There's something about being in this industry where it feels like you can't go anywhere without checking out how marketers treat email collection. No matter if it's a web site, magazine ad or even a restaurant, I constantly find myself intrigued by how businesses ask for email addresses as it tells a lot about how they view our industry and the benefits attached.
A few months ago, I stopped into a 99 Restaurant - a major chain here in New England that specializes in American cuisine in an all-encompassing fashion. It's tough to not find something good to eat there (highly recommend the Gold Fever Wings w/extra blue cheese) and they recently underwent a major image change reflected in all of the restaurants. It was here that I found my first touchpoint with their attempts to collect emails and where we begin our story today.
Points of Collection
In-store: There was a pad on the table with tear-offs (seen lower right, front/back), enticing users to leave their information (email, first name, last name, phone and birthday) in exchange for the chance to win a $99 pre-paid
credit card. This method is amazingly passive, especially considering the staff didn't push the sign-up at all. What happens when you sit down at a table with a bunch of people and there's something off-kilter (like the pad) obstructing the way? It gets moved to the side.
I've been to 99 several times over the past six months and it happens nearly every single time. This says a lot about their approach to collecting emails, doesn't it?
I also don't like that they are giving away a non-branded 99 product like a pre-paid credit card. I get the fact that it's $99, but why isn't it a $99 gift card to that restaurant? Apparently, the drawings are weekly but that wasn't reflected on the front of the pad, giving an impression of a slim chance of winning for a person giving it a quick glance.
On-site: The company has a fairly prominent E-Club push on the top right corner of their web site which is fantastic considering how many other companies fail at this. However, the information here is inconsistent with the signup form. On the web site, there's a 'Crowd Pleazer' Catering checkbox (not on the form) and mobile number was also left out.
But I was more disappointed that the same $99 contest didn't apply to the online submission. Why not? I have no idea, but if you're trying to get people to sign up, why are the in-store restaurants users given a better incentive when there's less of a push by their employees? I can somewhat forgive the data collection inconsistencies, but not the reward difference.
The Push
On the web? Great placement in a high-traffic visual area. In the store? It was treated as an afterthought and not supported by any in-store staffers, implying low value.
The Email
I reviewed three different campaigns, all facing similar problems and issues. For brevity, I'll dissect their last one which was deployed on April 8th and which you can see here with images turned on. Keep on scrollin' for more analysis.
- Subject Line: 'Spring into Refreshingly Creative Deals' - Bleh. There's no buzz or excitement here. There are three exotic dishes in here (Louisiana, Pacific Rim, Mediterranean) so why not play off of that? Remember one of our Golden Rules with subject lines: tell what's inside, don't sell what's inside. I've seen a lot worse, but there are plenty that are lot better.
- Technical: Disappointing in that even though the images were sliced, the entire email was image-based even though there was plenty of text to do a proper cut-and-code. Outside of the spam filter benefits of a 70-to-30 text to image ratio, there is a work benefit here to consider as well. Take a look at how this email would appear if viewed with images disabled:
So that text you see in place of those images is called alt tags. While the inclusion of alt tags is a best practice, this is a ton of text for all the tags and by my count, there are 23 (!!!) images in this email, not counting the logo in the footer. 23! With the amount of time it took to design this and put in all the tags, a HTML developer following best practices could have coded this correctly, minimizing the wasted effort. 23!!! This just seems horribly inefficient.
- Creative: From a design standpoint, I liked it. There was a coupon click push in the sweet spot, along with a 'Spring into Refreshingly Creative Entrees For $9.99' and there were easy to follow sections. Obviously, there was a push here for meals with a low cost which is why I was surprised that didn't make its way into the subject line.
- Frequency: Since I signed up for the list in January, I've got four emails so I'm on board with that. Unless a restaurant has a specific reason or event that requires them to send more often, once every three-four weeks is fine. We're looking to avoid inbox fatigue - something to pay special attention with considering eating out may be a luxury to people these days. Understanding your customers' habits is crucial and avoiding teasing them with things they can't afford is a plus.
- Other: They did have a proper click to view online in text at the top and unsubscribe/CAN SPAM at the bottom...what's the point of inserting my first name at the very top ("Josh") without a salutation? This comes off as lazy and pointless....I don't mind the inclusion of direct links to individual pages on the site, but I'd rather see them at the top of the email rather than in the footer...Also, I would prefer to see the prompt to whitelist the address in the header rather than the footer. Don't assume people will scroll all the way down, which is why designing for the email sweet spot is so important.
So my final thoughts on the 99 email campaign is that their in-store email collection efforts need to be upped or else be scrapped. If not, they need to find a way to get their employees motivated to collect email addresses and then, this will actually mean something. If collecting in-house is a must, find a better way and scrap the pads of paper on the tables as they're relatively useless considering the lack of push. Make the reward for signup consistent. From a technical standpoint, follow best practices and use the right text-to-image ratio. If you're going to use a merge like First Name, actually make it mean something.
Final Grade: B-. Certainly isn't the bottom of the barrel, but it could be a lot better.