By Jimmy Egeland, Elicit
The dreaded dandelion. A mustard stain on the otherwise
crisp, white shirt of spring. Instead of lying low like a patch of crab grass,
or blending in like a clump of clover, the dandelion invades lawns by loudly
flaunting its bright yellow flowers, then has the audacity to unleash its
arsenal of spawns in a deceivingly playful little puff of white. Kids blow on
the puff ball — a seemingly fun and innocent rite of passage in springtime — and
the damage multiplies. Did you know that a single puff can be packed with over
150 seeds, or that one “innocent” dandelion plant can produce more than 2,000
seeds in its lifetime?! Letting dandelions be dandelions only leads to — more
dandelions.
This nonstop battle got me thinking about the digital weeds
that invade my inbox on a daily basis. Last week, for example, I bought a camo
Star Wars shirt online from a novelty t-shirt retailer to wear to my nephew’s
Star Wars-themed sixth birthday party. The next day, I received a marketing
email about said retailer’s latest FLASH SALE. As this was my first, and likely
last purchase from them, I didn’t really appreciate seeing it in my inbox. This
is a digital weed, no doubt, but which kind of digital weed will it grow into?
Is it passive like the clover, laying low in my inbox, only popping up once in
a while and largely avoiding my contempt? Or is it arrogantly aggressive like
the dandelion? Proudly proclaiming its unwelcomed presence, hitting my inbox
daily to the point that I am compelled to take action and seek out an
“unsubscribe” option.
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Many companies demonstrate very dandelion-esque views on
email marketing. Essentially, their philosophy seems to be that sending out
emails is cheap and easy, so why not do it? Every. Single. Day. Just blow those
seed puffs into the wind and see what happens. I don’t want to read an email
from my best friend every single day, let alone from some random store I bought
a camo Star Wars shirt from. The truth is that most customers aren’t interested
in being checked in on 365 days a year; most brands do not have something
vitally important to send to their mailing lists every single day, and
customers have a finite amount of patience and brand affinity that is easily
eroded.
Aggressive tactics like these have stigmatized email
marketing in particular, but the digital weed dispersion doesn’t stop there.
Mobile app notifications and digital advertising also can be spawned by one
single interaction. And if those various marketing channels don’t talk to each
other very much, it can actually end up feeling a little like being stalked.
Digital marketing is not all bad. Some marketing emails are
appreciated and acted on by customers. And the secret to their success is being
timely, relevant, and having a very non-dandelion (i.e. subtle) inbox presence.
If you want your company to be received in the same way, consider the
following:
- Scale back the sheer volume of emails you send — at the very least to those customers who clearly haven’t been responding to them.
- Treat customers like you would a good friend — someone you likely wouldn’t email daily, or even weekly.
- Be strategic about your cadence. Thoughtful reminders around holidays or rare and notable sales can be helpful if they aren’t crowded by 15 other emails you’ve sent that month.
- Personalize whenever possible, and this goes far beyond making sure the recipient’s name is in the copy.
So, marketers take notice. Every one of your customers has a
digital lawn of sorts and they all hate the dandelions of their inbox. Even
though you may see your brand, product or message as a beautiful, yellow flower
that you simply can’t share frequently enough, chances are it’s actually just
another damn weed.
Jimmy Egeland is creative director at Elicit, an
award-winning consultancy that helps companies transform the way they use
customer and employee insight. Elicit’s clients include Southwest
Airlines, Intel, Nestle Skin Health, Fossil, GameStop, Sephora, and Pier 1
Imports.
