Web Genre Analysis
The multi-million company Starbucks has constructed a variety of web pages on the internet through multiple forms that fall under a variety of web genres. One form in particular, advertising emails, has appeared within the clutter of my digital mailbox that succeeds in catching my attention with it’s bold and catchy subject line to promote their seasonal drinks or special offers that are exclusive to members or within its app. Advertising emails has a similarity to the form of a business advertising their products by sending digital posters into the mailboxes of users. This usually occurs spontaneously or when the user submits their email username to a site to receive newsletters, promotions, and offers from the company. It correlates to a regular advertisement that appears in newspapers and in billboards but has now transitioned to being online due to the growing number of users having internet mailboxes in order to stay connected with marketing, management, and collaborate with others. The purpose of the genre is to have a better way of connecting with customers and the public to view what the business has to offer to them. With more people on the internet, it gives businesses a better option to get more closer with their audience by being included in the pile of emails that are presented to the user who would most likely end up opening the mail.
There are various forms an advertising email can take the form of. It could be a simple email format with a broad message on what is being sold or promoted, or it can take a different approach of being formatted as a pdf file with photos or customized colorful texts and creative fonts being used to grasp the audience’s attention. Humans usually have an attention span of 8 seconds, meaning that the advertisement has to be created in a way that it gets the audience hooked in the first 8 seconds. Returning to the advertisement emails from Starbucks that was mentioned earlier, from my perspective my attention was latched to the vibrant background with the bold lettered yellow and green words that encouraged users to apply for a Starbucks Rewards Visa Card in order to earn bonus points that can be applied to get free items from the cafe once a certain amount of money has been spent from the card in 3 months. The broad message had me intrigued because of the high amount of bonus points being offered if I were to apply for a Visa card and use it to get beverages or food from Starbucks, proving the ad to be successful in reaching out to their audience and having many people opening the message, regardless if they end up applying to the card or not.
To formulate one’s own advertisement mail, within one there has to be a promotion of a product being sold or any upcoming sales. There has to be data on the age range a large population of the audience falls under. Millennials and younger audiences tend to be on their electronic devices (mobile phone, computer, tablet, etc.) more often than an audience at an older age range, so they could stumble across any advertising emails. There has to be a level of creativity that is put in an ad in order to gain attention instantly, this is where many businesses use editing softwares or websites to create a flyer that could be exported into a pdf and clipped with the message. Many bold letters and a variety of color and photos are often used in an advertisement ad with a smaller font of detailed information regarding the promotion or sale to have any confusions cleared up. There can be links attached that lead to the companies official webpage that allows the user to explore more about the business and hopefully become a potential customer to them. With technology advancing, businesses need to find other ways to use technology to their advantage, in which an advertising email would be a good option to go for.
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