Are you a compassionate brand?
We're thick in the season of observances. It starts with Mother's Day and graduation season and slides into Pride Month, Father's Day, Juneteenth and Independence Day (which really isn't -- see Juneteenth).
Cause marketing challenges & failures
Marketing that's pegged to these observances is always tricky. There's soooo much opportunity to get it wrong -- and many marketers do. Right now, there's a healthy debate going on about brands slapping rainbows on everything and promoting LGBTQ pride while staying silent about LGBTQ rights -- and trans rights in particular, which are under siege in many states by legislators supported by these brands leaders and in which these companies have offices and -- certainly -- customers.
Learn more about Pride marketing challenges from Fast Company and The Takeaway.
Another way observance-centered campaigns can go wrong is getting more attention this year. For many folks, these holidays bring up painful feelings of sadness, isolation, anger and trauma. Since most marketing is targeted to a broad audience, we're subjected to these messages without a thought.
An example of empathetic email marketing
That's why this message from Blue Bottle's Vu Nguyen caught my eye. It's a great example of marketing with empathy and kindness.
Empowering people to opt out is a brilliant use of CRM technology that makes the choice possible without a ton of work for his team. This relatively simple coding solution has huge follow-on impact.
I'm not a Blue Bottle customer or newsletter subscriber, but now I'm a fan of the brand.
Simple, elegant, works.
See more mini case studies for marketers below.
What's good about this marketing email? The tone is just right. It sounds like a nice person wrote it. It's not full marketing language, and it addresses the question we'd all have -- "can I still get this newsletter I like?" It's also short -- no overwrought "hey look at us being awesome" explanation. Just a matter of fact statement. I'm especially happy that they resisted the temptation to add something like, "here's a discount coupon". The lack of a CTM is what really makes it feel authentic.
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