It’s no secret that B2C email as a channel is largely driven by promotions. Subscribers often sign up for the welcome offer and then stay in for the deals. BUT, that doesn’t mean it isn’t also a great opportunity for brand building, relationship reinforcement, and telling brand and product stories. Let’s explore some ways that can be done.
- Don’t welcome them to your subscriber list, welcome them to a lifestyle.
As you may know, your welcome series is a prime engagement opportunity, garnering among the highest open and click rates of any other type of email. You should deliver the content promised at signup, whether it’s a welcome offer or the latest-and-greatest new styles or innovations, but you should absolutely take the opportunity to go above and beyond that.
Do a little show and tell: Show your best lifestyle photography to paint an aspirational picture of your customer in interesting settings and tell them who your customer is, to foster the desire to belong to that community. In the Inkkas example (left), people that wear their shoes are independent, creative and adventurous. Who WOULDN’T want to be a part of that?
“Great,” I hear you say. “The welcome series is a common-sense place to tell a brand story, but it’s harder in regular launches.”
Let’s table the “I’m hearing things” discussion for now, and I’ll agree, it’s a little harder, but not impossible. I have some great examples that prove it.
2. Create a product story.
Create a collection based around a theme, be it a color, a mood, a room in a house, an aspiration.
In the example below, Orvis layered graphic elements on top of in-use photography to tell a visual story of the features of this particular product, using photography that reinforces who the “Orvis Man” is at a glance.
Another approach is to create a theme and merchandise an email around that theme, like a zen garden, or denim fashion or a bedroom makeover. Scroll all the way down to see an example in action from J.Crew, where they pulled together a collection of tops, shorts, and shoes to build a theme around vacation and adventure. Without the purposeful use of imagery and language, this could have easily come off as a just another mix of apparel, but their purposeful use of the “Vacation edition” headline and supporting copy, anchored by beachside photography helped unite the collection.
3. Humanize the brand.
Tell them what you believe in! This example (below) from PrAna is not only a compelling use of video to convey a message about sustainability, so it not only puts a literal face to the company but also a social conscience.
Don’t have the budget for a surfing holiday and photoshoot in Bali? Cool, not many of us do. There are other ways!
Merchandise some emails around staff picks. This works on a few different levels. It not only adds a face to your brand, but it also builds authority and leverages peer endorsement, one of the most powerful tools in the neuromarketing arsenal.
When you incorporate this kind of engaging content in your email program, you garner higher engagement and lower unsubscribes. They may sign up for the discount, but they’ll stay for the story. Need help putting it into action in your email program? Give us a shout!
