Consumers have always appreciated service, sales, and marketing that makes them feel good. However, they’re growing increasingly discerning about where they put their money, right down to the health insurance they choose.

Health insurance is an extremely competitive industry. Customers have many, many choices, and they know it. What they crave is to feel important, unique, and understood. Consequently, they won’t accept being treated like a number on an insurance company’s CRM database. As such, they’re more apt to buy from a health insurance company that understands them and applies empathy in all phases of the customer journey to prove it.

How an Empathy-First Approach Can Benefit the Health Insurance Industry

From a historical perspective, empathy hasn’t driven most health insurance providers. Insurance has usually revolved around numbers, statistics, and risk levels. However, I’ve seen firsthand how people can be moved to choose one (more expensive) healthcare insurance provider over another based on exceptional, empathetic customer support alone.

Why does empathy drive so many good things when it’s embedded in corporate culture in 2021 and beyond? As McKinsey findings from 2020 show, consumers care about solving their basic needs right now. They’re not interested in flashy bells and whistles. They want to make fast, genuine connections with brands that can serve their needs, solve their problems, and help them feel secure.

Truly, an empathy-driven health insurance company could totally disrupt the insurance marketplace. Already, emotionally minded health insurers routinely receive unsolicited positive press. Therefore, an insurance provider willing to take empathy to the next level could pull ahead of the pack considerably. After all, statistics indicate nearly six out of 10 customers would direct their business elsewhere if they could get a better customer experience. Plus, according to McKinsey’s reports, the best insurance providers can expect 30% more profits than mediocre ones.

How to Increase Empathy in Health Insurance

The health insurance field is fraught with challenges beyond just being crowded. It’s highly regulated and can be difficult to navigate — even for seasoned companies. Additionally, health insurance requirements tend to change rapidly. Still, insurance companies that ratchet up their empathetic practices in the following ways can position themselves to garner tremendous support and credibility:

1. Listen without judgment.

Customers have been through many ups and downs in the past year or two. Simply being heard and understood will go a long way toward helping them feel more satisfaction, even if they still have questions about a claim. Health insurance company representatives who listen first and respond thoughtfully can help pave the way for genuine conversations and deep mutual respect. Although it is not a health insurance-based company, AIG recently implemented plans that emphasized serving customers above judgment. Not only did the company offer a 90-day extension on premiums, but it also provided one-on-one assistance if customers still couldn’t make payments beyond that period. This care obviously goes a long way in the customer experience.

2. Look for ways to pleasantly surprise customers.

In the early days of COVID-19, some property-casualty insurance companies gave back up to 20% of customers’ premiums. Other providers granted premium extensions of up to three months. These unexpected moves grabbed headlines and showed the insurers’ willingness to respond to change in palpable ways. The moves also cemented the insurance providers’ relationships with consumers — and those customers will likely think twice about switching companies down the road.

Empathy continues to be a powerful differentiator. For health insurance providers that want to remain on the leading edge of their industry, it’s a must-try strategy to improve loyalty, reduce churn, and build buzz.

Whether you’re in the insurance world or not, are you looking for more ways to connect with customers? Watch our exclusive video on leveraging empathy to expand your marketing efforts.

The post What’s the Biggest Differentiator Among Health Insurance Providers Today? Empathy appeared first on Hallmark Business Connections.

Normally, the first full week in October provides a prime opportunity for companies across all industries to showcase their passion for customers and the employees who serve them. Punctuated by everything from in-house CEO talks to banquets to even picnics where families participate in a little friendly competition, National Customer Service Week has been heralded historically as a highlight for customer service representatives and other customer-facing workers.

Recognizing Customer Service Week is more important than ever in our current climate. Team members are working hard to put customers first. Even though many budgets have been shaved and employees may still be telecommuting, employers owe it to the staff that delivers their customer experience to show them how vital they are to their success.

Elevating the Workers Who Are the Heart of the Customer Experience

Statistics have shown that consumer behavior has radically changed in the past year. According to McKinsey & Co. research, about three-quarters of United States consumers have replaced traditional brand loyalty with a willingness to give new shopping experiences a whirl. This also means they’re open to shifting their devotion from one company to another. Thankfully, CX is an area where businesses can differentiate themselves and win new fans.

