Diesel is known for its trendy lines and jean washes. I must admit that half my closet is filled with their brand so it pains me to say that they’ve committed some pretty egregious email marketing sins.
Two of the biggest factors determining whether someone opens an email is the subject line and from name. The ‘From Name’ used in the email didn’t identify Diesel as the sender but rather used a generic name ‘StoreMtl.’ The email address used an @diesel.ca domain so I was able to identify the sender by hovering over the email (feature available in Gmail but not Hotmail or Yahoo). The ‘Subject Line’ is supposed to quickly convey the theme of the email and call-to-action. In this case the call-to-action is loud and clear written in ALL CAPS!
DIESEL JANUARY-BOXING DAY SALE!
Not best practise but this was far better than the previous email I received from them, with (no subject).
Being a Diesel aficionado and curious about the sale I decided to click-through and checkout the deal.
The deal was a 20% discount from their fall/winter 08/09 kids collection for items already listed at ½ price so this wasn’t applicable to me. Using a CRM to track buying behaviour and target emails accordingly will give us shoppers a better experience and most likely give retailers more money in their pocket and better ROI.
The email message was just an image with no corresponding alt-tags, so if my images were turned off as they were by default all I could see was an X where the design and message would be. That’s not a good deal!
The last two issues are what really make this email blast a failure. When sending out the email they used the CC field and sent it to everyone on their list. The problem is I, and everyone else that received the email can view each others’ email addresses. Our privacy was not protected in this case. Finally, the biggest sin committed was not including an unsubscribe option. If there is no automated system in place then at a minimum, there should be a message indicating that a reader can unsubscribe by replying to the email with ‘unsubscribe’ in the subject line. After all, it’s the law and all emails should be CAN-SPAM compliant.
CAN-SPAM rules summary update by MarketingSherpa.
As I wrap this post up while I’m sitting in my comfortable diesel jeans I should note that I haven’t unsubscribed because I really would like to hear about future deals from Diesel.
*Hint: I just ripped my favourite pair of diesel jeans so how about a sale on your fall/winter jean line?
Update:
I received a third email several days later and the content was much improved. A clear subject line, a deal which was relevant to me, and my email address was secure this time. Way to go, someone over at Diesel gets email marketing!
