Are Your Marketing Communications Speaking “Human”?

At Day 2 of Marketo’s Marketing Nation Summit I had the opportunity to attend the enlightening session “On Being Human” focused on a topic we can all relate to – being human!

DJ Waldow, Digital Marketing Evangelist at Marketo, started off the session with an example of an email he received recently with the subject line “So I’ll pick you up at 7”. Sounds like a normal friendly email subject line, right? But the thing is, the email wasn’t from a friend, it was a marketing email from a B2B referral program solutions company. The awkwardness was intended by the company as a play on how most B2B referral programs are just that – awkward. The session audience was torn between whether or not the email subject line was deceptive or creative but one thing was certain – the email was attention-getting and drove seven new business opportunities.

DJ went on to emphasize that people want to do business with humans and that companies need to be creative and personable in their communications. No matter the industry or business, we all need to speak more human in our marketing communications. Some places to do so include:

• 404 Pages
• Email Signatures
• Out of Office Auto Responses
• LinkedIn Profiles
• Email Opt Out landing pages
• Confirmation Emails

My favorite of the above ideas are the last two. DJ used the example of Bonobos whose email opt out landing page used some pretty funny and creative messaging around reducing email frequency settings to retain potential unsubscribes including “Once a month. I like you, Bonobos. LIKE.” and “It’s not you, it’s me, Bonobos. I need a 30-day break”.

The results? Bonobos saved 25% of potential email opt-outs. That’s impressive!

DJ also pointed out that confirmation emails (such as shipping or event registration confirmations) are some of the highest opened marketing emails. Why not use them as an opportunity to build a relationship with your customer and show the personality of your brand?

Take a look at your marketing communications. Are you speaking “human”? If not, I encourage you to use the above example as inspiration for your next campaign.

Need help injecting a little “human” into your marketing communications? Contact Launch Marketing today. Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook for the latest B2B marketing tips and trends.