Interactive

Let’s be honest: A lot of what turns up in email inboxes is pretty ho-hum. You click through on a message if there’s a discount or free shipping on something you have an immediate need for, but otherwise, you delete or ignore a whole heck of a lot of messages because there’s a “been there, done that” vibe.

This past weekend, for the first time in ages, an email hit my inbox that made me want to revive our “Emails We Love” headline. The honor goes to Barnes & Noble, and an email for the Nook tablet.

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1. Perfect the “outside of the envelope.” There’s a reason this is first. If your email isn’t opened, it’s not going to convert and it can’t get opened if it’s not delivered. Outside of the envelope things that make a difference: the “to” address, the “from” address, the subject line and the format/deliverability.

2. Use a series of emails, not just one. There’s not a day that goes by that someone doesn’t tell me that they have an abandoned cart program, when they only have ONE email. One email does NOT make a program. Many consultants think three emails works best. I’ve found that most of the “3 is the magic more

Is your customers’ experience consistent with your brand proposition across all channels?

Many marketers might have a knee jerk “of course!” answer to that question. But really think about it. Does everything your customer experiences with your brand really jibe with the image you want to project?

On New Year’s Day, my husband and I took our boys to the New England Aquarium in Boston, using passes we had purchased on LivingSocial.

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Did marketers ring in the new year in your email inbox? A few staggered through mine after the clock struck 12, with varying results.

The honor of the first email crossing my inbox in 2012—on January 1 at 12:01 a.m. no less—was local restaurant chain The Halfway Cafe. While the design and subject line was pretty much standard for them (a rundown of their “seven items for $7″ for January and February), care definitely went into choosing menu options that tapped into the comfort food loving child in all of us such as a grilled cheese, American Chop Suey, hotdogs & beans, a turkey dinner. The “content” was filling, to say the least.

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For the holiday season, Barnes & Noble is wasting no time in taking advantage of the liquidation of Borders Books over the summer.

This week, the book selling giant has been sending emails to former customers of the now-defunct Borders retail chain offering holiday discounts such as 30% off book purchases and free delivery by Christmas.

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comScore reports that consumers have spent $30.9 billion online so far in November-December, a 15% increase over the same period in 2010. While Cyber Monday still holds the record for the heaviest online spending day of the year for the second consecutive season, last Friday’s Free Shipping Day still pulled in an impressive $1.07 billion.

Was “free shipping” the email buzzword last Friday? On December 16, 39 emails came into my personal inbox. Twenty-four of those messages featured free shipping pitches either in the subject line or body copy.

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