content – Phyllis Fang

Bonobos knows its customer

Who: Bonobos, the menswear brand born in 2007 during the e-commerce boom and then democratized to the masses with their Walmart sale in 2017.
What’s Working: Their subject line “Too busy to read this email?” is a perfect click-bait (you are… but don’t you also want to know what’s inside now?), followed up a headline that captures your “always be hustlin'” mentality and featuring stretch-friendly, office-stylish pants line up for an engaging, consistent story for their customer
What’s Not: None for me! I’m not a fan of brands that pack half a dozen products into a retail email, so I love the singular focus here.

Uniqlo plays with Superbowl word play

content, Customer Preference

Who: Uniqlo, the infamous Japanese brand of simple, casual basics.
What’s Working: Their “Living 9 to 9” is a timely, pun-ny play on Squarespace’s “Working 5 to 9” Superbowl commercial from this past weekend (which itself was a play on Dolly Parton’s “Working 9 to 5” song). Not a bad idea, considering 96 million sets of eyeballs watch the Superbowl and its ads every year.
What’s Not: Way too much content and you get lost in the scroll. (this isn’t even the full email!) They definitely could have tightened the products featured in each “time slot’s”, or better yet, set up customer preferences (Everlane does a great job at this) and just share Men’s vs. Women’s items.

Urban Stems Lingo Lessons

content, Product Education

urban stems content marketing email examples

Who: Flower delivery service, Urban Stems, whips up some playful content with fun, albeit made up, floral lingo.
What’s Working: Establishing itself as an expert in all things floral, Urban Stems not only sells the product but (especially since flowers aren’t a frequent order for most people) provides instructive context to their same audience continually engaged.
What’s Not: The CTA, while keeping with the voice and tone throughout, tells the reader less than nothing. Why would someone bother clicking it?