Why You're Getting Black Friday Emails on Halloween

Answer the following questions...
How many emails do you get every day?
How many of them do you really open and read?
What e-newsletter do you subscribe and why?

...do you still think email is dead?


Email Is Not Dead

Due to the flood of social media channels and mobile apps, people tend to underestimate the power of emails. I admit that I also used to think email was an old school stuff. However, US customer-acquisition of email has increased since 2010. In addition to that, email has a higher ROI of 122% than any other marketing format, which is four times more than social media, direct mail or paid search, according to Direct Marketing Association.

In the age of digital, everyone has at least one mobile device. It also plays a significant role in making email marketing effective. Before I got my first smartphone in 2011, I rarely checked my inbox. If someone told me he/she emailed something, then I logged into my account. What about now? The first thing I do as soon as I wake up in the morning is to check my three email accounts. First, I look through if there is anything urgent to react/reply to promptly. And then, I read e-newsletters and promotions throughout the day.

You've Got a Black Friday Email

From a few weeks ago, I started to get promotional emails and news articles regarding Halloween. Holidays and other special days/events are a very good bait to attract customers for marketers. Now go to your inbox and look at them thoroughly... you've got a Black Friday email!

Earlier this week, I found an interesting article about email marketing, Black Friday Emails Coming Early As Christmas Creeps In On Halloween. It explains well why you're getting Black Friday emails and the recent trends in emails. Here are main points of the article and my comments on each of them.


1. Be ahead of the rush

Right. This is exactly why you got Black Friday emails this early. No one wants to directly face heavy traffic (a.k.a. bloody competition). According to data collected during the holiday season last year, marketers concluded that there would be no negative aspect of sending out emails earlier. Rather, it would be less annoying for recipients. Yes, I would definitely open the promotional emails and start to plan holiday shopping. I'm not sure I will make a purchase, but at least I will remember those first emails.


2. The more emails, the less engagement 

Holiday emails have increased over the past two years, but average open rates have decreased. As 'the day' approaches, we get bombarded with countless of marketing emails. The engagement of emails that has a subject line with "Black Friday" drops due to email fatigue. If you want your emails stand out of many others, come up with fresh and creative subject lines, and customization. Don't bother your subscribers by throwing emails over and over. It's time to play smart and be a little tricky. Always think in the perspective of customers.


3. Know your target

Marketers should analyze their email metrics and focus on target audience who engage more. Here customization is recommended again. For some people, just one email would be so annoying, but for some other people who are more loyal to or interested in your brand, one or two more promotion would work. Look at your data and divide your email list into segments based on its response. And target them with customization. You will successfully be positioned in their minds.


4. Be a friend with "unsubscribe" and "email less" 

Don't worry, it's not a suicide. Don't bury your 'unsubscribe' button. I get even furious when it's hard to opt out of your email list. Why don't you provide one last shot, email less, before letting people go? Customer acquisition is so much harder than retention. Let some people stay inside your zone even though they are far away to reach. Make a separate segment with the people of 'email less' option and send more critical emails to encourage their engagement.


Heena's Review

Look like email lost to a rising star, social media, but in reality, email is the most effective and the least difficult marketing tactics. As the holiday season comes, my inbox will be flooded with promotions. This year, I'm going to pay attention to what's happening why it's happening. As a marketing student, I'm a bit excited to check them out to see the trend in email marketing, which would have been a headache if I was not a marketer.

A Makeup Teacher on My Phone

What apps do you have on the first page of your home screen?
Do you re-locate them regularly or fix the locations almost forever?
How often do you browse and download new apps?
How many of them and how long do you keep them on your phone?

As mobile becomes the most time used digital media, hundreds of apps come to live every day. As of June 2016, there are 2 million apps available in the app store, and over 60 thousand apps are added per month - and this rate itself is growing. On the other hand, mobile apps could be easily deleted if they don't have critical value to take up space on your phone. You can go to Google, Youtube or web browser to get whatever you want. Why would you struggle to download and signup, and get worried about your phone's storage?

