Rachael Ray Nutrish Email Review: Do you think it’s “delish?”
Nutrish Email Grade: [C+]
Subject Line & Preheader | 5 |
Preview Pane | 4 |
Eye Path | 3 |
Clarity of Message | 3 |
Call to Action | 2 |
Offer & Urgency* | -- |
Congruency | 4 |
Email grades are based on a 5-point scale: A = 5, B = 4, C = 3, D = 2, F = 1
*Not applicable.
February 7, 2017 –
Organization Overview
Celebrity cook Rachael Ray partnered with pet food company Ainsworth Pet Nutrition to develop Nutrish, an extensive line of pet foods for dogs and cats. Inspired by recipes Ray created for her pet pit bull, Nutrish features simple and wholesome ingredients, including real meat and vegetables. Nutrish was introduced in 2008, and proceeds from product sales are used to help at-risk animals.
Strong Subject Line and Preheader Likely Drive a Healthy Open Rate
“Welcome to the Rachael Ray Nutrish Family!”
This is the subject line of a welcome email sent to a Nutrish customer who signed up through Facebook to receive coupons from the company. It’s a strong, enthusiastic subject line that incorporates the celebrity power of Rachael Ray and conveys exclusivity in becoming part of her “Nutrish family.”
The preheader is also strong. In addition to personalizing the message by using the recipient’s first name, the preheader also entices subscribers to open the email and find out more about the “special” offers: “Hi, Karen! Thanks for becoming part of the Rachael Ray Nutrish family! Now that you’ve signed up, you’ll never miss news and special offers from Rachael Ray Nutrish. Want to learn more…”
Lacks Primary Call to Action, Which Hurts the Clarity of the Email Message
The preview pane without images includes the main welcome message and uses clear, alternative text for the image boxes. However, there is no primary call to action. The eye path also would be improved if a primary call to action was featured. Although the design and layout are clean and attractive, a hierarchy of information ranked by its importance is lacking. Plus, the interesting brand information that is presented below the calls to action gets lost.
In addition, all three major call-to-action buttons are similar in prominence:
- “Where to Buy”
- “NUTRISH For Dogs”
- “NUTRISH For Cats”
The call-to-action buttons are prominent, but the copy isn’t value-focused or action-oriented to get recipients to click.
For all of these reasons, the clarity of the message is a bit muddied. Certainly, a welcome to new subscribers is the main message. And there is congruency between the subject line, preheader, and email content. But this email lacks a single welcome theme—whether it’s to educate, demonstrate brand value, or nurture new subscribers.
Missed Opportunity by Not Including an Offer and Sense of Urgency
Although it’s not necessary to include an offer and urgency in a welcome message, there was a missed opportunity in this email. In this case, the Nutrish customer signed up to get “coupons and special offers,” as described in the company’s Facebook ad and the introductory copy of the message. Upon clicking through the links, however, no coupons or offers are provided. Adding a “welcome gift” (e.g., valuable coupon with an expiration date) would increase engagement and likely help drive more product sales.
Celebrity chef and pet lover Rachael Ray lends high credibility to her Nutrish pet food brand. The credibility is enhanced by donating proceeds from Nutrish sales to pet charities and other organizations that help animals. Overall, this Nutrish welcome email started out exceptionally strong, thanks to an effective subject line and preheader, but it lost some steam (and likely clicks) because there was no value-packed, primary call to action.
Disclaimer: FulcrumTech does not have access to the performance data relating to this promotional email, so any tests performed on this email can’t be reflected in FulcrumTech’s commentary.
