Campaigns we like: Secret Escapes

Holiday promotions are all about timing. There’s normally a finite time when people are looking to book holidays. Outside this period the email just serves to remind people they’re either going or acknowledge they’ve just been on holiday.

Ideally you want the email to entice people into looking at the promotions even though they have no current plans of booking a holiday.

The first way to do this is with the subject line and pre-headers. The pre-header here reinforces the subject line and immediately I know what to expect from the content. I think the font could be better as it doesn’t really match the rest of the email and the grey and white isn't that clear. However, it does remind me to add the address to my safe sender list to make sure it lands in my inbox.

The simple vertical design of the email makes it very easy to scan the email looking for something that might interest you. Each section is in the same format with a picture, the location of the hotel in the bottom left and a call to action in the bottom right. Even when I'm not interested in finding a deal I find myself scanning the email to see if there is anything of interest.

One great feature is the reminder action in each section. This call to action adds the offer to the reminders in your account. You then get a reminder email when the offer starts, if it hasn't already started or before the offer ends. It means you can still keep track of what you like in the email long after you have deleted the email from your inbox. In your account settings there are a number of simple but well designed features. You can control the frequency of the emails you will receive and also take a break from receiving any emails for, say, six months.

This is a good way of encouraging people to stay subscribed. If they’ve just got back from holiday then they might not be interested in other offers for six months. Normally they might unsubscribe from the list but by offering them a chance to ‘take a break’ you can re-engage with them again when they might be interested in the offering.

Simon Hill
co-founder, Extravision
@extravision

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