Which campaigns inspired, what stayed the same, and how marketers can plan for 2017

and let your creative sparks fly!Celebrate the 4th of July

time to celebrateIntroduction

With summer in full swing, the 4th of July serves a

dual purpose for retailers. This red, white and blue

holiday is a final opportunity for major end-of-season

clearance events. But retailers are also well along

with their November-December Holiday planning. The

July 4th promotional calendar gives retail marketers

the opportunity to test possible email approaches for

this critical November-December shopping peak. Still,

Americans spend $6.7 billion on the 4th of July (Internet

Retailer), and there’s clearly upside when retail brands

contact consumers who are willing and ready to buy!

In this e-book, we share five notable 4th of July marketing

emails. In collaboration with eDataSource, Inc., Epsilon’s

email experts have analyzed the subject lines, read rates

and creative of these emails, and have offered expert

commentary on their execution.

New! We’ve also included a Spotlight section, where

we’ve featured two brands that had creative ideas, but

should consider a few changes for future campaigns.

Let’s face it! We all have areas in which we could improve

in digital marketing, right? It’s great when we can share

feedback, peer-to-peer.

• We cannot overemphasize the importance of responsive design in truly accommodating effective message rendering on both mobile and tethered devices.

• Video and animation are neat

ways to enhance engagement, entertainment, product information and demonstration.

• Imaginative and highly visible

CTAs (including prominent “Shop Now” buttons) are critical sales drivers.

• Always of high value --- where

applicable in multi-channel businesses --- is identifying the customer’s closest store, and/or the store where she usually buys (they are often different).

• For close-ended promotional

events, retailers can enhance urgency and responsiveness by clearly featuring event end-dates above-the-fold.

#Shooting starsKey insights

JOIN THE “LOVELOFT”Nice jobe Ann Taylor.

The message within this email was clear, concise,

focused and well structured. The animation added a bit

of visual interest to the message and helped to carry

the eye down further in to the email. How convenient! I

loved that they included the stores close to my home.

Additionally, I liked the dynamic card member offer at the

top. The “Loveloft” is a cute play on the card member

appreciation month.

Kara Trivunovic, Vice President

Client Services - Epsilon

Subject Line:

Flag this: $6 styles + EXTRA 50% off

#Ann Taylor Loft

• •• •• • • • •• ••• • •• • • • ••• ••• ••••• •• •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• • •• • •• • •• •••••••••••• • • ••• •• • • •• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •••• •••••• • • •• •• • •• ••••••••••••••

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Read rate: 15.06%

KARA’S QUICK TIPS

• This message appears to be a mobile first design, which isn’t optimal for desktop experience where most conversions tend to take place. I’d recommend testing a responsive approach.

• The email is image heavy. When the images are suppressed, the CTAs are lost. Consider leveraging bulletproof buttons.

THAT’S THE SPIRIT!What fun and consistent emails!

Lands’ End sent a series of emails around the July

4th holiday promoting their swim sale. Each email

leveraged the same template, but all had a fun, playful

iconic animation that definitely captured my attention.

In addition, in their call to actions, they included a

“starting at” pricing, which is an effective tactic to entice

additional clicks (see the highlighted image). What was

most unique about these emails is they broke away

from Lands’ Ends standards, showing lifestyle shots of

people wearing their clothes and instead, focused on the

holiday as an opportunity to create a unique campaign

to promote the swim sale. 

 

Lauren Gentile, VP Executive Creative Director

Digital Solutions - Epsilon

#Land’s End

Read rate: 13.65%

• • • •• •••• • •• • • • •••• • • • • ••• • • •• ••• • •• ••• • • • • •• •• • •• ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• • • •• • •• •• • • • • • • • • • • • •••••

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Subject Line:

All American Sale 40% off swim!

LAUREN’S QUICK TIPS

• Include the sale end date to drive urgency around the event and countdown the days left to shop the savings.

• Enlarge your Shop Now button to match the size of the other navigation and ensure it stays large and tap-able, especially for those mobile opens.

RED. WHITE. OR BREWWant to learn more?

