As a matter of disclosure, GoDaddy.com is who I host my blog (ScottWritesEverything.com) through. And, as a paying customer, I am on their email list. I would classify GoDaddy as pretty aggressive in their campaigns, always harping on discounts and deals to get additional sales. My being a sole-domain-long-term customer, I am clearly not their bread-and-butter customer.
That said, their creative stands out to me sometimes. Like the following message:
What stands out to me as positives:
- The subject line got me to open immediately. “Was it something we said?” is clever, and I opened without hesitation.
- Solid use of a top banner… even if “Exclusive offer from GoDaddy.com” is a little considering it’s a different deal each week. A little like the “Boy who cried wolf.”
- A reminder of the value proposition in the body copy is good.
- A prominent deadline and prominent calls to action are well-placed both at the top and bottom of the main message.
What I don’t like:
- I own a single domain and have purchased hosting and the domain name for 5 years. I’ve made no other orders before or after, and it’s been nearly 9 months since that purchase. What sort of engagement metrics are being used to push further orders if I’m a single purchase customer?
- The image-laden header is way too big in my opinion. Their use of alt-text is really good, but they’re pushing the image on me. Which is a bit funny, because the GoDaddy backend is anything but. (I’m a fan and happy customer, so don’t get me wrong.)
- Seems odd that the message would be signed by Bob Parsons, the founder. I know as customers we’ve become sophisticated to the point that we acknowledge it’s all “marketing” anyway, but I would always push for a level of credibility in the voice if at all possible. And I doubt that Bob is concerned about a 25% off of $60 purchase deal.
All in all, this is another message that has some solid work put into it.
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About the Author: Scott Cohen is the Marketing Copywriter for Western Governors University. He also writes on email marketing, fatherhood, sports, and politics on ScottWritesEverything.com and contributes to the Email Zoo Blog.
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Nice thoughts Scott. Love the subject line and agree with you on the header size. As always…good stuff!
Scott: Thanks for nice comment. This email from GoDaddy has been standing out to me for a couple of months, just finally got around to writing a bit about it. Glad you agree. Will be interested to see if others do as well.
We just started work on a new re-activation campaign this morning so of course I had to take a read. All of your points are good as usual. I’ve been stuck on the subject line but will include something similar to this as a split test.
I always have to shake my head when I get an email from the President or CEO for the same reason you pointed out. I also wonder how many people jumped on the opportunity to follow a domain registrar executive’s tweets.
Peter: Thanks for the comment. I agree with you on the head-shaker. There’s a level of credibility missing when it comes from the CEO. A clever idea would be like the “VP of Giving You a Great Deal.” Same lack of credibility, but at least it’s tongue-in-cheek funny (in my head).
On a similar topic, over on the Email Zoo the other day I talked about the LA Times trying to win me back as well. If you haven’t read it, could give you some additional ideas:
http://theemailzoo.wordpress.com/2010/04/26/la-times-tries-to-win-me-back/
Thanks. That was good too…especially when I got to the part about reactivating an address they hadn’t mailed to in 5 years. I think the L.A. Times should have had one version for inactive addresses and a totally different message for those recipients that they lost for the past year…or 5 years.