Today’s email comes from the folks at Park DIA (a parking provider for the Denver International Airport). I love cause based marketing, but this is not the way to go. The idea behind it is fine, but the implementation leaves a lot to be desired.
Subject Line and Visible Text
For the subject line, Park DIA decided to go with “October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month”. While this is in fact correct, the subject line doesn’t really do anything to make me want to open. There’s no hook to the brand or product that the company is promoting and the subject line is so generic that it could literally be from anyone.
In terms of visible text, the company chooses to not provide any, instead allowing the email provider to decide what the visible text will be. As a result, we get the company’s tagline and part of the first line of text from the email.
Email Body Content
The body content goes with the subject line, but it doesn’t really do much to promote the brand. The content is all about breast cancer and the linked content discusses warning signs and detection.
Again, as a PSA, this is fine. The problem is that there’s no hook. There’s simply no reason why Park DIA is sending this email beyond providing the same basic information that every other breast cancer PSA provides.
Had the company decided to do something simple like giving a percentage of every sale to a related cause, it would have had a much better shot at being effective as a marketing piece.
The whole point of cause based marketing is to create an emotional response with the customer by showing that the company cares about and supports a cause that the customer cares about. Instead of going with a generic breast cancer PSA that will be forgotten about minutes after it gets opened, I would have much rather seen the company put more thought into a campaign that tied directly in to their business. Tie in to charities that bring awareness to texting and driving, drunk driving, distracted driving, literally anything that has to do with driving and the response would likely be better than just bandwagoning on the cause of the month.