ULTA Beauty prides itself on the visuals. Known for its bright colors and massive beauty selection, the brand knows how to make its products shine – and make customers feel special – in emails.
ULTA’s email marketing campaigns are pretty consistent – bright, bold, some with animations, and A LOT of customization.
What ULTA did right.
Email branding from top to bottom is key. ULTA takes advantage of dynamic content here, pulling first name and customer reward points at the very top of the email. We’re already excited to keep reading the email because, after all, it was specifically sent to us, right?
Notice the subtle logo animation fading in and out in orange and pink?That’s another nice visual to draw us in right off the bat.
At a quick glance, we can see the entire email is visually-appealing with the pop of color, large text, and other interactive images.
But once we move past the logo, we have a lot of work ahead of us.
Choose a relevant subject line.
Going back to the beginning of the email, customers are diverse in their interests. They may or may not love every product we offer. In this case, ULTA notified us, “They’re in! Haircare picks for you + 20% off!”
However, when we scrolled through the email, there weren’t any haircare picks we were interested in. We’d never purchased hair products from these brands, and we weren’t interested in changing our already-solid haircare routine. At least they didn’t do what Sears did (may they rest in peace) and segment us obnoxiously narrowly.
We recommend for ULTA to keep the subject line broad enough to apply to anyone who opens the email. Something like, “They’re in! Best haircare picks this season + 20% off!” might be better to reach a broader audience.
Otherwise, ULTA could segment their emails based on previous purchases. That might be a lot more work than necessary for a subject line, but the body of the email would be more relevant.
Great-looking email, not-so-great loading time.
Here’s the other kicker: the majority of ULTA’s emails are image-based. YIKES! An email loaded with images will surely slow down loading time. Get ready to open and wait…
Steer clear of including too many images in an email template. About half of all email service providers block images by default, so customers won’t see anything in an image-heavy email unless they enable the images first.
The other item to note is the coupon code was clickable in the first email, so we could easily copy and paste the code at checkout.
But in this second email, we’re going to jump through a few hoops to get that $3.50 off our purchase. What will it be…memorize it or write down the code on paper? Type it in our browser bar? If we click on it, it takes us to a printable coupon, still not what we want.
Make it easy for customers. They might lose interest if there are too many steps to follow, leading to a deleted email, or worse – an unsubscribe.
Increase email searchability. Aim for text-based emails with just a few images.
Including more text in an email allows customers to search for that same email later. They might not immediately need a discount off their purchase right now, but they’ll search for it later when they’re online filling up their shopping cart, or in the store filling up their shopping bag.
In this case, you unfortunately won’t be able to find that promo code or that Neutrogena face mask when you search for it in your inbox.
Kudos for ULTA including a clickable promo code in this second email. The more text you include in an email, the better the searchability.
Remember to stay on-brand throughout the entire email.
Back to the positives – ULTA keeps its branding consistent beginning with the header, right down to the footer. ULTA sprinkles in some more customization further down in the email with a “your nearest store” section, giving us an easy way to find and call our local ULTA store (though it’s showing the wrong store, an easy way to update preferences here would be nice).
When it comes to the email footer, most brands include legal language and that’s pretty much it, essentially abandoning this email real estate.
ULTA goes the extra mile with its playful text, “So, here’s the pretty fine print:”, adding an image of smeared and crushed makeup below the text to remind us, even at the very end, “Hey, this is ULTA.”
ULTA Beauty Email Recap:
We’ll remain subscribed to ULTA’s emails, even if we have a few suggestions. :)
THE GOOD
- Great visuals – mix of images and animations
- Consistent branding from top to bottom
- Nice customization – first name, customer rewards, closest store
THE BAD
- Slow loading time
- Not enough text for searchability
- Needs a broader subject line
- Promo codes might not be clickable
We’ll remain subscribed to ULTA’s emails, even if we have a few suggestions. :)
Does ULTA’s email remind you of your own? Drop us a line and we’ll give you a hand.