(The following blog is a guest post written by my son Dalton Anderson who is covering for me tonight as I’ve been swamped planning an upcoming University board conference I’m in charge of that takes place next week – thanks D!) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m a product fanatic. Plain and simple. When I have a need (usually a want), I\u2019m the type of person that spends hours researching different brands and companies to find the best product solution, then I sleep on my decision, spend a few more hours researching, consult a ton of people, watch a bunch of reviews, and finally\u2014I wait for a good deal to pop up so I can pull the trigger. Due to this lengthy vetting process, I tend to be loyal to the brands I buy from. A natural consequence is that I\u2019m on a lot of mailing lists. In the past year, I\u2019ve read hundreds (not a hyperbole) of company newsletters and product emails, and I want to share a few of my observations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With a focus on customer emails\u2014and not spam\u2014a good company keeps their customer informed. A great company keeps their customer engaged. But a dynamite, keep-me-coming-back-for-more kind of company utilizes their emails to provide customers with actual value. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, I bought a Nest thermostat to enter the smart\nhome products game. I signed up through the app, got the device installed, and\npresto [insert magic hands], I was a Nest customer. Nest (now Google Nest) is a\npretty cool company that\u2019s doing a lot of cool integrations for the smart home,\nbut I only received an email or two total while I had the thermostat (I\u2019m speaking\nin past tense because we switched to Ecobee\u2014but that\u2019s beside the point). The\nfirst email was to assure customers that there wasn\u2019t a privacy issue, and I\nappreciated being informed. During the six months we had our thermostat, I\nnever received additional emails. Now I\u2019m not complaining, because the worst\nthing a company can do is send so much spam that I jam the \u201cUnsubscribe\u201d button\nfaster than Chewie blasts the Millennium Falcon into lightspeed; I\u2019m just\npointing out that it didn\u2019t build my loyalty to the brand either. This was over\na year ago, so it might be different now, but at the time, the company only\nused their emails to inform their audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cinemark, an American movie theater chain, on the other hand is an organization that has my number. I get an email every couple of weeks about new movies coming out with details about exclusive offers, and I really enjoy those. The email provides links to buy my tickets, merchandise, and concessions. They\u2019re consistent so I know what to expect, and if there\u2019s a movie I don\u2019t care about, I delete the email. When there\u2019s a movie I DO care about, I\u2019m all about getting those emails. Cinemark makes it easy for me to engage and be a repeat customer. Before I was on the email list, I didn\u2019t think too much about which theater I was traveling to. Cinemark has changed that for me, because now I purposely select one of their theaters, and I credit that to their ability to engage me through email. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Getting repeat customers might be the goal of promotional emails, but every company should set a higher goal. Promotional emails should offer the customer additional value, something that can\u2019t be found on the company\u2019s website. That\u2019s how an organization turns loyal customers into full-fledged family members. When I married Lex, I also married into a hunting family. I\u2019m a city-kid through and through; I\u2019ve never owned camo ANYTHING\u2014ever! To be accepted, I knew I\u2019d have to procure some leaf-patterned clothing. I began an exhaustive search of every hunting brand in existence. I hate to admit my ignorance, but I genuinely thought there would only be five companies out there. Not. Even. Close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ll time-lapse forward to when I finally found my brand of\nchoice, Kuiu. Kuiu was a real game-changer for me, because it was the first\ntime that I thought a camo pattern looked cool. The first product I got was a\nlight jacket, and it\u2019s still my favorite jacket three years later. The reason I\nhave two pants, a heavy jacket, two gloves, socks, shirt, base layer pant,\nbinocular harness, glassing pad, day pack, AND belt is because of their emails.\nBeing a beginner at something is tough, especially when there are a TON of\nbarriers to entry. Hunting was something that I had zero familiarity with, and\nthe fact that there\u2019s a whole wardrobe to go with it added to my confusion and\nfrustration in learning. Kuiu made it easy for me though. Their emails don\u2019t\njust send out products and promotional offers (although they do send plenty of\nthose too), but they have educational emails that help you understand which\nproduct is best for which scenario and environment, why you would want one camo\nprint over another, and how to utilize your gear in the field. For a seasoned\npro, these types of emails probably don\u2019t mean much, but for a novice like\nmyself, this was golden education that I received for free! The important\ninformation can be found on their website, but being a member of its email list\ngives me a deeper dive, and I receive exclusive content and additional value.\nThose emails turned me from a repeat buyer to a Kuiu fanatic! Seriously, if you\nhaven\u2019t heard of Kuiu, even if you don\u2019t hunt, it\u2019s time to educate yourself.\nTheir products are fantastic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In fairness, Kuiu really is a fantastic brand on their own merit, but my home warranty company sends out awesome emails with tips on how to keep my appliances in working order, whether knives should go handle-up or handle-down in the dishwasher, and the best way to get the grime out of my oven. I actually love those emails, and it\u2019s from a home warranty company! No offense, but I figured those would be some of the most useless and boring emails I could receive, but this company figured it out, and it really has bred my loyalty to my home warranty company. Conclusion: no matter what company or product you have, if you\u2019re sending out those promotional emails, then utilize them to connect with your customer. They really can help your ROI and increase your customer loyalty. I have no statistics to prove that, but it sounds like something that must be true, doesn\u2019t it? <\/p>\n\n\n\n