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I am a huge music fan. My two Ipods are filled to the brim, I have books
upon books of CDs telling the stories of musicians through the past 40 years
and I still pay a monthly fee to stream Rhapsody while at work. I'm a sucka for
people suggesting what to try out, so 'round Tuesday is a fun day to review my
inbox. See, Tuesday is the magical day when new music hits the stands, both in
the brick/mortar world and online.
Obviously, different retailers take different approaches to enticing the
public to come into their shops so I wanted to provide two specific examples of
what's going on out there in the ongoing effort to get more of your cash for
tunes.
ITunes - Yes, Apple helped revolutionize the way we purchase music
online and how we listen to it. They also are very tight and effective when it
comes to telling people what's coming out. This email seen here is a tad light
on content, but the layout is what I really like. There are three distinct
message and approaches here.
1 - Top push area. Here, they are selling the idea of the Class of 2008 with
some hot artists that have emerged this year. This allows them to push
theme-based campaigns by just bunching up existing material.
2 - New Releases. This is where my eyes always go first. Album cover, title
of disc and artist: done. Even if it's an artist I don't care about, I at least
have a finger on the pulse on what's going on in the world of music.
3 - Finally, the Top Ten. Oh, how our society loves lists! Let me know what
other people are digging and perhaps, it may fit with what I like. This speaks
to the middle of the road buyer that may just be in a buying mood for new stuff
or finally have a name and face to put with that track they heard on the radio
the other day.
Clean, effective and tight are how I'd describe the weekly ITunes New Music
Tuesday emails.
On the exact oppostie tip is Newbury Comics, a New England-based
music/novelty/trinkets/comic chain. Newbury is mainly for the down-and-dirty
music fans, the ones that prefer buying local to national and might mull over
the merits of purchasing a Pee Wee Herman bobblehead vs. a speaking Mr. T
keychain while picking up the latest CD releases.
On a best practices level, there's way too much content in here and the
subject line (5/26 Newbury Comics Coupons and New Releases) is a bit bland for
me. But for a devoted fan of their approach, it's hard to tear this thing
apart. See you after about a mile of email....
Hey, you're back! Wow, that's a long email. If someone was to ask me why someone would keep an email in their inbox and go back to it (known as Total Open Rate), this is what I would present as Exhibit A. I mean,
there's a lot here to take in but it seems to fit the 'throw it all in there'
brand that Newbury has. I'd be interested to hear about open rates,
click-throughs and such from N.C., especially that little Forward To A Friend
icon that appears at the bottom, a bit neglected if you ask me. There's plenty
of buyable items, but are people using the coupons and actually taking some
course of action?
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