Sephora’s Review Email and the Warm Glow-Giving Effect

Feedback. It can be painful, but ultimately it’s a catalyst for growth.

Your review request emails are no different.

By asking your customers what they appreciate and where improvements can be made, you gain the insight you need to achieve continuous improvement and market better to your future customers.

In this issue you’ll see:

• How Sephora structures a “latest line” email

• Why novelty bias can help pave the way to a sale

• How you can leverage the novelty bias in your copy (in emails and beyond)

Let’s dig in.

THE BREAKDOWN

Sephora’s review request email

Here's a review request email from Sephora:

Let's start at the top:

The subject line & preview:

Subject line: We want details! How would you rate your recent purchase, Carolyn❓

Preview: Don't hold back.

Here's what works:

• The subject line and preview tell a cohesive story which encourages the reader to share what they really think with Sephora.

Here's what we might test:

• Subject line: 

  • Lead with you. The reader doesn't typically care about the brand, but they absolutely care about themselves (this is fondly known as the “you rule” in-house).

  • Lead with the reader's first name to increase perceived relevance.

  • Use a more meaningful emoji, like a speech bubble or two people talking.

  • Front-load the emoji—to create visual texture that stands out in the inbox.

• Preview:

  • (Adjust the preview as necessary to suit the various subject line tests.)

The body copy & calls to action:

The leading body copy is short and sweet, entirely focused on the goal of the email: collect a customer review:

Here's what's working:

• The CTA is crystal clear—I know exactly what to expect (and what's expected of me) after I click that button.

• The mention of helping fellow Beauty Insider members is an interesting appeal to reciprocity. 

Here's what we might test:

• CTA:

  • Test a Call to Value against a Call to Action. In other words, align button copy with the "give back" idea mentioned in the copy prior.

• Body structure:

  • Remove everything currently in the email not related to giving a review (i.e. everything below the "review all past purchases" CTA), to keep the reader focused on taking the goal action. 

• Body copy:

  • Add a testimonial to make the "huge help" claim more believable for the reader. (To execute this test, we'd look for a review that explicitly states that the reviews left by other Beauty Insiders made a difference in their buying process.)

The cadence:

This online review request email arrived approximately 3 weeks after my shipment was delivered. The email trigger timing worked well because it gave me enough time to use my products and form an opinion.

Sidenote: I can't be the only one who's received a review request from a company before I received my ordered product. Please. Do everything you can to avoid this situation. It's frustrating for your customers, especially if they've been waiting for their order for a while. Trigger your review requests off of the delivery notice, not the order date.

THE PSYCHOLOGY

Bask in the warm glow of giving.

There’s a growing body of research studying the warm glow-giving effect.

In a nutshell, the warm glow-giving effect is the hypothesis that folks feel good when they partake in altruistic endeavors—like donating to a charity or helping their community—and that it’s this “feel good” feeling that motivates us to do good in the first place.

(If you want to dig in further, start here, here and here.)

So… why does the warm glow-giving effect matter to your copy?

Leveraging the warm glow-giving effect can help offset the reader’s perceived cost of taking action.

In Sephora’s case—and in practically all cases when asking for a review—the reader knows that there’s a time cost attached to that ask. But Sephora strategically offsets that perceived cost by highlighting how doing so will help other members of the Beauty Insiders community.

THE ACTIONABLE TIP

When time is (not) on your side, be altruistic.

Here’s how you can leverage the warm glow-giving effect in your email marketing copy—and which you can also easily apply in other types of copy:

Try offsetting a request for time with an explanation of how the reader’s action will help someone else.

Here are 2 spots you can use this tip now:

• Be like Sephora and optimize your review request with an appeal to help others.

• In practically every audience and customer research request you ask. Surveys, interviews, focus groups, you name it.