Essence of Email Weekly - Loyalty pays off

The big picture: Consumers like to have all the information from their favorite retailers in one place. And brands are looking for simpler ways to accumulate all the loyalty and rewards programs for them!

According to the PYMNTS 2021 Holiday Shopping Outlook study, 58% of consumers said that they are "very" or "extremely" interested in the customer rewards programs that the brands offer as part of their shopping experience. Additionally, the study shows that convenience and personalization are crucial for increasing sales.

The deets: A Californian winemaker E&J Gallo will be expanding a pilot program with Fetch Rewards that will reward consumers no matter where they purchase the company's products. And Gallo is not the only one interested in doing this. Brands are aware that loyalty and reward programs are a powerful way to create deep connections with the customers and understand their needs better.

Fetch founder and CEO, Wes Schroll, said that he hopes that the brand will become a one-stop shop for consumers who are frustrated with having to join reward programs for several brands, leading to "loyalty fatigue."

According to him, "There was definitely the opportunity throughout COVID for certain brands to show that they were loyal to their customers, which I think is a mindset very few brands ever take because when they say "loyalty," they're talking about a consumer's loyalty to their brand but we believe at the end of the day, it should be the opposite. It should be a brand proving that they're loyal to the consumer."

For additional insights, check out this article.



EMAIL MARKETING


There is a way out


Source: Giphy
Not everyone associates Valentine's Day with positive emotions. Marketers are becoming aware of that and are trying to make their brands more empathetic by giving the subscribers the option to opt out of all Valentine's Day emails.

Zoom in: Many companies decided to adjust their marketing strategies to their consumers' sensitivity to the holiday and show them that they see them as humans and not as data points. That way they can strengthen their relationship with consumers and make their marketing experience more personalized.

One such company is the online marketplace Etsy Inc. As their Chief Marketing Officer, Ryan Scott said, "For those who are potentially grieving a loved one, struggling with mental health or have strained family relations, seeing constant reminders can make it even more difficult." In 2021, the company also offered the possibility to opt out of emails related to Mother's Day and Father's Day.

The first company that began this trend was the British flower delivery company Bloom & Wild Ltd. in March 2019 before Mother's Day. The email that they sent to their subscribers with the opt-out option gained a lot of press and government attention. It led them to create their own Thoughtful Marketing Movement, which served as an example for other companies who were interested in establishing this strategy around certain holidays.

The only problem? For this to be possible, the companies are required to email their customers about a holiday some time in advance. A spokeswoman from Etsy said that they do it one month in advance so that the subscribers have enough time to opt out before any holiday-related marketing begins. Other companies, such as the British supermarket Tesco, presented the opt-out link as a banner in two of their weekly emails.

Customer-centric marketing is blooming and this is just another way for brands to show they care about their subscribers' emotions.



SMS MARKETING


SMS Subscriber LTV for the win!


Source: Giphy
What's it all about? SMS marketing can bring 99X, 100X, and even 113X ROI. However, according to some sources, ROI proved to be a lagging, short-sighted metric — it allows you to look at a defined window of time in the past, but it doesn't really tell you anything about the future.

As more brands start using SMS as a marketing channel and as consumers start receiving more and more messages from their favorite brands, the future value of your SMS program will be the best indicator of its strength. The metric that will help you measure that is called Subscriber Lifetime Value (LTV).

Subscriber LTV points out the revenue potential of every subscriber that signs up to your SMS marketing, including both customers and non-customers. The longer you attain your subscribers and the more purchases they make, the higher your Subscriber LTV will be.

How can you achieve that?

• By doing a good job engaging your list
• By providing relevant information and offers to each subscriber
• By sending frequently enough to produce a healthy amount of attributed revenue

So, in order to get the most of your SMS marketing channel in the long term, this metric will make you take proactive, strategic action by balancing send volumes with messaging quality and relevancy.

For additional details, make sure that you take a look at this article.



EMAIL DESIGN INSPO


Emotional design


Source: MailBakery
No matter how much we deny it, we are all led by emotions that influence the process of decision-making. That's why email design needs to spark the right emotion in your subscribers.

How do you do this? Carefully consider the choice of color in emails and how it can influence your reader's emotion. For example, blue is considered to evoke a feeling of calmness and peace, whereas red reminds us of passion and urgency.

The email above is a very good example of how Harry's used bright red and a countdown timer to induce FOMO from the moment the subscribers opened the email. With the right design tactic, you can create a sense of urgency and increase the overall success of your campaign.

Well done, Harry's! ????????