Email Marketing Done Right – Urban Outfitters

We love when we come across examples of well-timed email marketing and follow-up and recently I came across a great one from the clothing company Urban Outfitters. Early last week I spent some time browsing their website, but I ran out of time before I got around to buying anything. I left the products I was interested in to sit in my cart and left the website. Within a few hours the company had started emailing me to follow-up and continue engagement and I ended up returning and buying something due in large part to their campaign (which I've put into a timeline below):

1. January 4th – I visited UrbanOutfitters.com and set up an account using my email address, I left the site with items still available to me in my shopping cart.
2. January 4th – I received the email shown below thanking me for signing up to receive emails and letting me know about some free offers, a link to their blog and info on company news.


3. January 5th – I still hadn’t returned to buy the items sitting in my cart, so I received the email below. The email titled, “Did you forget something?” reminded me that I had items in the cart and added some extra incentive by mentioning that some of the times were on sale and might sell out if I don’t go back to the website soon and purchase them, while at the same time offering additional items that I might be interested in and adding images of the products I had in the checkout. 


4. January 6th – When I still hadn’t returned to the website to purchase the company sent me another email entitled, “It’s on us! (Well, part of it…)” offering me 10% off my purchase with a coupon code which was unique to my email address. 
5. January 7th – After finally giving in (offering me a minor discount off items I already wanted in the first place was a good incentive for me) I received the final email below thanking me for purchasing and offering me another 10% off of my next purchase again with a coupon code specific to my email.

1. They had appropriately timed emails based on my actions which increased in value to me until I chose to convert on the campaign.
2. They brought me back to their website after I’d clicked away and eventually convinced me to purchase. 
3. They gave me an incentive to return to their website again to shop by offering me a “thank you” coupon. 
4. They offered me suggestions to up sell me on products I might be interested in based on items I already liked on their website. 
5. The emails were simple and to the point. 
6. The emails offer the option to unsubscribe and change email preferences so that I can choose to opt-out of some of the emails or all of them.

1. In my opinion the emails came a little fast. Even though I ended up purchasing, 4 emails in 3 days is a bit much.
2. The emails weren’t personalized with my name. This is a minor detail (and it didn’t bother me for the email that was personalized with images of what I like) but since the company already has my information (I signed up with an account) it would have been a nice extra touch to address the emails to me.

Posted by Amberlie Denny at January 10, 2011 8:00 AM

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