Email Marketing Analysis - La Redoute: Newsletter Subscription - Part 1

Promised thingIt's time to do it right! Here is the first step of the analysis of La Redoute's email marketing program. In this first part, we will discuss the newsletter registration process.

Preamble

As we only have access to publicly available data, this analysis only looks at the user's perspective of a newsletter.

The actual performance of the email marketing program in question, the data management, the routing, the creative process, the triggers, the opt-in management, the cross-channel, the AB Testing, ... are therefore not targeted.

Do not hesitate to contact Badsender for more information.

Registration

The different sources of registration

At first glance on the site, no registration form for the newsletter of La Redoute directly visible. You have to go and see everything at the bottom of the home page to find the first source of registration.

The other possibility of registration is via the "My account" section which allows you to create a user account on the La Redoute website.

These are the only two methods apparent on the site's home page. Of course, it is also possible to register to the site via the purchasing process. The form is exactly the same as for the creation of an account.

The different marketing actions available on the La Redoute Facebook page also allow you to subscribe to the newsletter.

And the mobile applications from La Redoute require an email address, but we won't have the opportunity here to go through the push functions and the link with the email marketing program of mobile applications.

Registration forms

Ergonomics

Newsletter subscription ("light" form)

As you can see in the screenshot above, this form is a very simple to use. Only the email address is required and the confirmation is done in a window pop-up. This confirmation mode is probably not a good idea since in the vast majority of cases, the window will be blocked by the browser. It would probably have been better to end up on a dedicated confirmation page on the site.

In terms of the form itself, except that it is at the very bottom of the page and is not highlighted, the design is quite consistent with the rest of the site.

Create an account

As you can see in the screenshot below, the first step of this form is a very great simplicity.

Unfortunately, this is only the first step and the possibility of connection via Facebook is only used to pre-fill the second step which is unfortunately very very long !

This is typically the kind of form that will put off people who only want to receive the newsletter. Moreover, if all fields are not mandatory, only an asterisk marks the difference, which is visually very weak.

It is understandable that the site registration requires information very close to the order form, but it would have been better to simplify this form and to ask for useful information when ordering!

The data

If we take the light" formthe only information requested is the email address ... and that's it! L'confirmation screen could have contained a other form to allow us to better know the consumer, but it is not the case. However, on a site like La Redoute, knowing at least the sex of the consumer would have been very relevant information.

During the create an account on the other hand, it is thedata explosion ! Email address, password, customer number, title, last name, first name, postal address, phone number, date of birth, children (including their date of birth), and finally, as we can see above, different opts for different types of communication (La Redoute, partners and mobile). One can wonder which opts are given via the "light" form.

Once all this information is filled in, it is still possible to leave additional information via the section "My interests":

It is to be hoped that this information is actually used in the email marketing program of La Redoute.

Welcome program and double opt-in

To begin with, the confirmation emails obviously arrive instantly after registration which is always appreciated.

Next, no double optinThe registration is direct without verification of the email address. This is bad for the quality of the database and therefore for the deliverability. The reaction rate on the campaigns will also be negatively influenced by this choice.

Small remark, there is a consistency problem with the sending email address. In the confirmation page of the "light" form, it is recommended to add the email address "laredoute@fr.redoute.com" while the confirmation email of the newsletter registration is sent via the email address "info@laredoute.com" and it recommends to add the address "service_client@web.redoute.fr" to the address book... not very logical. The account creation confirmation email is more coherent as it uses and recommends "service_client@web.redoute.fr". The newsletters on the other hand use the email address "laredoute@fr.redoute.com". This would mean that there is a difference between marketing-oriented emails and those used for operational. This is not necessarily a coherent strategy in terms of deliverability.

For the rest (and we won't talk about the account creation confirmation email, but only about the newsletter confirmation), thewelcome email is very classic. A nice message from the "Customer Relationship Manager" and some useful information. Nothing very originalThe site doesn't even bother to push its current promotion in the email. A point to improve.

Also note, the email sent via the "light" form is slightly different from the one sent via the account creation ... for no apparent reason. Certainly this difference between marketing and operational. This is even noticeable on a purely technical level, but we'll come back to that in the "Sending technique and deliverability" section.

In the next step, we will analyze the newsletter itself.