Brookstone Promotes Smart Clocks in Smart Email

We touched upon leap year marketing last week, just one example of how you can work promotions around special days of the year. I found this great email example from Brookstone for Daylight Savings. Not only does Brookstone choose appropriate products to promote, the email acts as a public service announcement. Let’s take a closer look:

There’s a number of things Brookstone does very well:

• “Daylight Savings Time begins March 9″ sets the context for the rest of the email. “But don’t worry! SmartSet clocks set themselves — and auto adjust for Daylight Savings Time, too” frames a problem and solution, capturing interest. Even if you have an alarm clock already, this benefit might prompt you to upgrade.

• The customer rating is a great idea, including a real person’s name and city to add authenticity. And “Why didn’t I get one sooner?” subtly communicates that this is an indispensable item, and the customer shouldn’t postpone this purchase decision.

  I’d like to see a link to the actual review to add to the credibility (Brookstone uses “Verified Purchaser” badges to build trust, and a link to the actual review would also support this). Also, I’m not sure which of the 3 clocks in this section the review refers to. So really, I just have to take their word for it that this was a real review, because I’m not going to dig through the entire SmartSet line to find the review.

• This section includes quite a bit of product information. The key benefit is mentioned 4 times in the copy, as is “plug it in.” It appears a bit redundant, but it’s also ensures you’re going to understand the key benefit, even if you don’t pay attention to every area (think eye-tracking heat-maps). The little green box is a bit of a product demo, I like it. The description also mentions Leap Year, which is timely.

• Prices are listed, which I appreciate. The email recipient can judge whether the item prices are acceptable without having to visit the site. There’s no vague “from $X” or “X% off.” In fact, these products are not on sale at all. But showing a range of items and price-points is appealing, if you don’t want to spend too much, you can get the benefits from the most basic model.

• The call-to-action button (CTA) says “Shop Now” instead of “Buy Now,” which makes sense because you’re shopping the category, not buying an individual product. (Referring to image above, not below)

• Showing augmented products like telephone-clock and iPod-dock-clock is great, especially if this means the 2-in-1 product frees up limited night-table real estate.

• This is just awesome. Brookstone reminds you your family’s safety is at risk without functional smoke detector batteries. Even if you don’t buy batteries from Brookstone (though there is a convenient link to buy some), Brookstone’s concern for your well-being is a appreciated.

• Using statistics is always effective. 90% of Americans have smoke detectors (probably you), and 1/3 of them need to replace the batteries (make sure this is not you).

• Continuing with the Daylight Savings theme, Brookstone displays pillows and mattresses. Clever.

• BillMeLater reference is like: “Now that you’re coveting these products, we’ll help you avoid delay-of-gratification.” This could have a positive effect on conversion, or reinforce the benefit of shopping with Brookstone in the future for those that desire alternative payment options.

• “If none of these other offers appealed to you, we’ve also got a big sale goin’ on…”

• Shop by price and gift finder links - if you do need to find someone a gift today, jump right to these sections from the email.