Seven Days - Seven Rooms

When I am not wearing my Email Marketer Hat, I sometimes put my home improvement hat on. So, as you can imagine, I opted-in to receive email messages from Home Depot. Not only am I interested in their email campaigns, I’m also interested in what’s on sale. In their August newsletter there was an invitation to “Fall into Décor” Seven Days Seven Rooms.

“Sign up to receive an email every day for one week, each focused on a different room. It’s easy!” the copy read. “Starts August 24th”, “SIGN UP NOW”.

Because frequency is a concern of email marketers, I was impressed with Home Depot’s plan of setting a subscriber’s expectations of how many email messages would be received and how often, before ever signing up. I also liked that subscribers were told when the first message would be received.

Once I clicked the link, the well-designed opt-in page showed a timeline with the room that would be discussed on a particular day. Day One = Family / Living Room – Day Five = Home Office. The only information required to opt-in was an email address, proving that it really was easy to sign up.

How The Home Depot plans to leverage these email address for future communications will be interesting to see. As a current subscriber, I may continue to receive the same weekly and monthly messages, but what about subscribers that found the opt-in from The Home Depot website? I hope that The Home Depot remembers to ask for further permission before continuing to message to these names, yet it would be a shame to not have a plan in place to reach out to this group of people again – with proper permission.

The messages started on August 24th and came everyday like clockwork. The messages were full of interesting décor tips and links to purchase suggested merchandise from www.homedepot.com. Who knew The Home Depot sold a wide array of electronics and bedding online?

A disappointing aspect of this campaign was the inability to jump on board mid-campaign. As a test, I tried to sign up with an alternate email address. I never received any messages. As late as today the sign up page was still active with a message saying the messages would begin on August 24th. It was a missed opportunity for viral messaging and possible additional subscribers who were a day late to register for a compelling email marketing campaign.