Oreck Email Review: Does It Persuade You to Update Your Preferences and “Vacuum Up” the Offer?
Oreck Email Grade: [C+]
Subject Line & Preheader | 4 |
Preview Pane | 5 |
Eye Path | 4 |
Clarity of Message | 3 |
Call to Action | 4 |
Offer & Urgency | 2 |
Congruency | 2 |
Email grades are based on a 5-point scale: A = 5, B = 4, C = 3, D = 2, F = 1
June 6, 2017 —
Organization Overview
In 1963, David Oreck founded the Oreck Corporation to manufacture lightweight, yet powerful, upright vacuums for hotels in the United States. Oreck has moved beyond simply serving the hotel industry to now marketing its products to consumers, too. In addition, the company’s product line has been expanded to include canister, handheld, bagless, and bagged vacuum cleaners, floor machines, steam mops, and air purifiers, as well as a wide variety of air-freshening and cleaning products. Headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, Oreck was acquired by Royal Appliance Manufacturing Company in 2013 and sells its products online and through stores located in the United States, Canada, and Europe.
Subject Line Is Straightforward, But Lacks Value
This email was sent to an Oreck customer who had recently brought her vacuum into a local store for service. The subject line—”Tell us about YOU!”—is straightforward and stands out in the inbox thanks to the use of uppercase letters. It’s also customer-centric, clearly expressing that the company is interested in “YOU!”
The preheader used for this email incorporates the initial copy presented in the email message: “Update your preferences > View in Browser Stay up to speed and manage what messages you want to receive. As a subscriber, you won’t want to miss out on…Exclusive special offers”
When viewed together, the subject line and preheader clearly communicate the email’s primary purpose but don’t offer much value. If recipients clicked through and updated their preferences, they were sent an email with a “special offer” to save 10% on their next online purchase. Sharing offer details from the start (e.g., in the subject line, preheader, and headline) or creating some mystery and excitement by hinting at the special offer recipients get in return for updating their preferences would likely help to drive more conversions.
Effective Preview Pane and Eye Path
The preview pane without images is strong and offers all the important information contained in the message. Alternative text is used and the call to action is included.
The eye path is simple, yet effective. The reader’s attention is drawn to the copy in red type, then to the red bullets, leading to a pale-green call-to-action button. Because red is bolder and typically captures attention better than green, it would be interesting to test whether making the call-to-action button red in this email would drive more clicks.
Would a Friendlier Tone and a Sense of Urgency Get More Clicks?
The email message could be improved by updating the language used. For example, the headline—”MANAGE YOUR EMAIL PREFERENCES” mdash;includes terminology used by marketing professionals but may not be clear to the average consumer. Instead, a phrase like, “Tell us about yourself,” has a more-friendly and conversational tone. Adding such a headline would also make the subject line more congruent with the email message.
The actual preference survey/update consists of only 3 short questions. But subscribers don’t know that until they click through to fill it out. Providing subscribers with that important tidbit of information (e.g., in the bulleted copy) may encourage more participation.
The “special offer” is hidden within the email message. In some cases, not telling the specifics of an offer in the email copy can be effective in getting people to click through and find out more. Which technique works best for this particular audience—creating mystery or describing the details of the special offer? Testing would answer that question.
In addition, no urgency is created in the email copy to motivate subscribers to update their preferences and take advantage of the offer. Adding a deadline for completing the survey may help increase conversions.
Overall, this email clearly conveys the message that Oreck wants subscribers to update their email preferences. Better promotion of the value of why people should take the time to answer some questions about themselves would likely do a better job of getting the click.
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.