Released last month are two new research papers that may be of interest to members. The first: ‘Best Practices for Apology Emails’ tackles the issue email marketers face when mistakes happen. The report provides a good framework, or reference point and includes what US retailers have done to counter mistakes in their email communications. This may include; sending a separate apology email, a new updated offer, and in some cases doing nothing. The report aims to categorise the issues into four areas, with actual examples and a gallery of the actual emails.  Whilst we all (should) know the importance of thorough testing, and in some cases using tools and a documented testing procedure, mistakes can happen. This report whilst cannot provide a ‘model’ answer for every industry at least gives the reader a starting point in order to consider their options.

The second report, of a more technical nature is titled ‘Soon Even More Emails Won’t be Optimized for Width’ and touches on topics such as pixel width and mobile rendering, with the key point being that design considerations are changing, driven by mobile email and use of the preview pane with some brands testing new width formats in line with their overall ecommerce strategy.

Whilst both reports are written using US retail data I recommend them to all readers for their attempt at documenting, discussing and providing examples of key issues. As ever Chad White, of Retail Email Blog and a contributor to the DMA’s own Benchmarking reports does a great job on putting the key issues and considerations together succinctly.

Members can download the reports free of charge by logging into the research area here.

Richard Gibson
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