Eager to Open
Email Marketing for conscious, purpose-led brands is all about earning our audiences’ trust so that they are eager to open our mails when they see one, whenever they see one.
Email Engagement For Purpose Led, Conscious Brands is about making audiences eager to open
We have all had that feeling of anticipation. When we wait for a word of empowerment from our favorite coaches, healers, shamans, motivational speakers, mentors, fitness experts, moon witches, vision quest guides who we have come to trust and love.
We chance upon them through Youtube or Instagram & they enter our lives when we feel most receptive to what they have to share. We deeply resonate with their messages and presence. We like their posts. We watch their Videos & we sign up for their emails. And if they are half as authentic, we actually start looking forward to their posts and emails.
This is certainly my truth. I have my favorite set coaches, teachers and mentors. Every time I open up my inbox or social feeds, I actually forward to a note / post from them. And every time I see one, I do not hesitate to click. In fact, I am eager to open.
So, in between those pesky credit card offers that will never stop, emails from Amazon and your airline with more miles that take you nowhere and that odd MBA program that you thought of uprising but decided not to, you get these email from those whom you actually want to hear from. You literally ignore EVERYTHING else and you click that open.
May be there is a placebo effect going on here. May be it is pavlovian conditioning. Whatever it is, we open because we trust that the message contained and its source. We know that it will serve us and not just sell to us.
As a purpose-led brand, we are that source of trust and empowerment. Through not just what we sell but how we make it and what we stand for. Every marketing message, every email is a call to connect over a common value and purpose. A call to empower, engage and earn trust. The most important part of crafting a powerful marketing journey for a conscious brand is to focus on eliciting this response of being eager to open. Rest is easy.
So here are 5 simple tips to start towards making this ‘open’ magic happen:
Converse - Think of your email as a private one-on-one with your audience
Align your content - Make sure that your Email is penned by someone who is actually in alignment with your purpose, brand and audiences. People might not notice the dissonance and misalignment (for almost all emails are) but they do definitely feel the alignment
Be Authentic - Stop tying to be too clever with the subject lines. That might come across as manipulative and it comes across as trying too hard
Find your Cadence - Filter your email schedule on a ‘would I want to hear from me today’ basis. If it feels forced for your, it WILL feel forced for the audience. Unless you are a narcissistic psychopath, just don’t do it. Remember less is more.
Fill the right void - Find out which area of your audience’s lives that you serve and be an advocate for empowerment in that space.
Yes, an awesome subject line might help. Yes, a well structured email would help. Yes, timing it at the right time of the day might help. But the truth is, we tend to open emails from our favorite, trusted sources…no matter how shitty the subject line is or how god awful the time of the day it is. For frankly, when trust is earned, we are just eager to open.
Vaccinate Your Brand from the TPC Pandemic
Appe is ending it’s IDFA by ‘Early 2021’. Google ends it #ThirdPartyCookie support on Chrome by the end of 2021. The
The Third Party Cookie is on its way out as we know it. While it will morph into some other form to help early-stage / growth-stage brands drive reach, it is something that is going to adversely affect smaller brands than the larger ones.
Add GDPR, CCPA and other regulations, we’ve got ourselves our work cut out.
In today's #Datashots, we share how growth stage brands can prep themselves to navigate the impending demise of the #thirdpartycookies as we know it.
We share tips on the need to build your media empire while rethinking media investments...especially the ones that heavily rely on Third Party Cookies..such as #retargeting.
Take a listen and show your support wit a sub if you like what you are hearing. Thanks a ton.
Ram
Stack Down + Structure Up
Welcome to our first ever #Datshots & a very Happy 2021!
A short, potent #datastorytelling power shot that helps brands and agencies optimize their data capabilities to tell more resonant stories.
In this first episode, @Bargava , (data scientist with awesome, global, growth marketing creds) and I share our top recommendation for growth-stage brands and the folks that drive marketing for them.
Our top reco for 2021: Stack Down + Structure UP
Yes, Focus less on Tools and More on build smart data insights structures in your org. so that you can discern the right insights that are most likely to drive your KPIs.
Take a listen and give us like and a sub to support our mission to bring smart data storytelling to growth stage brands.
Ram
From ‘Targeting’ To Traveling Together
Growing a purpose-led brand needs an inclusive approach to marketing to conscious audiences. This involves pointing our marketing engagements towards inviting our audiences to be a part of the brand journey as opposed to just ‘targeting’ via ‘campaigns’ .
Invite your conscious audiences so you can #TravelTogether
The most loved brands have cultures, systems and platforms that consistently allow their audiences to be an intimate part of the brand.
May be their leaderships are intuitively aware of this truth or it was a deliberate strategy in masterful tribe-building. But it is undeniable that these brands have assiduously cultivated audience love by making them part of the brand’s journey.
This approach is imperative for purpose-led brands. For conscious audiences seek and reward brands that have actionable and tangible ways to be a part of the brand’s purpose journey.
Leadership teams must realize that pretty much all ‘causes’ are works in progress. We are at the ’baby steps’ stage of solving the world’s challenges.
From Climate change to fair trade to zero waste to body positivity and pretty much everything in between, we are just getting started. Some of these will take decades to be realized. Some sooner.
So when a brand takes up a cause and seeks attention from conscious audiences, it is critical that it clearly demonstrates that it is in it for real and for the long-haul. To be taken seriously by it’s most valuable audiences.
This calls for an evolutionary shift in marketing think.
Several brands have already shown the way for the rest of us. Patagonia, Ben and Jerry’s are but a couple of examples of putting money where the brand’s voice is.
This evolution in marketing think starts with moving away for running just ‘campaigns’ that ‘targets’ people to building audience journeys that are inviting and inclusive.
Personally, I have always felt irked by the excessive use of term ‘targeting’ when it comes to marketing / media engagements. Every time I used that word, all I could visualize was a dart board against someone’s back. It has a very ‘going to war like’ energy to it.
Contrast that with a more audience-collaborative opportunities like the ones created by conscious fashion brand @prana or carbon-neutral @wind.mobility.
Team @prana sharing it’s measurable impact
@wind.mobility involving their customers to be their experiential ambassadors
Each one weaves the customer experience of the brand-purpose as an integral part of the brand experience. Stories that invite the audiences to travel together towards a more conscious future is central to their growth story.
‘Campaign thinking' by nature is time-boxed and ‘Targeting’ by virtue is ‘one-sided’.
Collaborative narratives across touch points that allow for audiences to be a part of the brand experience is where the magic of building a truly sustainable ‘sustainable’ brand lies.
You don’t have to take my word for it.
Just listen to this truth telling by Kimberly Paige, the CMO of BET during a recent AdAge virtual town hall. Sharing her views around ‘Multicultural Marketing’, she emphasized her truths…
“You will never hear me as a marketer talk about ‘Targeting’. I never say..’who are we targeting?’. That is a term that I think is predatory in nature and if you think about it, when you are being ‘targeted’ by someone, you are really in someone’s crosshairs. Right? Who want’s to be in that situation?”
It is better you listen to this and other gems of wisdom from her own voice. 20 minutes of truth telling to set your marketing team in motion.
As you start your week and close out the year, the question to ask really is:
How can we invite our audiences into our brand story?
And one last thing.
After listening to her voice out what was my ‘secret’ truth about ‘targeting’, I truly felt seen + right + aligned with what I am doing here through resonant.
Have a wonderful ‘week before Christmas week’!. Till next time.
Ram