Wow, what a beautiful sweater. And if I weren't the kind of person who kept 814 new [unread] messages in her AOL mailbox, I might have missed it.Stockpiling Data
Because I write for magazines and the web about consumer news, shopping, online deals and such, I don't like to trash messages from stores and fashion websites until I see what the deal is--free shipping, gift with purchase, special event, etc. etc. They might spark a story idea, or offer a detail to work into a piece I'm writing....you know, don't order from the website until it's free shipping at any price [not with minimum purchase of $200, which makes you spend more].
But like everyone else, I can't take the time every day to read all of my shopping-related and junk emails. I just can't bear to throw them away until I have.
Tonight, I was weeding through, and the subject line caught me in the email from saks.com, dated May 4: Pink Tartan has a great gift for you. [I've heard of and seen the label before, but don't own any pieces.] And then the thing that really made me look: the promise of the stylin' chain belt, free. Your gift: Receive this clover chain belt with your $250 Pink Tartan purchase. Sadly, the belt probably wouldn't fit my waist [though I'm still working in that department]. Sigh, it is so feminine. It might transform my life. I might be able to leap to new levels of confidence and success when wearing that belt.
Sweater Girl
Current object of fashion fantasies: The Pink Tartan sweater pictured above. The Pima Cotton Cable-Knit Cardigan, to be exact. With pretty clover buttons. Gosh, it sure is chic. Look at the ribbing [that's slimming], and I love the contrast of black with pink, plus the V neck [again, slenderizing].
I want that sweater! But it's $195, and I don't exactly have $195, not after depositing my latest check yesterday and paying our second mortgage, a Citi Cards payment, buying a couple of gifts, paying our health insurance and paying for a month of boot camp [best investment of all].
Fortunately, saks.com is out of the pink sweater in my size anyway.
Tomorrow, however, is another day. Who knows what windfall might come my way? Just sent out another article pitch, the better to afford fashion and fun--and bump up the college savings for Figgy. Let me not forget that.
Posts
Hi Alice,
ReplyDeleteI don’t know if you know how those sale email blasts are generated but we do them at Bunkline, the company that I work for. It’s pretty amazing how businesses can reach so many potential customers with one final click of a send button. We design the email in the art department and upload it. Then we create the links and send it to various lists of names (can be thousands of email addresses or only 3). We receive data on how many people clicked on it, how many trashed it, how many have not done anything with it and how many people entered the website because of it.
I really like that sweater, too!
Love, Linda
P.S. Good luck on the recent pitch.
Hi Linda...I knew a little about that but not so much. Pretty fascinating. Do a lot of people not open the emails up at all? maybe about 50 to 75 percent? when i had my little baking business, i sent out emails to my customer list too...and I did get the sense that sometimes people are just too busy to read all of the emails that involve buying things.....love alice
ReplyDeleteI think that a lot of people don't like to make the effort to open them.
ReplyDeleteIt's too bad about your baking business. It seems very labor-intensive, and as you wrote in your post about it, you have to use expensive ingredients and eye appeal to do it right. I ran into the same problem with a custom design t-shirt business in the early 90s! I ended up making no money per shirt! Guess great business sense runs in the family!
Love,
Linda