I swear - I'm the person who manages home screen the most conservatively by regularly picking up useless apps and deleting them. I rarely browse on App Store to find any random fun thing. I'd rather use search if I need something specific. The apps on the first page of my home screen and on the Dock (The bottom bar on an iPhone where you can place your favorite apps for easy access anytime) almost never been changed. There are two pages on my home screen and both are half-full of apps because I don't like to see my beautiful home screen packed with app icons. Now do you see how much I care the neat and clean visual on my device? Of course, it also applies to my laptop. I just checked - I have nine icons on my desktop background.

Do you want your apps to survive on my phone? This is why mobile apps must have great contents, excellent UX design and be fun to play with! Even big companies are struggling with their apps and losing credit for poor quality. They have to think out of the box of pushing and selling, and start a new adventure of engagement. Make Up For Ever, a French cosmetics brand owned by LVMH, has an interesting app that doesn't include e-commerce function, which could've been a great source of revenue. What made Make Up For Ever become so brave? What's their purpose of this app?


TEACH ME MAKEUP
The Makeup App That Links Products & How-to's With One Scan

1. Design & Esthetics

It's classic - black & white, simple and neat. No redundancy. The overall design has strong consistency with Make Up For Ever's brand image, logos, representative colors, and its store interior.

The icon itself is pretty straightforward with the name of Teach Me Makeup. When I first saw the icon, I was not sure if it is Make Up For Ever's or not. I think the company wants to focus on the features and benefits of its app rather than its brand name.

The homepage is fascinating! This is what I like the most of the app. Very simple and straightforward, bold texts and the cool background picture of a half-highlighted women's face with strong red lips. No too much colors neither images. Luxurious and gorgeous... I still think it's gorgeous after seeing this homepage many times.

2. Menu & UX

Intuitive and user-friendly. The hamburger menu icon on the upper right corner takes you to the whole list of menu. No confusion, no forever scrolling. As I said above, this app is not for e-commerce, so menus closely related to the main purpose of the app such as Scan, All Videos, My Favorite Videos are located on the top. Makes sense!

As an effort to drive conversions, there is a Store Locator menu that takes you out of the app and onto Make Up For Ever's web browser. Since its website is mobile friendly and easy to shop products, I think it's a smart idea to direct users to its home ground.








Let's take a look at Newsletter Sign Up. Hmm..nothing wrong with this, but I'm a little wondering why there is a newsletter signup instead of a user registration. The signup process is the simplest one asking my name and email address. That's it! I appreciate their kind explanation about what I could get from the signup even though I'm well aware of that their purpose is to collect my information. However, they missed the introduction of Pro Newsletter having the checkbox unchecked by default. What is the Pro newsletter? How is it different from the regular newsletter? Why is it unchecked? Does it mean that you don't encourage me to sign up?

What is Demo at the bottom the menu list? I had no idea from what it says. After one touch, I found that it was a well-made video guide about this application! This one-minute video that includes what this app provides is a great tool for the first users. It should be on the first page, fixed menu bar, or on the top of the menu list! How come it is hidden further down the menu list with a not-clickable-at-all name?

Here is the video guide of Teach Me Makeup

3. Scan & Watch

Let's get to the point! This app is all about makeup tutorial! You will see the big bold Scan and Watch section as soon as you open the app. I fell in love with this simple but strong design and message!

Once you touch Scan, you are able to scan a product using your phone camera as you scan QR code. Tap the red sexy lips on the bottom and the app can recognize what product you have. Then you can learn how to apply the product by watching the suggested video tutorial. What a cool combination of innovative idea, technology, and fun engagement! Unfortunately, I don't have any Make Up For Ever's product for now so I couldn't see how it works. Funny thing is that this app anyway lists all videos whatever product (even nothing) it scans. Better than 'sorry!' page with empty contents!

The other part of the main page, Watch, allows you to browse total 54 videos of makeup tutorial by category; face (19 videos), eyes (24), lips (3), looks(8), all videos and my favorite videos. Inside Looks, there are various looks of makeup such as holiday, summer, party, Halloween (check this out if you are planning to have fun this Halloween), and so on.

Videos are literally about teaching how to makeup using a featured Make Up For Ever's product. Some videos have a makeup artist giving us detail instructions while he/she is demonstrating, other some have only text directions on the video, and a few of them have only visual demonstrations without any further details.

Each video tutorial, 30 seconds to a-few-minutes long, is an embedded YouTube video that is able to be saved on My Favorite Videos and also sharable via message, email, notes, and all other social media / email / messenger apps you have on your phone.

