Return Path Reengagement Email Review:
Does This Email Make It Hard to Say Goodbye?
Return Path Email Grade [A]
Subject Line | 4 |
Preview Pane | 5 |
Eye Path | 5 |
Clarity of Message | 5 |
Call to Action | 5 |
Offer* | - |
Credibility | 5 |
Sense of Urgency* | - |
*Not applicable.
Email grades are based on a 5-point scale: A = 5, B = 4, C = 3, D = 2, F = 1
June 7, 2016 –
Organization Overview
Founded in 1999, Return Path is an email data solutions provider with headquarters in New York, New York. Return Path partners with more than 70 providers of mailbox and security solutions, covering 2.5 billion inboxes – about 70% of the worldwide total. In addition, the company’s data platform also includes a network of more than 2 million consumers and purchase receipts from 5,000 retailers, which give insight to purchase behavior, consumer preferences, and brand affinity.
According to its website, Return Path’s solutions “provide the insight companies need to build closer connections with their customers, defend their brand against threats, and make confident, forward-looking business decisions.”
This Subject Line Rocks
♬ I’ve been waiting… for an email like you ♬
That’s the subject line of a reengagement email sent to someone who had opted in to receive emails from Return Path, but hadn’t opened an email from the company in a while. The bookend emoji music notes, along with the ellipsis in the middle of the subject line, succeed at making this email stand out in the inbox.
Although this subject line doesn’t clearly indicate the email’s content or message, it piqued the curiosity of the recipient, encouraging her to open the email and find out what it was all about. Plus, a straightforward reengagement message, or a subject line congruent with the headline of the email (“It’s been a while…”), likely would not have been effective at driving more opens.
Strong Eye Path Does a Great Job of Drawing Recipients to a Positive Response
The eye path is strong, drawing recipients’ attention from the red header and logo to the smiling koala bear and sad, crying-monkey GIF, with their corresponding calls to action in red: “Yeah! Yeah!” and “No, No, No.” The blue music note near the bottom of the page nicely ties together the subject line and call-to-action copy, as well as draws attention to the clickable Spotify playlist link. The list is composed of a clever selection of songs that relate to the reengagement theme, including “Waiting for a Girl Like You” (Foreigner), “I’ll Be Waiting” (Adele), “Yeah” (Usher, featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris), and “No! No! No! Part 2” (Destiny’s Child, featuring Wyclef Jean).
Email Message Is Clear and Creative
Once the email is opened, the reengagement message is delivered in a clear, yet fun and creative, way. This holds true even for the preview pane without images, in which the copy is presented in its entirety, including the calls to action.
The email copy states, “To continue receiving our emails, please select the happy Yeah! Yeah! koala. If you’d rather not receive emails anymore, simply select no, no, no monkey – because we’d be sad to see you go.”
Having the clickable “Yeah! Yeah!” in red type and the “no, no, no” in black type helps make the positive response more noticeable and likely to get the click. The call-to-action button design is creative, too. The copy featured on the buttons corresponds to songs on the Spotify playlist. In addition, scrolling over the buttons turns each of them a different color: The “Yeah! Yeah!” button turns red, and the “No, No, No” button turns gray, which is associated with links that are disabled.
In this email – and reengagement campaigns in general – an offer and sense of urgency are not necessary.
Simple, Smart, and Humorous Way to Reengage Inactive Subscribers
Overall, this is a great example of a reengagement campaign. It’s simple, smart, and uses humor to grab subscribers’ attention – from the creative subject line, to the standout calls to action, to the Spotify playlist compilation that ties in perfectly with the reengagement theme. Return Path is a highly credible email data solutions provider, and this email lives up to the quality reputation associated with the brand.
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.