Do you ever get an email that makes you stop and think, “Wow. I should do something like that”?
This is one that arrived in my inbox last week.…
Now, I realize there’s no guy at HP who’s watching the calendar to remember our “special day.” But as a customer and a marketer, I really like this email.
Communications like this tell me they’re paying attention to my transactions, my likes and my dislikes.
It reminds me that I’ve had a good experience with them, so if I have a need, they’re top of mind.
It also reminds me that no matter how big or small your business, you need to have this same level of attention to your customers.
Because it works.
Leveraging good will to build engagement
There are several reason I like this campaign.
First, it isn’t a normal marketing email. Notice the call to action: Like us now. Click on it, and you end up here:
It doesn’t ask for another huge investment. It doesn’t want my money. It just wants me to engage on another level.
Second, HP sent this to me, not the entire list. This email doesn’t have my name on it, but it is personalized to my experience with HP. (I know it’s automated, but it went to the trouble of setting this up. That counts for something.)
This level of attention to me, the customer, does create good will. And since it had me in the right frame of mind, I did what it asked and liked its Facebook page.
The bottom line
This email tells me that HP understands the value of good customer relations. When a company doesn’t push the sale, but reaches out just to build good will, I know it values me as a person, not another sale.
And that’s what engagement is all about.
How can you create this kind of good will?
Here are 10 ideas I came up with off the top of my head.
1. Use personalization in your emails. That may only be *|FNAME|* in the salutation. But it’s still better than nothing.
2. Take time to engage with your followers. Connect with them in other social channels. Respond to their comments and emails.
3. Take note of the people who like your stuff. If you have a customer who buys every product or shares all your tweets, send them a personalized email to thank them.
4. Follow HP’s lead and set up an autoresponder that delivers a special gift or discount on anniversary days. Here’s how you would do it in MailChimp:
Set the trigger event as the subscription date:
Set the timing to once a year:
5. Make your whole business social. Find unique ways to engage people and include them in your marketing.
For example, I know a blogger who uses comments from his fans in some of his blog posts. (Check out Bob Burg’s post here.) This is a fantastic way to build good will and increase engagement.
6. Write VIP content just for subscribers or fans. It could be a special report or an autoresponder series. The idea is to add value to their lives.
7. Follow your subscribers in social media and share their posts. Don’t just ask them to promote you. Go the extra mile and promote them to your followers and fans.
8. Ask for likes, tweets and comments. When you do this, you encourage people to engage with you through more channels and in a variety of ways.
9. Get face-to-face. If you’re going to an event (or hosting one), invite people to meet with you in person so you can get to know one another.
10. Give your fans an identity. For example, Cris Pirillo calls subscribers to his Locker Gnome website: “gnomies.”
(By the way, I’ve been wondering… what would you recommend as a name for members of the C4 community?)
Share your ideas in the comments below, along with other suggestions for building engagement and good will.