Here it is! Finally found a shopping section under the makeup video. There are three to four related products used/featured in the video. When you click the product, again you will be taken out of the app and onto Make Up For Ever's home ground, website. As I said, the website is mobile-friendly and easy to navigate, so I like this app itself works as a trigger for conversions instead of a pushy e-commerce. One little thing I like is that it's easy to go back to the app. Just click Done button on the upper left corner!

           



4. Heena's Review

Make Up For Ever tried to get out of the box of e-commerce app by providing differentiated value to its app users. It was innovative, entertaining, and fun to play with. Interacting with this app using the product recognition technology is a definite pleasure to engage! There was no pushing message. A slight intent to take me to its website is appropriate and acceptable. Overall design well matches the brand image.

So, am I gonna keep this app on the 'conservative' real estate of my phone? Nope. First of all, I don't have any Make Up For Ever's product. I can't even have fun with scanning. Secondly, if I want to learn about makeup, I'd rather go to YouTube to get a tutorial of amazing quality. Some videos of this app don't even have detail instructions. Hey, this app is all about teaching makeup. How come you have poor quality on your main value? Lastly, I'm not enough patient to wait for more than five seconds to play the video or jump to the next page. Please, speed up guys!

Hey Benefit, what's the benefits of your UX?

What do you do if you want to know more about a person you just met?
The first impression matters for you?
Do you watch what the person does or talk to him/her to engage?

All above are the way we get to know a person. These are also same with the interaction with a brand. In this age of digital, this process often happens online, needless to say, on mobile as well. Brands must develop a well-designed website to catch users' attention, have them feel easy to browse and make them have fun! A website represents you as a brand, so UX is like how people think about you as a person.

How much is UX important for makeup products brand? EXTREMEEEE! This business is B2C, visual oriented, female-dominated and competitive. Benefit Cosmetics, a subsidiary of LVMH, is a San Francisco-based cosmetics manufacturer specialized in professional makeup, selling at over 2,000 counters in more than 30 countries. This brand is also well-known for its girlish and lovely product designs/packages/ads. Now we know that Benefit has a unique and strong brand image. Then what would its website be like? UX would also reflect its concept well?


Desktop/laptop Version

1. Signup Pop-up 

Personally, I don't like pop-ups. As soon as I landed on its homepage, a little pop-up welcomed me encouraging signup. I usually close those first pop-ups not even looking at it to save my clicks and time. But one thing caught my attention, which was free shipping on any order without a minimum. Hmm, that's a very useful piece of information! I would definitely consider that when I check out. Below that Benefit disappointed me again by asking birth date and year. A registration process should be as simple and quick as possible to attract the users who are careful of providing their personal information.

2. Home Page

What a good combination of commerce and contents! In addition to that, no endless scrolling. Best sellers and a category of products with a special theme are displayed on top. Videos on beauty tips and various useful resources on the bottom are engaging. They all are attractive enough to earn my clicks!


3. Structure

Benefit has a well-structured website that allows users to browse easily and intuitively. On the very top of the page, it has a series of main verticals including products shopping, other services provided and offers. On the bottom, typical categories such as contact, help and careers are waiting for someone in need. However, Benefit underestimates a search function which is very important for B2C e-commerce. The search icon missed its original seat, upper right/left corner, and it was too small to be noticed quickly.

4. Design

Benefit shows a consistency of its brand image on the website as well. Cute, simple, pinkish, girlish, lovely and animated designs all over the website make me feel like physically shopping in a store. It reminded me of the first time I met this brand at a department store when I was 18. I was excited and fascinated by this adorable and pretty brand and fell in love with it.


5. Checkout Process

Easy and simple. Benefit absolutely meets the core checkout conditions of B2C e-commerce. There is no confuse, hassle neither click-wasting process. It provides fruitful information about the product with extreme details and rates/reviews. Big-sized high-quality pictures make my shopping more comfortable.



Mobile Version

1. Signup Pop-up & Home Page

It's interesting that the pop-up of mobile version doesn't ask my birth date/year. I'm just happy about free shipping! The home page on mobile is very similar to the desktop/laptop version. Scrolling down the smaller screen allowed me to pay attention to everything on the page. I think it's because I was able to see one content at a time.

