I've written about Dunkin' Donuts' email marketing campaigns before, which fit awesomely (is that a word?) into their entire advertising effort. I simply love this brand and as a native New Englander, I'm amazed at how this franchise that just served coffee and donuts 10 years ago in slightly dingy shops is now a fast-food megapower. It's incredible what a little guile, money and some luck will do.

One of Dunkin's latest reach-outs was pushing their lattes, a somewhat forgotten item among their various beverages. In the past, DD has done full days committed to a certain product, whether it was a bagel special, .99 sandwiches or something else they wanted people to sample en masse and feel that they were getting on the cheap. Almost two weeks ago, it was time for .99 lattes and cappuccinos.

So here is an image of the email campaign they did. It was only sent once, no multiple reminders, no pushy sales. Quite simply, they just wanted to make their fans aware of something going on Tuesday. What I liked about this:

-Clear message. It's an item (Lattes & Cappuccinos) at a set time and date (From 1-10 pm on Tuesday 2/26) at a specific cost (99 cents). There's no muddying the waters here; it is what it be. (Anyone else notice the not-so-subtle dig at Starbucks within this email?)

-In the wheelhouse. There's a baseball term when a hitter gets a ball right where he likes it, otherwise known as "in his wheelhouse". In email, you hear a lot about the sweet spot, the area you see when previewing emails in your inbox. Well, I'm going to introduce a new term to the email community and say the message here is right in my wheelhouse; no scrolling needed. Within 10 seconds, I know the message and whether it speaks to me.

-Viral component. Without even thinking, two immediate people came to mind that would like this offer. I sent it to them (clicking the very suggesting icon) and within a couple minutes, they recieved it. If you're sending out an email that you think other people might be interested in, why not do this? I see too many marketers not asking for what essentially are referrals. If you're a trusted sender and you think that an offer you are sending might be of interest to friends of those on your list, why not trust those people to spread the message in a very subtle way? In this case, the offer is covered with whipped cream and chocolate syrup and is a great deal.

Marketers of consumable products need to look at campaigns like this and wonder how they can use the email medium to bring in more business on slow days. Dunkin' Donuts does a great job at doing that here, subconsciously creating a limited-time offer feeling with the single day, 10-hour approach. It's great to see that a franchise that generates money like the U.S. Treasury isn't resting on their laurels (or bagels) when it comes to creating new business.