Marketers don’t need to have the most exciting products to reach consumers, as long as they tie those offerings to consumers’ passion points. For instance, just in time for Earth Day, April 22, online file-sending service YouSendIt is using e-mail to promote its services as environmentally conscious.
The campaign’s goal is to help consumers reduce their use of printers, shipping services and DVDs – thereby cutting down their carbon footprints – by sending files over the Internet using YouSendIt’s service. The company distributed e-mails on April 12 encouraging consumers to pledge to use its services instead of physical materials to eliminate 12 million copies. The campaign’s tagline is “Join us to make a difference.”
Beyond tying the campaign to a passion point, the e-mail message makes good use of integrating social media. It has share-to-social links and encourages consumers to post their pledge on their Facebook and Twitter pages to spread the effort virally.
In case consumers need a little arm twisting, the e-mail also has an incentive for consumers to pledge. YouSendIt is automatically entering pledges into a sweepstakes to win an iPad, among other prizes.
This is a great example of e-mail marketing that ties topical issues, like Earth Day and the iPad, to social media and has a strong call to action. Not bad for a file-sharing company.
