eBook - Silverpop

Your Email Can Say More
than “Buy This!”
I hear a lot about
Q: humanizing my email
content. What is it, and why
should I bother?
Remember that old advertising maxim,
A: “Sell the sizzle, not the steak”? Good.
Now, forget it. Today’s digital marketing world
calls for a new set of content rules.
When you want to sell someone that steak
today, you have to stand out from all the other
sizzle-sellers in your customer’s inbox by surrounding
your message with content like this:
• An anecdote from the rancher explaining
why that steak is the best he can get for
the price.
• A sommelier’s list of wines to drink with it.
• A video of your head chef showing how to
grill it properly.
• Positive ratings or comments from other
diners who chose that steak.
This strategy asks you to add a face and a voice
to your messages with a message that says
more than “buy, buy, buy.”
from the company back out to people. It’s being
accepted and driven by social media, and even
becoming a customer expectation, where your
company is being represented by someone on
Twitter or Facebook with a picture, name or
specific voice.
A Moosejaw Mountaineering marketing rep characterized
her company’s approach this way: “We
try to make our marketing reflect our core values,
to be notable, to be engaged with our customers,
to make them love us and to only do cool stuff ...
We try to include some kind of human element
and some kind of ‘madness’ element in everything
we do, because our slogan is ‘Love the Madness.’
... [Talking to customers] and having a real conversation
with them is a first step in the humanization
of our messages.”
What’s So Different?
Content humanization isn’t just a new buzzword.
It’s a new way of doing content marketing.
It brings in your corporate personality and
style and makes both your employees and customers
visible in your messages as it’s appropriate
for your content and business goals.
Humanizing your content means that you lose
your “corporate speak” and talk as an individual
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