In this atmosphere, customer service teams are essential; they are the organization’s face and heart to discerning shoppers. Without the dedication of a hardworking CX group that’s driven to go above and beyond, companies risk losing huge swaths of market share — and can miss quarterly profit expectations.

Heralding Customer Care Employees in 2021

Customer Service Week has been around since the 1980s, and it keeps evolving. Over the years, organizations have successfully brought positive attention to their brands during this celebratory occasion by rewarding CX stars, highlighting customer service case studies on corporate intranets and social media, and hosting fundraisers. Although some bigger celebrations might not be possible this year, every organization can do something to make the most of this vital employee appreciation week.

If you’re excited to put on an economical, memorable Customer Service Week, 2021 is the year to get innovative. Kick-off your brainstorming with a few clever ideas that don’t cost much yet have the potential for big results. Just make sure you have the buy-in and participation of upper management. Without leadership’s backing, employees might feel that corporate messaging — though well-intentioned — feels perfunctory rather than special.

Here’s how to get started:

1. Launch the week with a feast. It doesn’t matter if your customer service employees are working from their home offices or have moved back into your reopened space — you can serve up some camaraderie and fun with an organized breakfast, luncheon, or snacking hour.

Send remote employees some nibbles that need no refrigeration, adding “Do not open until Customer Service Week!” on the package. For in-office workers, plan buffet-style smorgasbords, such as a cereal bar overflowing with healthy choices or a “2 p.m. (or 10 p.m.) slump” snacker’s paradise complete with vegan and allergy-friendly options.

2. Give essential CX workers the gift of time. Has your budget been bitten by unforeseen reductions? You don’t have to deliver pricey presents or gift cards to staff members to make them feel valued and appreciated. Instead, consider offering them the prize of time off. Just a few hours or a half-day can mean the world to employees who aren’t expecting to be able to have a little me-time when the rest of the world is at work.

3. Go with socially distanced games. If you can’t have relay races this year, you can ask everyone to compete in games such as bingo, and with a few small adjustments, work-from-home customer service employees can easily participate. Create bingo cards that contain phrases your customer service representatives routinely hear from consumers. Whenever they hear the phrase or see it in an email or chat, they can mark off their cards. Of course, the first one to announce “bingo” on the honor system gets a prize.

4. Express gratitude simply but meaningfully. The words “thank you” have never been so important. Still, go beyond speaking and show these indispensable employees how grateful you are. For example, construct appreciation messages for digital delivery or to line your office walls. Send customized greeting cards to the homes of your staff with heartfelt messages. Sending the cards to their homes will let family and friends know what a great employer you are and how much their loved one is appreciated.

Finally, consider sending a video message compilation from senior leaders to all staffers. The effort will be noticed, and your team members will be surprised and touched by your efforts.

5. Hand out individualized awards at a stellar event. If you’re going to host a bang-up end-of-week red carpet event — even if it’s on Zoom — go big. Ask everyone to dress to the hilt, hand out some unexpectedly large prizes, and up the entertainment factor by having an emcee from outside the company host the event. Use your imagination. The goal is for customer-facing employees to realize by the end of the event that they matter.

During Customer Service Week, recognize your essential customer-facing employees as you’ve never done before. These frontline employees are essential to your operations and brand image. Treat them with the deference they deserve.

To learn more about how to increase customer and employee satisfaction, check out this Evergy case study and see what’s possible with the power of a Hallmark card.

The post 5 Ways to Show Gratitude to Essential Workers During National Customer Service Week appeared first on Hallmark Business Connections.

What is empathy in business?
Empathy helps us understand one another’s emotions and circumstances. In business environments, it can be tempting to ignore emotional aspects in favor of processes. But consumers are humans (and so are you!), so developing an emotional connection is important to building relationships with customers.

Recently, empathy has arisen as a powerful brand differentiator. McKinsey research shows that customers appreciate it when companies take their needs into consideration. When you care about their interests, they respond by rewarding you with immediate purchases and long-term loyalty.

