Aug 30 • 15 min
Ethical Lead Gen:
When sending less EDMs gets you better results.
A MOST UNUSUAL EMAIL…
I was recently scrolling through my emails when I came across something rare and surprising:
A brand encouraging me to opt out from their EDMs. The email went something like this:
Subject line: Want to opt out from certain emails?
Sometimes it’s nice to choose which emails you see from us. In the lead up to Father’s Day, we understand if you don’t want to receive emails on the subject — so we’ve made it easy to opt out below. Don’t worry, you’ll still see other [BRAND] emails.
OPT OUT
The email impressed me so much, I not only forwarded it to our whole team – I began to critically analyse the way we’d been running our own campaigns.
This year, our agency has been working closely with several grief support organisations – including an incredible charity called Feel the Magic, who run free camps for kids grieving the death of their mum or dad.
As I read this email, I imagined the same email sitting in the inbox of Feel the Magic community members.
I imagined the flicker of relief at having their experience recognised and accounted for by such a big brand.
I imagined how that email might make Father’s Day just a bit easier for people who are grieving their dad.
I realised that this one short, simple email had done more for my brand loyalty than any of the other hundreds of EDMs I’d received from the brand in the past.
Here are the 3 things that realisation taught me.
1) COMMUNICATE LIKE A HUMAN.
The power of this approach to lead gen is simple but transformative.
The more we recognise and respond to the human on the other side of our marketing content…the more human and engaging our marketing content becomes.
After all, the best way to engage your audience is by creating content that shows you know them.
Like many marketers, I often think about the impact digital communication has had on the way brands interact with their audiences. As the opportunities for automation increase – perhaps the opportunities for genuine connection between brands and their clients decrease. Or it could be the opposite.
Does more content, more often mean each brand touchpoint must become more aggressively “sell, sell, sell” it its approach to capture our audience’s attention?
Or does the relatively low cost for each brand impression for content like EDMs mean we can harness the forces of automation and digitalisation for good?
Can we use our ability to access our audiences all the time (at home, at work, on the train, on their phone, in their emails) to actively show them compassion and care?
Which raises another key learning.
2) LET THE PEOPLE TELL YOU WHAT THEY WANT.
By proactively asking if I wanted to opt out, this brand offered me a moment of control.
But…they also prevented me fully unsubscribing from all their EDMs in a moment of frustration, had I found emails about Father’s Day deals overwhelming.
Essentially, their offer of opting out saved the brand money in two ways:
1. They found a way to filter out audiences who wouldn’t be interested in buying Father’s Day gifts – pushing up the ROI of their Father’s Day campaign.
2. They ensured that their marketing didn’t push me away from future brand offers.
So – not only was this email an ethical choice that showed some rigor and morality behind the marketing strategy. It was also a clever financial decision.
By allowing your target market to tell you what they are and aren’t interested in, you can effectively segment your CRM and deliver content that converts audiences.
If that means sending less EDMs or targeted ads at certain times – you’ll save budget and time instead of having your marketing fall on closed ears.
3) MAKE IT EASY FOR THEM TO LEAVE YOU. THEY’LL BE MORE LIKELY TO STAY.
There’s nothing people hate more than feeling trapped – especially by brands who are trying to make money off them. Keeping the consumer locked into a product or even campaign journey does nothing for your brand, and it can make your consumer ANGRY.
When it comes to EDM journeys, of course legally we all offer an “unsubscribe” option. However, many brands work very hard to make this button as hard as possible to find…and make the process of unsubscribing as convoluted as possible!
Have you noticed that almost every phone plan, gym membership or internet plan offers “no lock in contracts”? There’s a good reason.
By removing that fear of being trapped and making it easy for our audiences to leave us, we can encourage them to engage with us more, and stay with us longer.
A great way to do this with EDM marketing is by checking in with our audiences, to see if they want to opt out of certain campaigns or opt out in general.
I know, I know. It sounds scary! But by reminding our audiences that we respect their freedom of choice, we can lower that barrier to entry and make it easier for them to trust and like us.
After all: trust + like = brand loyalty.
TO RECAP:
1) Communicate like a human. Show compassion. Be ethical.
2) Let people tell you what they want. Allow your audience to respond to your brand authentically.
3) Make it easy for them to leave you. They’ll be more likely to stay. Everyone hates feeling trapped – so why do that to your audience?
If you’re looking to create engaging lead gen marketing that converts the right audiences, we can help. We’ve guided organisations big and small to reach their audiences – from Mitre 10 and IGA, to Sydney Children’s Hospitals Foundation and Muscular Dystrophy NSW.
Call me on 0431 560 177 or click the ‘Get Started’ button below.
get started