I received an email today that I was very impressed with.  It was from ONETrueSaxon, and impressed me for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, I love the wording that they have used.  ONETrueSaxon are clearly a company that know its target audience and can in turn extend their branding across in a much more personal manner to its recipients.

But much more impressive is the use of data collection in this email and its potential viralability.  You get a free little ONETrueSaxon dog by enrolling 5 of your mates onto the mailing list.  Now, I’m not sure whether they thought about this or it was just a positive consequence of their attempt at validating the addresses, but by asking for the full mailing address for each friend, it turns the email into something with viral potential.

Unless you have a fantastic memory, there’s a good chance the only full postal address you know is your own.  So in order to get these addresses, you have to ask your friends for them.  This of course will lead to the inevitable response from them of “why?”

The email is then forwarded on to these people so that they can see why you want their address.  Lower down in the email it says:

“You must be a registered user of ONETrueSaxon.com to take part in this offer. Subject to availability while stocks last. Offer ends 30th November”. 

This leaves it open for your friend to then subscribe as well and pass on the chain.

Now I know a lot of you won’t find the prospect of a free model dog a great incentive, but the actual idea behind it is a great example of how to turn an email into something with great viral potential.

Despite the lacklustre design, I take my hat off to you ONETrueSaxon.

View the email here