July 4th is a holiday in which consumers enjoy being

with their friends and family and ‘cheering on’ the

holiday with a favorite beverage is an activity many

enjoy. PF Chang’s promotional email playing on the

‘red, white or brew’ theme is very creative. It leaves

the recipient intrigued, wanting to learn more, leading

to the click. The hero imagery was large, festive and

appetizing. And, PF Chang’s did a nice job with the

typography. Additionally, I liked the connection of the

offer to the mobile and social channels.

Jason Kertz, Senior Art Director - Epsilon

#PF Chang’s

Read rate: 19.57%

Subject Line:

Red White or Brew? Your choice.

JASON’S QUICK TIPS

• Consider shifting the design from one large imageto a redesigned header and footer with additionalnavigation items (menu, locations, order onlineas well as a map with a geolocation showing thenearest PF Chang’s).

• To increase reader engagement, includeanimation in the hero image. And, since peoplelove taking pictures of their food, considerincluding an Instagram feed and having a hashtagfor this event.

SPOTLIGHT

We loved Edward Jones’ spirit for the 4th of July holiday with

their video. Videos are an effective tactic in email marketing

and really help to drive open rates, etc. It’s great how

Edward Jones employed this campaign in both their email

and social (Facebook) channels. While the read rate of this

email was well above the norm with 30%, there were areas of

improvement in which we’d like to share.

 

As marketers, it’s important to streamline your efforts across

all channels, and it appears that Edward Jones sent a direct

mail piece to their customers and then leveraged the ‘direct

mail creative design’ for their email as well. The email appears

like a direct mail piece and there are creative opportunities

to change the layout and design. Consider designing an “all

purpose” HTML template that can be used for quick instances.

This all-purpose template would have the Edward Jones look

and feel and typical email best practices (navigation bar, pre-

header, image to text ratio, CTA button, etc.) and be flexible for

dropped in copy and images.

 

Video is an effective way to drive engagement. Share with

your customers the why behind your selection of the video. Is

there a specific reason as to why you chose this video? If not,

think of a video that has meaning to your brand, your story.

 

Lastly, don’t forget about brand consistency throughout all

digital channels. The logo within the email is different than the

logo on Edward Jones’ Facebook page.

Mara Crisafulli, Amy Crouch & Amy Pepler Epsilon’s Client Services Team

#Edward Jones

“All purpose” templates... tips on how to better drive engagement

Subject Line:

Happy Independence Day from Edward Jones

What a fun concept with this email!We loved it!

If you’ve ever experienced trying to take a video or

photo of fireworks, it doesn’t always go as planned.

While we love the idea behind this email, there are

some great opportunities for improvement, and I hope

we can all learn from these tips as we’re planning our

future holiday emails.

 

While black does a nice job of making the fireworks

pop along with filming in the dark, it makes forwarding

to a friend and responding quite a challenge. And, this

is the type of email that has the potential ‘to go viral.’

Think about what other colors would be an effective

background choice. Additionally, font selections are an

integral part of the creative design of emails. Consider

using a design font such as Bella, Otto, Bembo, etc.

 

The CTA is your opportunity at attempting to ‘close the

sale.’ Don’t settle for a ‘read more.’ Think about CTAs

that reflect the fun spirit of this holiday email. Also

include the do’s and don’ts of taking still photos. Play

on the sound effects of fireworks for your CTA and bring

it to life.

Mara Crisafulli, Amy Crouch & Amy Pepler Epsilon’s Client Services Team

How to Capture the Excitement of Fireworks on an iPhone or Android

Fireworks are notoriously difficult to film, especially on

a mobile device. Most phone's cameras simply do not

perform well enough, when left on automatic settings,

to adjust to the bright flashes of light set against a dark

sky. To help you get the footage you want this 4th of

SPOTLIGHT

#Sprout Video

Subject Line:

10 secrets to capturing stellar footage of fireworks using your phone

‘close the sale’

Conclusion

As demonstrated, a lot of great creative work went into the 2016 4th of July

holiday planning. And, it’s in no doubt due to the fact that marketers are in

planning mode months ahead of time. Marketers begin with their Summer

season planning strategy in the early part of Q4. Keep this e-book handy to

help you with your planning for next year. It will be here before you know it!

Want to hear more from our experts about the Summer season? Please visit our Epsilon blog site, a Brand New View.

Driving response through creativity in email marketing