Of course, improving customer experience in insurance via a boost of emotional intelligence won’t happen without a plan. For starters, make plans for your associates to spend more time with the people they serve. Whether over the phone, email, text message or in-person, human interactions bring the people of your company to the forefront of the buying decision. And people still buy from people they know, like and trust.

3 Empathetic Ways to Improve the Insurance Customer Experience

Try the following strategies to bring more empathy into the insurance customer journey.

1. Make connecting simple.

The insurance world is filled with tons of disruptive technology. Nevertheless, you can’t count on bots to drive unparalleled customer experiences. Sometimes, customers want to reach another human, and they want to do it effortlessly.

Think about the many ways and channels that customers reach you. Are there any that could be sped up or streamlined? Are there new technologies that should be considered for quick information or answering FAQs? When someone wants to speak with someone directly, have you made that easy, or have you hidden behind a questionnaire that frustrates customers? Revisit your customer journey maps to make sure you have accounted for how customers want to find information and when and how they want to interact with real human beings. Make it simple for your customers so their effort is minimal when they need you.

2. Encourage associates to make clients feel special and important.

Few insurance companies make a big deal about their clients’ big days. You can be the exception by sending a birthday card or email, or making a phone call just to say “Good job!” or “Congratulations!” Make no mistake: Your insurance brand will stand out.

Brainstorm with your team about special touchpoints to connect with customers. A great example could be to send out well wishes on the anniversary of your customer buying their first policy with you. Or let’s say a number of your customers are military personnel and veterans. On Veterans’ Day, why not remember them with heartfelt, mailed greetings? Other holidays that can work as well are Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, or even fun recognitions like “We love having you as a customer” on Valentine’s Day.

Worried this may be too hard to master? Hallmark Business Connections can help by creating a custom website filled with the customer connections tools of your choice. We heard back from one of our partners whose employee sent a card in the mail to a client having a tough time. The client wrote back saying the card made them cry “to know someone (outside of the family) cared.” It is truly amazing what an unexpected card to do for your customer experience.

[My agent] always remembers us on special holidays. Great to know what a kind and thoughtful agent and company we have. It’s the little things that matter :).

Card recipient Facebook post

You know you have the best insurance agent when you get a Thanksgiving card!! No, not Christmas, but Thanksgiving–just saying thanks for being a customer. #thankyou

Card recipient Tweet

3. Find partners to help with your customer experience marketing and support.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed at the thought of adding empathetic gestures, know that you don’t have to go it alone. Instead, join forces with partners that can help you pull off a more customer-centric approach.

Hallmark Business Connections would be happy to make it simple for you to dash off greetings, cheer, and condolences to customers. Our proprietary platform can give your agents access to a wide variety of business greeting cards. We can even help with printing messages in our proprietary handwriting fonts, plus addressing and mailing. Cards go out in a timely fashion, and no one has to find stamps! Best of all, you could see a 10% bump in performance by making Hallmark cards part of your insurance customer experience.

Life isn’t always easy for your customers. However, you can make sure their interactions with you are simple and rewarding — just by showering them with some well-deserved empathy.

Want to hear more about how to improve customer experience with our exclusive, unforgettable partner solutions? Learn about Hallmark’s Customer Care solution now.

The post Insurance Companies That Show Empathy Will Win Hearts … and Customer Loyalty appeared first on Hallmark Business Connections.

Do you remember the last marketing email you opened? What about the last Facebook ad you read? Chances are, the answers are no. Do remember the last greeting card you received in the mail? Probably.

While avalanches of paid ads, promotional emails, and low-quality content saturate online experiences, one mailbox is less crowded – the one at the end of your driveway (or attached to your house or in your lobby). The differentiation power of mail delivered directly to your customers or prospects cannot be ignored.

Chewy, an online pet product retailer, sends handwritten greeting cards to new customers and condolence bouquets when owners lose their pets. What has made the brand so successful (PetSmart acquired it for $3.35 billion in 2017 and took it public two years later) is its knack for talking to pet parents in a personalized way that is both fun and relatable and bridges the online and physical experiences.

