After receiving a series of several ineffective e-mails from a variety of companies I felt it necessary to write a post on this topic.

No Marketing Message
The email fails to address a critical factor of effective communication, defining the message.  The closest thing we find is the “Get Away Now - for Less!” section that introduces 10 of the company’s “best rates.”  The irony is that this is also the best feature of the email - it’s great that they’re ‘pushing’ real-time hotel deals - But, the listings are difficult to read because they lack formatting and there is so much surrounding visual noise.

Design Pros & Cons
It is obvious that this piece is not professionally designed.  From a marketing perspective the ‘Call to Action’ is very weak, from a designers eye it is apparent that essential design principals like whitespace and creative image sourcing have been neglected.

• ‘Having trouble viewing this message?’ This is excellent and provides a well-formatted HTML version of the email that works as intended - unfortunately this is as good as it gets for this email.
• The entire header area is a mess. The recipient is instantly burdened with finding a focal point - you have four huge graphics that can all be logos.  It’s really not necessary to hit the viewer with the brand name ‘Howard Johnson,’ the newsletter name ‘StayAlerts,’ then the company slogan ‘go happy. go hojo,’ and finally a random blob of dots that interrupts the design grid (hint: grids makes reading easier, and guide the viewer)
• The double-level navigation bar. Navigation, in an email? I needn’t say more, but I will.  Every single item on that navigation bar is useless.  Why? Because ‘Home’ is a relative term and I’m not on HoJo’s website; Because ‘Careers’ is most definitely (99% probability) not important to a HoJo customer; Because  ‘Hotels & Reservations’ is exactly what HoJo sells so ‘Home’ serves the same purpose - perhaps ‘Locations’ would’ve been more accurate and relevant; Because ‘Contact Us’ should be ‘Call/Email Us’; and so forth.
• Reservation Form. Why is there a form in my email? How would it ever even try to communicate with any server technology (i.e. PHP, ASP).  This is the biggest indicator that this email was not composed with the consultation of a web professional - and for benefit of doubt, maybe it looked great on the designer’s computer or on a hosted webpage - but it will definitely look terrible just about everywhere else.
• Image of Woman and Pet Dog. I understand the e-mail says “Get Away Now” so they’re targetting vacationers, but I’ll ask HoJo’s marketing department this question: “How often does your target consumer take his/her dog on vacation?” - I know this would be a guess, but an educated one - and I’m pretty certain that the answer would be ‘very rarely.’  This e-mail most likely went out to everyone on the mailing list, regardless of market segment - so I understand that there is a risk of alienating at least a few segments (like corporate clients) - but this photo is simply not inviting me to take a vacation and stay at a HoJo hotel in the process.
• Text/No-Image Version of Email. The text version is what just about everyone sees first, you should feel privileged if an email recipient allows images to be displayed - that is why the text version carries the highest level of importance.  No bold and large font header; only header image alt tags are visible; navigation bar is illegible because of poor coloring; the first clear text I see is “Careers, About Us…..” and that’s the point most of your recipients hit the delete button, or worse follow the ‘unsubscribe’ link - never desiring to receive another e-mail from HoJo.

From the Marketing Perspective
After all, this is email marketing and each email must offer a Return on Investment (ROI) - whether the goal is lead generation (quantitative data) or something as simple as brand awareness (qualitative data).  The apparent goal of this email is to generate ROI by enticing consumers to click on one of the ‘Book Now’ links or at the least click through to the main Howard Johnson website to run a custom search.

Here are essential consideration points to consider when creating a marketing email:

• Brand Identification. Who sent me this email? This is the first line of qualification for the consumer - and this is where trust is established or denied.  The ‘From’ field reads ‘Howard Johnson’ if I am okay with receiving this sender’s emails I will read on.  A small graphic logo would suffice for brand identity within the e-mail - it is essential to back up the image with a text-only version that reads ‘Howard Johnson’ - more importantly, the header text must be in Large Text - that is not Black.
• Useful and Relevant Information. What’s in it for me? This is an opt-out email subscription…this means that I never asked to receive these unsolicited ‘StayAlerts’ newsletters.   That said, there has to be some pretty relevant and useful information in this email to merit my attention and/or increase my awareness of the Howard Johnson brand.
• Call to Action. What do I do now? The email must guide the recipient to an action, in this case the goal is revenue-generation that may come from the purchase of a couple nights at a hotel.  Another possible action could be ‘request for contact’ or direct contract through a toll-free number.
• Follow Up and Analytics. As soon as the email blast goes out, it’s critical to track which recipients clicked specific links and what they ended up doing once they got to the corporate website.  This adds another layer of value to your email list by providing consumer behavior patterns and helping to define your target markets’ preferences for future communications.

Often Overlooked: Market Segmentation.
Break up your e-mail list into small subset populations, sanitize it, prune it, categorize it, etc.  Why would a corporate client want to see a photo of a lady reading a book next to her cute golden retriever?  Conversely, why should the summer vacation-planning soccer mom see hotel rates for Middleton, Rhode Island or Yakima, Washington when she wants her family to enjoy some SSS (Sun, Sand, and Surf)?

About Howard Johnson
Howard Deering Johnson opened his first Howard Johnson ice cream shop in 1925 - today, the ‘HoJo’ brand continues to benefit from its hard-earned brand loyalty.   Though it’s now owned by one of the largest hospitality companies in the world, Wyndham Worldwide, it’s good to know that the hotel chain has maintained it’s ‘orange roofs‘ and friendly personality.