Mistiming subject lines

As I'm writing this (Thursday 14th), I got an email from a US-only store to remind me to change my clocks for daylight savings.

The daylight savings that happened last Sunday in the US.

So either someone screwed up the timing of the email (should have been last week), screwed up the message (mention something else), or their email took too long to get published.

97% of the email was a pitch for their sale on smart thermostats that is happening in their store. My guess is that some bureaucracy happened that delayed the email too long and instead of pulling it or changing it, they pushed it out without considering the content.

The dumb thing about it was that they walked past a really clear and relevant call-to-action. A "Don't you hate changing clocks twice a year? With our smart thermostat, you don't have to" line could have done wonders for their open rates and sales.

A lot of stores do email marketing poorly. Some cringe-level-poorly.

That leaves opportunities for stores who are willing to be great at emailing. Even a merely adequate effect can be significant to sales.

Eric Davis

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Topics: Email marketing

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