This thoughtful direct mail content also goes digital, as delighted pet owners are moved to share their experiences across social media channels. If you’re looking for a way to make your brand stand out, consider zigging while others zag. In a digitally dominated world, that means returning to direct mail.

Going old school to solve a new-age problem

Given the crowded digital content space, your content marketing strategy can benefit from an offline component. Print pieces have permanence and materiality that allow audiences to engage differently than they would with digital content.

That effective audience development tactic is why Johnson & Johnson-owned tampon brand, o.b., developed a printed Period Handbook for Dads in Sweden. The long-form content educates a niche audience in an appealing, convenient format. It’s distributed at local youth festivals and was sent to over 100 dad influencers.

Print tactics have finite space to share your message, so you have to be selective and strategic about what you want to say. While this can be a challenge at the outset, the concise nature also gives it a distinct advantage. The printed content needs to be on point given the space constraints, keeping your message from getting lost in the jumble of surrounding content as it might be online.

Your goals and measurements will differ from your digital metrics and strategies. There are no Facebook pixels to track or site analytics to measure conversions. You may have to be creative in determining how to measure the results of your direct mail campaign. Print a QR code to send mail recipients to a site or ask them to take an action to create helpful data on how your content is performing.

Unlike digital content, there’s a lag time collecting data from direct mail content. Unlike the digital world where marketers can target users using swaths of data and adjust their strategies in real-time, direct mail requires you to collect your data prior to deploying your content. Naturally, this requires some extra planning. Be sure to create different versions of your message based on your direct mail data so that your message feels personalized.

5 ways to harness direct mail’s potential

Direct mail produces results. According to the ANA/DMA Response Rate Report 2018, “Direct mail still pulls a higher response rate than any digital direct marketing medium. Its response rate ranges from about five to nine times greater than that of email, paid search, or social media.”

It’s obviously an effective, powerful marketing tactic to consider. Where do you begin to use it as a component of your content marketing strategy? Start with the audience experience:

1. Create a seamless omnichannel experience

Brands can’t afford to think of their online and offline content marketing as separate entities. You need to capture your audience’s attention in both spaces. Therefore, your online and offline messaging strategies should work in tandem.

Keep in mind that companies with strong omnichannel approaches have an average customer retention rate of 89%, while companies with weak omnichannel engagement retain only 33% of their consumers.

Audiences aren’t trained to think of their online experiences with a brand separately from their offline experiences. Think of it this way: Someone who orders a pair of jeans online expects to be able to exchange them in the store. Similarly, the content you produce and distribute in direct mail should align with the content you publish in the online space. That’s why supermarket chains that send magazines — like Wegmans’ Menu — also have digital apps and online editions of their print magazines. They make it effortless for audiences to receive content on any channel.

2. Explore the third dimension

The surface area may be smaller than digital spaces, but direct mail offers a third dimension that allows you to flex your creativity. Dimensional mail — non-flat pieces like boxes and tubes — are highly effective, as 89% of marketers attest. That’s because, in addition to visual design elements, you can engage an audience with unique forms and functions.

For some examples, Nike fostered kids’ enthusiasm for soccer — and Nike’s new soccer cleats — by mailing shoeboxes that opened to reveal miniature stadiums inside, Earth Hour sent building-shaped silhouette candle boxes and Hell Pizza offered macabre mis-fortune cookies.

The permanence and materiality of print also allow audiences to engage differently. Denim brand AYR’s print catalogs, for example, include paper dolls that audiences can cut out and play with. It’s a tactile, creative way for customers to interact with the brand. Think outside the envelope for ways your audience can experience your content in surprising physical ways.

3. Consider what matters to your audience

Instead of focusing first on the type of direct mail to send, think about the message you want to deliver. Conceive that message by asking what’s most important to your audience.

Automaker Subaru does this exceptionally well. The fall issue of its Drive magazine covered topics around exercising with dogs and exploring farmer’s markets, catering to its audience members’ healthy, active lifestyles. Alongside hummus recipes and magazine-style spreads, it features real customers’ stories about their recent Subaru adventures.

