From: J. Crew
Date: 3/05/16
Subject Line: It’s here: your weekly roundup
J. Crew has initiated a new weekly roundup or cheat sheet email, as they call it. I like to call it the “kitchen sink,” because this email has EVERYTHING. Every week, it includes: an outfit inspiration, new arrivals, top Pinterest pins, most popular picks near me, top-rated picks, and style stories. I mean, holy moly, this email is jam-packed! To be honest, I’m a little on the fence about how I feel about it.
What I do like is how targeted it is. They make a conscious effort to make it apparent that this email is about ME. The constant use of the word “you(r)” throughout the email makes that very obvious: YOUR weekend shopping cheat sheet, what YOU (and customers like you) are browsing, YOUR outfit inspiration, YOUR new arrival recommendations, etc, etc. It leads me to believe that this email is generated specifically for me, based on my history and location. Another upside is that the email is broken into clear and digestible sections. I also can appreciate all the unique ways they thought about how to target a customer.
Buuuuut, is there too much going on here? Maybe. I’ve seen long emails that don’t feel long, because, like a good movie, they capture your interest and leave you wanting more. The secret is careful attention to design layout and imagery. However, in the weekly roundup emails: following the outfit inspiration, the rest of the imagery is small … not eye-catching. There is also no flow. The products don’t stand out as being the focus of the sections. If I were really interested in buying new clothes I might take the time to look over each image, but for the busy bee with a short attention span, nothing catches the eye or keeps you wanting to scroll. I think with a little work on flow and image hierarchy, these emails could be pretty awesome.
Here are a few more to look at:
Date: 1/30/16
Subject Line: Amy, it’s here: your weekly roundup
Date: 1/24/16
Subject Line: For Amy: Your weekend cheat sheet is here
Date: 1/17/16
Subject Line: For Amy: Your weekend cheat sheet is here