Sometimes its the simple things well executed that bring the best results.  This is certainly true in email marketing where a strong proposition clearly communicated will bring rewards. As markets continue to bump along in these recessionary times I thought it may be good to look at one of
my favourite examples of a great email marketing campaign we can all learn from.

Howies (www.howies.co.uk) is just one of many clothing companies working hard to make the till ring.  They have plenty of things in their favour including a strong product line and a clean web site with a clear brand personality.  This clarity comes through loud and clear in their email marketing and they have weekly campaigns to complement their seasonal brochure activity and other tactical and transactional promotions.

Here are the 3 simple things I believe they get right every time.

• Operational efficiency – allows them to respond in hours to opportunities
• Beautiful copy – their tone of voice is perfect in a medium where (disabled) images count for less.
• Clear call to action – simple, single-message emails that don't set out to confuse or SHOUT.

So, let's see how Howies put these three elements into action to demonstrate how email marketing can help you in a recession.  Back in November the UK high street went into a price war…20% off was the New Black for many retailers and much blood was shed in the weeks leading to Christmas. Howies are not really ones for leading on price but recognised that they had to respond.  So lets see how each element was skilfully used:

1.  Be nimble as an organisation
Email works when it is relevent and timely.  Howies, like many companies, have managed to organise themselves to get emails dreamed up, written, produced and delivered in a matter of hours.As we'll see in a minute this is the difference between making lots of sales…or not.  At about this time I was talking to the Head of E-Commerce for a big UK retailer who wanted to go to market with a tactical offer, but failed because he needed to raise it in a management meeting, and, if agreed, would need to speak to 3 different IT/web/marketing teams to try and get the campaign airborne.  Too late! No sales.  Use the recession to get your data in one place, get some independence from a management layer and have a library of message templates.

2.  Invest in your copy
As marketers we tend to think we can turn our hand to promotional copy but email is a very un-forgiving medium.  Be too long-winded, choose words poorly or get your tone of voice wrong and your message will fail. Howies on the other hand have a beautiful, consistent "light touch" with words
that makes sure that email, web and brochure all sound like the same conversaion with the same friendly person. And they also understand the "power of narrative"…a popular topic for discussion with web design agencies;  why reel off a list of cheap prices when you can engage people in a story about why you're offering cheap prices…it's more difficult to pull off (you may even need to PAy somebody to do it well), but maybe that's how different you need to be in a recession?

3.  "What's in it for me?"
Having led the reader to the point of making a decision how well do you close the sale?  We all know the standard cues to taking action…an image of the product for us to click on or a phone number to ring,  but Howies make it really simple for us by saying
"20% off all our stuff for the next 24 hours and free postage as well"

Now, weave these three elements together and this is what you get:

More to the point, how successful was this promotion?  Well, I emailed Howies asking for some feedback as I felt it could have been a bit of a cracker and here is their response:

"We literally made the decision to go to sale on the Thursday morning, and by Friday lunchtime, it looked like we were on for the biggest single day in Howies history!"

So, if you want to have the biggest single day in your company's history, be nimble, work on your copy and have a clear offer. Good luck!

Chris Combemale

The Email Academy