View on PDA experience falls short

The Hunt

I am an avid fan of all things Crate and Barrel and that includes my email from CB2 – but I am admittedly behind on my “for fun” email reading. I had a unique chance to spend some time with my personal email today and at first glance was really pleased to see that CB2 was including a link in the header of the message to view the message on a handheld device – here they said PDA, semantics. While I wouldn’t necessarily consider the language best practice (can we, as email marketers put "click here" underlined and linked - to death?) – it was there – and with so many marketers not including language to address this today, it made me smile to see it. Then I clicked the link, and entered...

The Skunk

Let’s face it. The folks at CB2 have proven that they can write an email. While their messages are pretty much all images, which is not in line with best practice, it works for them. They have a fun tone to their writing and it is typically very engaging. But what you see below is the text that is linked to from the HTML message and it just falls flat. There is no follow-through with the tone and without the images, the descriptions provided (or lack thereof) make it really useless. Flex Sofa $999 really does nothing for me.

The Resolution
Provide a more intriguing experience for your customer and some descriptive copy. You know that the message is likely being read on a handheld device, while on the go, so call it out – for example:

We know you’re on the go and not likely to buy a sofa right now but we’ve got
some great stuff on sale that will help you flex your space from $29.95 to $999.
And if you happen to pass by a CB2 while you are out today – check it out for
yourself - if not you can see it all in your inbox when you get back home.

Putting the handheld link at the top of the message is a great first step, but you need to follow through; after all, the handheld page is still an extension of your brand.