Engagement emails can be tough. The goal isn’t always clear, especially compared to standard sales emails. A sale email has a clear goal – sell more product. Engagement on the other hand, the goals are different.
For MLB, the goal of the following email is to get current subscribers excited for the playoffs. While it won’t generate immediate sales, it is useful in terms of getting readers (who happen to have teams in the playoff hunt) excited for the playoffs. Considering how much MLB charges the networks to carry playoff games, generating fan excitement is vital from a ratings (and thus future broadcast deals) perspective.
Subject Line and Visible Text
Here, we have an example of a clear and relevant subject line: “Michael – Watch the Postseason Push”. The personalization of the subject line is a nice little touch, as it makes the subject line stand out even if no one ever calls me “Michael”. To be fair, I never supplied them with my preferred name, “Mike”, so I didn’t expect them to figure it out. I will, however, be adding it in the “nickname” area of my profile to see if they figure it out moving forward.
The visible text is fine as well, but considering the fact that they personalized the subject line and the message body, I would have expected them to personalize the visible text. Instead of saying “Don’t miss any of the action this week on MLB.TV”, they could have changed it to “Don’t miss a single Dodgers game this week on MLB.TV”. This could then be easily tweaked for each recipient, as MLB does have information on who the “favorite team” is for each customer.
Email Body Content
I must say that I really like what MLB has done with the body of the email. They know I’m a Dodgers fan, so the body of the email shows the most recent score and a teaser for the upcoming game. Interestingly, the below the fold “highlights you may have missed” only mentions the games the Dodgers have won recently, completely ignoring the game on the 14th where they lost to the Mets. It makes sense considering it is a “highlights” section, but something about it doesn’t feel quite right.
Otherwise, the email is straightforward and to the point. It reminded me that they’re playing the Rockies this weekend, which would normally be effective enough to get me to tune in for the game on my MLB subscription.