Eleventh Hour Holiday Email Marketing – Great Example From Circuit City
The following is an email I received from Circuit City the other day. I think this last-minute Valentine’s Day email campaign pulls together appropriate design elements, messaging and calls-to-action. And reflects what we’ve been talking about for months here at Get Elastic about holiday marketing.
Now that you’ve given your scroll-wheel a nice workout, let’s break this email down:
- Circuit City uses an attractive image with a simple message that solves a customer problem: “Find the perfect last-minute gift.” The image features 3 of the hottest selling product categories – digital cameras, iPods and GPS systems.
- The reader is reminded of Circuit City’s in-store pickup option – even if you’re past the shipping cutoff date you can still shop from your desk, Blackberry or wherever you are right now.
- Hey even if you’re done shopping for your honey, you can still take advantage of the deals you’ve come to expect from email offers. There’s a time limited deal – wanna see what it is? Then click through NOW.
- Don’t forget gift cards. These cards come with Valentine’s designs – nice touch.
- What I like about the way the products are laid out above is, much like how people scan navigation links looking for “trigger keywords,” they could also scan images for products that appeal to them. I love the red and pink product merchandising and attractive offers in each category. The customer can navigate to the category she wants straight from the email.
- And if nothing else enticed you today, here’s a contest. Although I’d like to see more details – what’s the dollar value of the prize and is there a purchase necessary?
It’s a challenge to design an email packed with so many different messages and calls to action that still looks clean and uncluttered. The messaging is unified around Valentine’s Day but not restricted to it. Whether you’re a last minute V-Day shopper or just a gadget-lover, this email is relevant.
For more tips and examples for holiday marketing, catch the replay of our recent Holiday Marketing Webinar and the companion blog post.
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Following your interesting anylisis about this email marketing…
I received this one today which – in my opinion – is quite well thought too : messaging, design and cal-to-action are pretty clear !
http://media.mydeco.com/media/img/newsletter/valentine.html?s_cid=18
What do you think ?
Adrien, this is very cool. Thanks!
It appears MyDeco’s calls to action aim at getting the email subscriber to participate in social media and Web 2.0 – designing their dream room, posting a blog entry, viewing celebrity rooms. This is all compelling content. Plus there are products listed on the right hand side to entice MyDeco lovers to see what’s new.
Great example.
Linda –
What a great email (analysis was pretty good too – ha ha). I also love their variety in their call-to-action buttons/links.
For example:
–2 “shop now” buttons that stand out clearly
–”Enter to Win” button that again stands out and doesn’t fall into the “CLICK HERE” trap
–”See today’s deal” link/button – adds some variety
–”Get it today” link/button – more variety
Wonderful email. I wish we had insight into how successful this campaign was. As I always say, an email campaign can be designed “perfectly” but if it does not drive the intended results (conversion $$?), it doesn’t really matter.
dj at bronto
Hi DJ,
You’re spot on. Without results (and I doubt CC’s gonna jump in and share that with us), we can just ooh and ahh at a campaign that encompasses a number of (insert overused business buzzword)”best practices”(/overused business buzzword).
‘Preying’ upon last minute shoppers always gets me good results. They have an incredibly high buy rate due to the time constraints.