Photobox

Sender: Neolane

This is a first for me... not only two positive reviews in two weeks, but also the same mailer.
 
Last week I was praising Photobox for their excellent customer emails, clear, easy navigation and strong images. However, I have to own up to the fact that, at the time, I was not a customer. As the offer seemed strong I set up an account and the follow up emails have really made Photobox stand out from the vast majority of emailers.
 
Firstly, I recieved a Welcome email, that confirmed my account details, gave me the opportunity to get going straight away and reinforced the benefits. This probably sounds straight forward and it is profoundly best practice, but so many emailers don't do it and if you suggest it they glaze over.

So, to all of you I say 'Check out Photobox'! The Welcome reinforces the brand, the Photobox benefits are covered and, most importantly, it prompts the new customer to kick off using the service straight away. For many web businesses one of the key drop off points is at registration... many consumers set up accounts but never go on to utilise their accounts.  A simple welcome process of triggered, or behavioural emails helps to retain a significant percentage of these 'drop offs'.
 
But, as the emails clearly state in the footer, this automated triggered approach then provided me with two more emails, one covering my new registrant benefits and the another offering me the chance to complete a survey about their new site. Great stuff, really impressed.
 
But I do have some reservations. The biggest one is the fact you need to sign into your account to unsubscribe; this is an unnecessary hurdle that sails very close to the wind and could easily be challenged by a customer. Secondly, the survey and benefits emails arrived on the same day, reducing the likelihood of response and showing clearly that Photobox do not dedupe triggered emails from retention marketing. And finally, the survey page does not reflect the brand values in the same way as the emails do.
 
Scores on the doors - 9/10. Apart from my continuing issue with the unsubscribe mechanism, this is an excellent example of how to manage new registrants and to minimise the number of RPMs (register but did not purchase!)