When Email Marketing is done right. The SportsDirect Example

I learnt a new one today in Email Marketing.

“Feeling down? Enjoy an extra 20% Off Everything On Our App”, reads the subject line from the latest newsletter I received from SportsDirect.

SportsDirect.com is one of UK’s biggest sports retailer. Yours truly enjoy shopping on the platform because of the affordability and quality of its products. (Now, I am not advertising for the brand.)

So what makes this newsletter, particularly the subject line very interesting?

Football faithfuls following the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia must have watched England’s hurtful defeat in the hands of Croatia last night. Knowing fully well how devoted English fans are to the game and their team, the heartbreak from yesterday’s painful loss was evident not just in England but throughout the United Kingdom as portrayed in their media.

Since we all have different ways we react to sad emotions (I personally indulge in binge shopping especially when I can afford it), the brand chooses to offer ‘succour’ to their customers by offering generous discounts on its products.

Gauging the feeling of the nation, the eggheads in SportsDirect’s Marketing department specifically latched on to the loss of the match to Croatia to ‘patriotically’ soothe the pain of its grieving British customers; creatively increase its mobile app download rate and profitably take more of its products off the shelf.

This is not the first time SportsDirect is showcasing its marketing prowess. As spontaneous as that ‘Feeling down?’ newsletter looks, I dare say that the brand had everything planned in advance.

Prior to England’s defeat last night, SportsDirect.com was going to give out free FA official t-shirts to its customers if England had won the World Cup. Like the “20% Off Everything On Our App” newsletter, the offer was made available only to customers that downloaded and registered on its mobile app.

The resultant conversion from tying email marketing campaigns to real-time occurrence can be really amazing if properly thought out and executed. Football may not be coming back home to England just yet but SportsDirect scores a hat-trick with its email marketing campaign.