Kosher Marketing in Action - A Tail of Two Emails

Marketing Sherpa, a terrific resource for marketing professionals, published a case study that perfectly illustrates Kosher Marketing in action. Let’s take a look at two email advertisements that Drs. Foster and Smith, the pet supply specialists, sent to their customer base as a test.

Which email ad would you be most likely to open? The answer is pretty obvious. Dog owners who own a dog with arthritis experience almost as much pain as the dogs themselves. In the second ad, Gordon Magee, Internet Marketing and Analysis Manager for Drs. Foster and Smith, didn’t sell by selling. He sold by teaching. By providing useful information about arthritis, he educated his customers and became a trusted advisor. He created relevance. Although his conversions and click-throughs were only slightly higher with the second ad, the major improvement was sales. Because customers knew more about the subject, they put more items in their shopping cart.

Let’s take a look at which of the Ten Commandments of Kosher Marketing he followed.

Download a copy of the white paper for more information on the commandments and Kosher Marketing.

Kosher Marketing is about doing good things for people. The first ad was all about the sale. The second ad was all about the customer. What would I recommend to improve the ad?

Now that we know that content-based ads are more effective than sale-focused ads, I’d turn my attention to the design of the ad and the offer. I’d test to see what happened if we eliminated all of the product information and just invited people to read an article interspersed with relevant products. I’d test different colors, typography, but most importantly I’d try to find an image that was sticky. Would it be possible to show an image of a dog and owner that truly shows the agony of arthritis? For example, my mother-in-law pulled her arthritis inflicted dog “Tico” in a wagon when she took him on walks because he had so much trouble walking. Images that tell a story and create emotion can be extremely powerful. I’d also provide the first paragraph of the article in the ad, and I’d make sure that it really hooked customers in. The ad might also be a nice opportunity to promote a social network that caters to people who own dogs with arthritis. Perhaps they could offer an informative arthritis webcast?

Congratulations to Marketing Sherpa and DrsFosterSmith.com for their great work.

I want to hear your thoughts. How would you improve the ad?