                           

2. Structure & Design

I'm glad that the search icon found its original seat, upper left corner, making search easy and quick. The overall structure of mobile is intuitive and easy to browse. All verticals, categories, and menu are inside of a hamburger menu icon. The design itself is exactly same with the desktop/laptop version, but I'd like to add a zoom function to look at the product closely on a small device.


3. Checkout Process

Great job again! Easy and simple. Except for one thing that my cart is not accessible with one click. The shopping cart is inside the hamburger menu icon, which is not user-friendly. We all got used to seeing a shopping cart on the top of the screen or on a floating bar.

            

Final Review

I'd like to give Benefit a high score on the pretty design that reflects its brand image, easy and quick checkout, and great contents such as detail descriptions of products and useful beauty tips. However, I didn't have fun or fascinating experience at all. It would be recommended to develop a customizing or products-applying tools/games to increase users' time spent on the site and encourage engagement. Let's do not forget - H2H, human to human!

The Job That Fascinates Me The Most... Is My Archetype?!

Surprised and excited.

The job that I have admired turned out to be my archetype.
Can you guess?
I'm an Architect!


My Architect VS Their Architect

An architect is like a magician. Architects make something - humongous, complex and sturdy things - out of nothing. To make things happen, architects should be equally 'right-brained' and 'left-brained'. Right brained people are described as creative, and left brained people are known for their math skills. An architect is a creative thinker, designer, mathematician, physicist, and engineer. On top of that, I'm personally interested in architects, so I idolize and admire architects. That's why I was so excited when my archetype turned out to be an Architect!

According to How to Fascinate, an organization founded by Sally Hogshead who helps people to discover how the world sees them using its own test, The Architect, a combination of Prestige (a primary advantage) and Mystique (a secondary one), is defined as a skillful, restrained, polished, for insiders only, and sterling person. I totally agree with everything except the first adjective, skillful. It's half true since I pursue a strong skill in a certain thing, no matter it is related to my job or hobby. However, I've never ever mastered something. Most of all ended up with tasting or being intermediate-level. Scary enough, How the World Sees You (Below is how the world sees me) exactly describes my personality!

What am I consist of and lack of?

My primary advantage is Prestige that helps me to earn respect from others, pay attention to the smallest details, be motivated by a competitive spirit, and expect the highest quality. I agree that I always want to be perfect, which drives me to work very hard but at the same time stresses me out. This is one the reasons when I do assignments at work or school, it takes a long time to finish.

The secondary advantage is Mystique that drives me to communicate selectively and purposefully with a minimalist approach, rarely shows inner emotions, and works independently without disclosing insider process. I admit that I'm more likely to save my words for a very important moment to speak out, especially when I work with others. Also, I tend not to express my inner emotions too much and prefer to work independently.

All pretty boxes were opened so far. Now it's time to open the other box not appealing at all. I found a card saying that my dormant advantage is Trust that I'd like to rename the other side of a coin called 'not-showing-emotions' or 'independence'. I think it is based on my relationship philosophy, 'people come and go, so let things happen'. So I try not to expect too much from people, which might shape me as a 'simple-outside-but-complex-inside' person.

A Good Motivation

I'm very interested in psychology, which is the strongest trigger for me to study marketing! I enjoy reading books in psychology and philosophy to understand more about peoples' emotions and personalities including myself. This archetype test was a good reminder for me who knows and understands a lot about myself since it re-confirmed my strengths and weaknesses that I already know and suggested solutions for improvement. It worked out as a really good motivation to see me more objectively and encouraged me to more release inner feelings.

Fascination = Love at First Sight

"What do you think about the idea of Fascination as a marketer?"

Before I watched Sally's Ted talk, I thought the fascination is falling in love at first sight. You just admire, want and like something so bad as soon as you find it. It doesn't take that long; around ten seconds. Interestingly, Sally also started the Ted talk with an example of online dating, especially the first introduction. 

Yes, so true. In this flood of countless options in every market, we need a strong hook called fascination to catch peoples' attention in nine seconds that were given to us in attracting eyeballs. On top of  beautiful images or interesting video clips, powerful contents that engage target customers the most should be the key factors. You are more likely to have a long relationship with someone whom you can talk to over an hour and hour rather than with a crazy-good-looking person whom you can't continue a conversation with even ten minutes.