An email promotion I received today from Staples, the office-supplies giant, drives home the importance of thinking your email promotion through and testing it thoroughly from beginning to end. In this case, Staples stumbled on the execution of an HTML email promotion.
Staples sends me a good offer -- $10 or $30 off my purchase price, depending on how much I buy. And initially, the email looks pretty good:
Everything works fine if I click through and go to the Web site to redeem my coupon. However, notice that the email also invites me to print out the email and use the coupon for in-store purchases. Uh-oh. I know that Microsoft Outlook (huge installed base among Internet users) is not too good at printing out HTML emails. Sure enough, my printed document looks like crap:
If I take this mess in to my local Staples store, is the clerk going to honor it? I'm not so sure. Guess I'll just toss it in the trash and forget about it.
With HTML emails, you need to make sure that your email will display correctly in all email systems. If you're going to require the user to print anything, it's better to send a text email, which will print reliably, or have them click through to a Web page and then print that.
This failed implementation illustrates the importance of testing out every step of your email promotion.
Have you had more success with HTML email promotions, or with text? Let us hear about your experiences by clicking on the "Post Letter" link at the top of the right-hand column of this page.
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Al Bredenberg is publisher of EmailResults.com (http://www.emailresults.com). Find out about Al's new book, "Profitable e-Marketing: Success Strategies That Pay Off," at http://www.profitableemarketing.com .
