although including a Home button might be a little confusing.

2. Having the key message at the top-left of the email is the right approach as this is often the only part of the email readers can see. However, as the email viewing window is often wide rather than tall, it may not show all of the image and the main messages (‘40% off’ and ‘Jan sale’) could be cut off.

3. The main issue with the email is the number of messages being presented to the viewer, all at a similar size. It is hard to know where to look first. Messages include:

• 40% off
• January sale
• Finest ever shirt
• Free delivery
• Get free silk tie
• Buy now
• Egyptian 2-Fold Cotton
• Free delivery (again) & free returns.

4. For the navigation think about the language that could drive reader action. Will they react better to ‘Promotions’ or perhaps ‘Special offers’ or ‘Great deals’?

5. If possible avoid breaking up key headline phrases over different lines – ‘Classic V1’ and ‘shirt’. It makes it harder to scan and understand.

6.The call to action is not clear. While it says ‘Buy now’ on a number of occasions, you can’t see where to click. If you roll over most of the images it turns out that they are buttons but this is not immediately clear. In one case the ‘Buy now’ text is not clickable.

7.It doesn’t make sense to say ‘Buy now’ above the general headings of shirts, ties and cufflinks, as the reader hasn’t seen anything to buy at this stage.

9.When you do find a link to click on, such as the main offer, you arrive on the home page of the Hewitt & May website, rather than on the specific product page. There is no obvious button on the home page to buy the shirt. Users are likely to get lost at this stage.

9.The email is made up entirely of images. Many email clients (eg Outlook) are set not to open images so some readers may receive a blank email.

10. The email doesn’t comply with new legislation governing email marketing and websites. From 1 January 2007 it became a legal requirement to display your full registered company name, country of registration and registered office address on ALL business emails including your email marketing.

Response

1. You only have ten seconds to catch the attention of readers once they open an email so it is important to consider what stands out. Create one key message as the main focus for the email and present this clearly for the reader –firstly in the subject line, then reinforced in the headline.

2. Although the January sale/money off message does stand out, it loses impact due to the multitude of other messages presented at a similar size, all competing for attention.

3. Join ‘Up to 40% off’ and ‘January sale now on’ together and display them across the page. This will give them more chance of being seen within a user’s email client (eg Outlook). Users can often only see the top-left half of the email.

4. Create a hierarchy for the messages so they don’t all blur into one. Enlarge the size of the main offer in relation to the subsequent copy so readers know what to look at first.

5. It the reader is sold on the offer straight away, make it easy for them to buy without having to scroll/read any further. Put a ‘Buy now’ button next to the main offer.

6. If the reader is not yet ready to buy and needs a little more convincing they can scroll down and see further benefits (‘Free delivery’, ‘Free silk tie’).

7. Bring ‘Classic V1’ and ‘shirt’ together on one line. This makes it easier to scan and read.

8. Give the offers lower down the page clear buttons to enable the reader to find out more.

9. Ensure all links go directly to the relevant product pages where there are clear links to start the buying process.

10. Use at least some ‘system text’ in the email. This will ensure users with images switched off will receive an email with some information in and realise they need to download the remaining images.

11. Add your full registered company name, country of registration and registered office address at the bottom of the email. Companies without this risk a fine if reported.

http://www.hewittandmay.co.uk/