These days, effective marketing messages offer some relief

As I shelter-in-place in Miami Beach, I find myself with more time to read email.

This includes, to a far greater degree than ever before, promotional emails from companies I do business with. And as I click on the “read more” links and the “play video” buttons, it’s clear that companies are communicating in two distinct ways.

I call them the income statement camp and the balance sheet camp. Companies in the income statement camp are focused on generating revenue now. Those in the balance sheet camp are focused on building goodwill for tomorrow.

Both approaches are extraordinarily important. And there’s a key marketing lesson to learn from the good and the bad executions in both camps.

The income statement camp: Home Depot, Costco and Walmart sent emails reminding me about their home-delivery services. Nice, but I already knew that. So, these emails came across as unhelpful and opportunistic.

Professional service firms sent emails expressing empathy and concern while also assuring me that they had successfully made the transition to working at home and were open for business. Again, unhelpful and opportunistic.

My MasterCard company, on the other hand, offered me bonus points for patronizing take-out and delivery services offered by local restaurants. They included links to ratings, reviews and online ordering for each establishment. It was a clear win, win, win. The restaurants got extra traffic. I got an opportunity to earn extra points and feel good about helping local businesses. And MasterCard stood to earn merchant fees on the transactions. Well done.

The balance sheet camp: I’ve received a lot of letters from company CEOs apologizing for inconveniences caused by virus-related shutdowns. They stressed their organizations’ commitment to the safety of customers and employees and expressed empathy for people most impacted by the virus. These messages were sincere, and much appreciated, but not particularly useful.

LinkedIn, instead, is offering free online courses about how to stay productive, build virtual relationships, and balance the demands of family and work with the kids at home. All on point and very useful.

Some Miami-based companies also struck the right chord.

Mark’s Quality Cleaners’ retail stores are closed. So, they sent an email promoting their pick-up services and offering free delivery, a free laundry bag and discounts of up to 33% on wash and fold services.

Our local dietitian from Nutrition Your Weigh offered a free, four-step stress reduction plan as well as recipes for using non-perishable canned or frozen vegetables. Exactly on target and just what I needed.

The Betsy hotel on South Beach moved their artists’ series programing from the hotel lobby to each artists’ home and opened the program for free to the entire community via Zoom.

One of the biggest investments in goodwill comes from a Miami-based industry that’s among the most devastated by the crisis.

Cruise lines have been forced to cancel voyages and refund ticket prices for cruises through the end of May. But the companies are still paying commissions to travel agents even while refunding the full ticket price to customers. What’s more, if guests decide to take a credit instead of a cash refund, the cruise lines will also pay a second commission on the future cruise.

That’s a nice move for the cruise lines and their travel agents.

In a video, Royal Caribbean Chairman and CEO Richard Fain said, “For the next few months, the numbers will be what the numbers will be. And I’m sorry that they won’t be the numbers we all want. But there really are more important things in life.”

Amen to that.

The lesson: During this crisis, the most effective marketing messages offer some relief — either financial or emotional, or both.

This story was originally published April 3, 2020 at 6:00 AM with the headline "These days, effective marketing messages offer some relief."