Shermans Travel + Cruises Only, January 7, 2020 Email

An interesting cruise email

I thought this email was particularly interesting. Cruises Only, one of the largest seller of cruises in the US (or the largest based on their tag line), partnered (bought an email send) with Shermans Travel.

1. Subject Line and Preview Line

Subject Line and Preview Line in Google Mail

• Unlike the previous example, this team stuck with title case
• The Biggest Sale of the year, this soon in the year, captures my interest and getting up to $1,500 to spend onboard a sailing is attractive. If, there next email has an offer with a larger sale then as a consumer, I'll loose faith in their brand. But for now...I'm clicking. 

2. The Email

Shermans Travel, January 7, 2020 Email

• Above their NAV, they have (in a super large format) co-branded the email. It's big but not offensive. If I wasn't familiar with Cruises Only - I am now so - that's a positive for the marketing team. 
• The NAV is targeted to Cruises Only and features 4 top cruise destinations. I am going to go out on a limb here and assume their top selling markets are Caribbean, Bahamas, Europe and Alaska. 
• The hero image is bold with three destination images pulling from the destinations featured in the NAV. 
• The hero copy is strong and ties back to the subject and preview line. The font is also very easy to read.
  

  

  Email Hero and Copy

Offer Block

• On the hero, they have placed a ribbon to interrupt and drive urgency. FOMO at its best.
• There is no start or end date for the offer listed - does it run forever?
• Their copy beneath the banner plays with font size, weight and color to draw attention to the core elements of the message. 
• They are using red as their CTA color on their button and, they've permeated the points of attention through the email with that color (see $1,500). 
• The messaging on their CTA
• In cruise marketing, no deposit sales are a big deal. They've highlighted the promo in a clean way and used white space well to focus in on the message.
• Below the CTA, they have placed their top "cruise line offers". They make a point of letting the reader know these offers combine with the feature offer. 
• The offer blocks continue the emails treatment of using red and different font weight inside the offer blocks to draw attention to the trigger points in the block.

Landing Page Recommended Sailing

 

• Lead in pricing is displayed in an interesting way. They are first presenting the top line price (assuming without taxes) and then a breakdown showing the price per night. They don't say in the copy where the particular sailing is going or, how long it is for. But, when you click through on the offer, the first sailing featured on their landing page fulfills the pricing promise

• They've ended the email with a block focused on luxury sailing. They've 
• They've used simple, bold icons for their social channels. 
• The email does not have any terms and conditions for the offers it promotes. The only way to find the terms for the offers is to click through and navigate through the site to the individual offer pages.  Odd.