In today's times of social media's organic reach diminishing day by day; its important that brands work on their email marketing and website which are true Owned channels for securing future. Zomato has been upping its Email Marketing Game with superb content marketing as its lever.
Stories which are engaging and relevant to its audience - either around the category, target audience's life or topical trends. And while telling stories on the above themes, it keeps a razor sharp focus on the soul of the story - brand essence. The content creator thinks - "how would the funny savior of hungry/bored souls - brand Zomato" would interpret a particular trend/event? And that's where the tone of voice, the quips, the wits, follows! This is super evident in its creatives across channels - social, email, digital etc. This is the power of Content Marketing done right from a Brand.
Here i am putting 4 Great examples of unexpected pieces of content in Emails from Zomato -
1. Slice of Customer Life X Zomato
Subject - Leaked! Zomato WhatsApp Chat
Creative - This long chat inside.
Content - Topical & Customer Life X Zomato
What i loved was that email didn't even talk about food/food delivery (category) in this long chat. It hits the topical mark and is full of brand attitude even without talking about what brand is or does! Its funny and enables a great connect with "working audience" which is the TG. This audience goes through such life dramas daily in work groups, brought beautifully in this creative by Zomato.
2. Bollywood X Zomato
Subject - Agar tumne aaj order nahin kiya toh...Creative - Red & White + Dialogue + CodeContent - Bollywood X Zomato
Inspired by Bollywood dialogues, Zomato has sent many emails with a quirky subject line forcing a bollywood fan to open the email. And within email, lies the complete story + incentive. A great way to push open rates and also to drive traffic with coupon codes; a new way to help businesses get rid of those transactional coupon code emailers.
3. Music X Zomato
Subject - Tere bin nahin lagda
Creative - Red & White + Food image + Code
Content - Music X Zomato
Here using Music as another lever; Zomato flips uninteresting "Miss You" Emailers into interesting ways to connect with consumers.
4. Fun X Zomato
Subject - Our copywriter is on leave this week
Creative - Red & White + Story completion + Code
Content - Music X Bollywood
These are genuine ways to tell funny stories. Why would a consumer expect such an email from a brand. And that pushes the curiosity to open the email.
I have just selected 4 of such emailers that i keep receiving from Zomato; but most of the times, they ensure that i try to open the email. Opening emails from them definitely brings a chuckle, whether i order or not. But many a times when i order, i open Zomato by default. Such is the connection, a brand can establish with focused efforts to push a metric; here for example is Open Rates. And the levers used are - Content Marketing anchored in Brand essence and yet always being relevant to target audience.
Conversely, you receive umpteen emailers on festivals, New Years written exactly the same way by many brands across categories - "This (Festival Name), celebrate with (Brand Name) & get (Offer)". I have also been a culprit in initial years of my career, there :)
- Please note that its not a paid partnership :). I am a Zomato Pro/Gold member for years and this is an honest confession by a customer/marketer.
-Nitin
