Why a blog post on Nike Email Marketing Campaigns, you ask? There’s always something to learn from the best (even if you have opinions about that).
Founded in 1964 and headquartered in Toronto, Canada, Nike is one of the biggest brands there is.
From its actual, brand-owned showrooms everywhere to shady markets of Mogadishu, Nike (and the never-ending duplicate markets worldwide) is everywhere.
Nike is the big shark when it comes to DTC (Direct-to-consumer) brands. Meanwhile, DTC are forever dominating the eCommerce space. The last count pegs DTC commerce sales to reach ..wait for it.. $152 billion
It’s called disruption; it’s already happening.
Table of Contents
DTC is huge now.
These DTC statistics by Emil Kristensen, CMO of Drip, only prove that point:
Take stock of this:
DTC (Direct-to-Consumer) Statistics (2024)
- 13% of all eCommerce businesses in the United States are DTC (Direct-to-Consumer) brands. [PipeCandy] — that’s around 110,000 to 120,000 DTC brands (out of 800,000+ eCommerce sites)
- 75% of DTC brands fall into categories such as fashion, apparel, home, garden, food, and beverages. [Drip]
- DTC sales account for 1 in 7 eCommerce dollars in 2022 [Insider Intelligence]
- Established brands will take in 75% of DTC sales in 2022 [Insider Intelligence]
- 23% of consumers say DTC brands provide better quality products [Diffusion]
- DTC brands in the top 25% have a 5X higher customer lifetime value [RetentionX]
- Around 47% of small to mid-market DTC brands have some sort of product presence in a brick-and-mortar store [PipeCandy]
- 61% of consumers feel that Individual brands offer a more personalized experience [Kelton].
- More than 66% of consumers say that it’s easier to relate to and understand an individual brand’s values. [Drip]
Note: Offer hyper-personalized product recommendations for your own eCommerce brand by segmenting customers and automating with relevant emails by using email marketing tools like Mailerlite, Moosend, and Klaviyo.
Read:
Best DTC Brands to Keep Your Eyes On
Nike Email Marketing Campaigns & DTC Dominance, Explained
Nike’s dominance doesn’t just come from its fantastic email marketing campaigns. It’s more omnichannel (meaning, they are everywhere).
According to Emil of Drip, Nike — as a major DTC brand — still earns 35% of its profiles from its direct channels.
Nike understands complex buyer journeys and hence places its digital channels along with owned physical stores (notwithstanding affiliate stores and partners) at the forefront.
Inside Nike’s flagship store in NY, mannequins have QR codes that connect the Nike App.
Customers scan these and ask for fitting rooms to allow Nike to suggest the right products (in the right sizes). Customers can also pick up items via the app, while they are still in the store.
See what Nike is doing? Virtual reality, apps meet physical stores.
But I am no business analyst. I am a marketer and my primary interest is in trying to learn what makes the brand tick. More specifically, what are some of the Nike email marketing examples and campaigns we can all learn from?
Note: It won’t matter what email marketing tools you use. Pick from:
- Shopify Email along with Shopify Flow(if you are on Shopify)
- Drip
- Mailerlite
- Moosend
- Mailchimp
- ConvertKit
- Klaviyo and whatever else you have access to.
Huge thanks to Mehdi — founder & CEO of lesensdelahutte and Panoramata for access to details on these Nike campaigns (below).
Here are some of those lessons from Nike Email marketing campaigns:
Email Frequency & Distribution: Forever On
If there’s anything you’ll notice, even before you click open Nike’s email campaigns, email workflows, email journeys, or ads is the sheer volume.
The never-ending frequency, and the relentlessness with which Nike does marketing campaigns is something that should kill “your” idea that “you shouldn’t send too many emails”.
Nike won’t just stop (Just do it?)
Nike’s email campaigns averaged at least 25 emails in the last 35 days (at the time of writing this).
Nike sends emails everyday and every single week. This is above the averages in the entire fashion industry.
For anyone who thought sending far too many email marketing messages could be detrimental to your brand, Nike proves otherwise.
So, how frequently will you send your emails? Too many? Too few? Or just follow Nike email marketing campaigns average email campaign distribution?
Nike Subject Lines
You thought you love Nike’s products?
Wait till you are marketing-obsessed like us and focus more on Nike’s email marketing subject lines instead.
Notice the subject lines?
Nike almost always keeps the language simple, almost “fun”, and generously uses emojis in the subject lines (around 67% of emojis used on average).
The average subject line has around 31 characters, with power words like “new” and a few others (below).
Plus, the subject lines sometimes include “words that matter”:
- “… the best summer yet”
- “…kids summer styles”‘
- “…60% Off Starts Now”
- “…Did somebody say Hi-Fi?”
Some of these emails are product recommendations. Others are specific product recommendations, within a single category (such as summer wear).
A few other emails are completely sales oriented (built for sales and revenue).
How will you craft your subject lines now?
Email Branding & Structure
Pick any of Nike’s email campaigns and they’ll almost always have branding elements, color schemes, and visuals that never deviate from Nike’s branding (it’s unmistakably Nike, you won’t deny that).
Also, undeniably, most of Nike’s email campaigns are purely-product focused.
It’ll be hard to find a single email (across the entire set of email campaigns that Nike sends) to “not” find a product in there — apparel, shoes, sports accessories, and more. You name it.
Furthermore, and just as important, is how the email messages are structured (while mostly being in the HTML format) — products take center stage and offers are unmistakably clear.
The header starts with the all-time popular, power-header with “Free shipping”
Accompanied by a beautiful visual play of colors in the background, product image taking up the whole space, and crisp copy just below the image, you can’t get more sharp, intriguing, and concise than this.
Emails start off with the product highlight, a few other featured items and other products (not seen in the image) along with new products, related products, best sellers, recommendations, and more.
Plus, there’s also a link to “Shop”. Any fineprint finds its place at the very end of email messages.
How will you structure your emails?
Offers in Emails: The Art of Making Irresistible offers
Quick: take a look at the email message above and tell me if you find it hard to take note of the “offer” Nike is making in that email.
Distinctly huge visual banner with an offer front and center. Tell me if you can miss that? Plus, a great play with product visuals with the familiar and custom Nike font.
Specific percentage off (60%), and available to you until “tonight (7.13) at 9 PM PT” — talk about time-sensitive offers, and this is as specific as it can get.
Finally, take note of the buttons (in a contrasting color) — a total of two — urging you to click and buy.
Simple, visually-stunning, clear, and effective.
Which of these Nike email marketing campaigns inspire you? What will you learn?
Read:
7 DTC Marketing Examples You Can Learn From
6 Retail marketing Examples To Inspire Your Own
Tell me more about what you think on Twitter, on my LinkedIn account, or on my brand page.
