One thing about me, is that I love music. Always have, and I've always got music playing in my house.
I know some people can't concentrate or be creative with their tunes on, but it's only a problem for me when I really need to focus—and then I turn to classical or brain.fm, which is weirdly effective.
And on my quest to fill every room with my house with music led me to discover SONOS many years ago.
These WiFi speakers aren't cheap, but they're ideal. They enable different music in different rooms and don't broadcast those annoying Slack notification chirrups throughout the house in the same way bluetooth speakers do.
So when SONOS sends a teaser email abut a new product launch, I sit up and pay attention.
But...
This one missed the mark.
Take a look:
Subject Line:
The launch you’ve been waiting for
Preview text:
well... gobbledygook:
So the subject line is fairly effective... it teases something is coming and that's enough to get audiophiles to open up... but then they've done nothing about the preview text—just the HTML code from their email.
If you did open it, "Get ready for a new era of sound." is...Ok, but that's it.
Now I've got nothing against teasing new products and bulding excitment... it can be crazy-effective, but how can the good people at SONOS claim I've been waiting for this launch if they give me zero indication what on earth it's going to be for?
Is it Sets? Speakers? Home Theatre? Accessories? Something entirely different?
Then there's the timer—nothing wrong with it in principle, but I first looked at that on Friday when it was a little higher and has been tirelessly counting down since:
There's been nothing since. Radio silence.
Now as an email marketer who often charges by the email, I'll always tell you to send more (and with good reason!!), but here, SONOS are relying on their customers memories to do all the heavy lifting.
You can't maintain excitement for 4 days with zero knowledge of what you're getting excited about.
It's only weridos like me who intend to critique them who would even bother to hunt their email out again.
And then finally, there's that call to action.
Ok, extra points for more intrigue... and maybe a shout out to the classic Fugees' track, but the button takes me to their home page where there is ZERO mention of an impending launch.
Not a jot.
There's zero congruency–only confusion.
Is the hope that customers will click and buy something even knowing there's a mystery new product on the way?
Admittedly, they have no idea what's coming, but even the most savvy shoppers will expect a new era of music to be something of interest, or at least result in their current line being discounted slightly.
This email had so much potential, but unfortunately, missed the mark in a number of areas.
Such as:
Use the preview text! It's free real estate!
Give me something to go on - speaker? Soundbar? Software? Something else?
If you're counting down, send more emails! You could really get a bit of a fever pitch going and get some pre-sold customers chomping at the bit.
Relating to that, and fair play to try and sell in this email, but come on...! It's not going to be very effective. Instead, get people to jump on a waitlist, or even get the inside track an hour early or something! and...
If you're getting people to click, don't just dump them on the homepage. Have a landing page ready to really tease what's coming! Again, early access, a few mystery pics shrouded in smoke, an interview with some big-wig talking about how ground-breaking this product is.
Come on, SONOS! This is the launch I've been waiting for, after all. Put some effort in!
All being said, I will check out their site in a few hours...
I wonder what it could be?!