Why you should deploy purpose-driven emails rather than product-centric newsletters

Not caring what others think about you, might be the best choice you are making for yourself. However, you can’t say that about your email marketing campaign. Conversions are important especially when people who buy products through an email marketing campaign are spending 138 percent more money than those who don’t get an email.

The emails you send help to establish a long-lasting relationship with your leads, and therefore marketers invest an enormous amount of resources in perfecting email campaigns.

So, what should your emails focus on? First things first. An email is all about the guest (the lead), not the host (the brand). Marketers often make the mistake of emphasizing too much on themselves or the product, which makes the customers feel less valued and eventually dissatisfied. Purpose-driven emails can help you reach the goal you wish to achieve with your email marketing. Here’s how to do it right:

Know Your Customer Database before starting off

Is a probable lead, even after extensive email coverage, not responding or converting into a potential lead? Well, something’s certainly going wrong. What is it?

When you send product-centric emails to leads who are not yet sure about buying your products, the strategy may not really work. You need to first know your leads. The only way to scale your email performance is by putting their preferences before your own product. 

For instance, this email by Mailchimp focuses on how the customer wants to experience the email campaign from them. The bottom line of this email is undoubtedly letting the customer know that they run the world, we just live in it. The mail cleverly strategizes in improving the newsletter quality while engaging the subscriber.

Craft the perfect welcome email  

The welcome email is the first email you send to your subscribers and it’s going to set the stage for you. Take a look at this post-sign-up email from Groove.

Alex Turnbull, the CEO of Groove himself admits that this mail had ‘useless product tidbits’ and failed to address customer needs. In another improved version of the welcome email, they beautifully intertwined the brand USP and assured the customer of a satisfactory service.

This email delivered with a 41 percent response rate and helped to collect an enormous amount of data about what drives people to sign up and acts as a trigger for making decisions. The bottom line of this mail being, forget about us, let’s talk about you!

Another welcome email example from Yuppiechief has nailed the message, mentioning the brand’s journey and their vision along with addressing customer needs.

Strategize browse abandonment emails

Browse abandonment is when users spend a large amount of time on your website but don’t convert into sales. With a smartly crafted abandonment email you might drive them to convert. Using tactics like ‘We thought you might be interested’ or ‘Trending’ will make the user feel that the brand is giving them genuine product suggestions. Whereas, using a phrase like ‘We noticed’ or ‘Continue building cart’ will make it look like a stalker email. Well, this might work for some but not everyone.

This email by Adidas has a catchy headline, which guises controlling abandonment issues in addressing the customer’s network problems. This does not push the products into the customer’s face, at least not so blatantly.

Sell your vision, not the product

Your product does not define you, your customer’s need does. Apart from establishing a personal connection with your customers, you also need to know what they want. Instead of telling your customers what you want from them like ‘Check out this product’ or ‘Check out that service’, get to know them. This will contribute more to customer satisfaction. Convey your organization’s vision but build it around the customer’s needs. Help your consumers understand you better but don’t get so blinded that you don’t make your users feel important.

Oberlo’s mail perfectly balances the best of both worlds. If you sell your vision, your product would automatically sell.

Show, but don’t tell

Colors affect consumer decisions. You can influence your customer decisions by perfecting the art of colors in email designs. Always compliment your brand identity and color-code your email and fonts accordingly.

For example, black and purple are usually perceived as royal, luxurious and elegant colors. Understanding your target audience will also help you decide your palette. E.g. Men prefer bright colors whereas women prefer softer tints.

Write a good copy

The first and last thing a user is going to read will impact their actions. You can win half of the battle by using a  compelling subject line that reflects the content of the email. The CTA is generally placed in the later part of the email but is the most important aspect as far as your target is concerned. Make sure it is bold and highlighted.  

Everlane has nailed it with this copy that they sent recently talking about the crisis and how they are helping overcome issues.

Wrap Up

An email campaign that will influence customer decisions and drive sales cannot be established overnight. It requires time and building relationships, testing and keeping up with the trends to hit the nail on the head.

Actual relationship-building depends on how you make your leads or customers feel about you. You need a complete customer-centric approach to nurture leads and achieve long-term goals.