To ensure that your direct mail strategy is resonant and relevant, think through what your audience cares about and why. What do they need to know? How can you help them? For further insights, look to your top-performing online content for that target audience — whether it be a white paper, blog, case study, or offer — to inform what your direct mail message might be.

4. Craft a message with a purpose

To become the go-to source for your audience members as they gather insights, advice, and inspiration, provide them with relevant, valuable, and timely content in your direct mail. Always brainstorm a call to action that will entice your audience and deliver on your business’s end goal. What do you want the audience who receives the piece to do? It could be to visit a complete piece of online content, to buy a product, to subscribe to a service, to sign up for a free trial, or to attend an event.

The call-to-action options are endless. Just make sure the benefits of following through are clear to the reader and fit with the content you provided. If your direct mail CTA asks users to go online, ensure that the content you point them to is highly specific to the direct mail piece they received — and has a QR code to track those visits.

5. Use digital channels as your testing ground

Digital channels allow you to conduct A/B tests and study metrics in real-time, allowing you to optimize your content for your audience. Direct mail, however, doesn’t automatically collect data and analytics for you. For this reason, digital can be a good testing ground for your direct mail content.

In a digital split test, SmartWool found that a simple grid layout on its categories page maximized conversions. What if the company carried out that finding in its print materials? It would be delivering a similar look and feel that the recipients would experience online.

Get into non-cluttered mailboxes

In today’s crowded digital landscape, consumer attention comes at a premium price. Digital content isn’t going anywhere, but it may not be the most effective way to make a memorable connection with your audience. Instead of flooding inboxes or edging into social media feeds, create printed content and deliver it through the mail. A well-tailored, creative message gets noticed and is never unwelcome. It’s an invitation to connect.

The post The Unicorn of Content Marketing: The Mailbox NOT the Inbox appeared first on Hallmark Business Connections.

It’s a valid concern, especially when the latest trends in customer experience point to the fact that we need to be more human with our customers.

So, the question remains—how can brands retain the human touch while still using AI and BI?

My solution: Adopt a data-driven marketing strategy—one that ensures you’re applying empathy, so you communicate what your customers need to see and hear from you now.  Companies who do are six times more likely to be profitable year over year.

Why Data Science is Important in Marketing

Marketers know that personalization is one of the key tenants of effective marketing. Data science allows marketing teams to customize and individualize messages and formats based on preferences, past behaviors, demographics—any and all collected first-party data often proves useful.

A report by Salesforce found that 52% of people say they’re likely to switch brands if a company doesn’t personalize communications to them. If your company is lacking in this area, it could be hurting your opportunities to grow.

Make AI and BI Work for Customer Experience and Marketing

The DMA reports that 49% of marketers today use data analytics to enhance their customer experience. That’s a low number given the impact data can have to inform the humanization of marketing and the customer experience. Using AI and BI helps us apply both the art and science of marketing to deliver the right experience to the right customer. Here are three examples:

1. Understanding shopping behavior. The right data can let your company know precisely how customers discover, buy and engage with your products or brand. You can then take that information to generate campaigns specifically around their interests.
2. Utilizing website activity. If people have made prior purchases on your site or have signed up for your company’s email list, their saved contact information makes creating individualized marketing messages even easier.
3. Incorporate social media. People who engage regularly with a company on social media are often ideal targets for personalized marketing pieces.

Test the Waters: Try Life Event Marketing 

Life event marketing can be described as “connecting with a customer on a personal and emotional level—particularly during a unique life moment—in order to trigger a response that results in higher company profits and customer loyalty.” This is the perfect combination of a very humanized marketing strategy and utilizing data. 

Of all the things marketers could do, why life event marketing? As the division of Hallmark that helps businesses utilize Hallmark products and services, Hallmark Business Connections is founded in research that demonstrates life event marketing makes connections with customers in ways that traditional, promotional and product marketing do not. Celebrating birthdays, supporting through hardships, acknowledging annual customer anniversaries and sending congratulations mean much more than a discount to customers.

Simply put, life event marketing enables your company to apply both data and emotional intelligence to build deeper, stronger customer relationships and gain better marketing performance.

A Note on Data Privacy and Respecting Customers

If you found out about the life event in an inauthentic way, don’t act on the information. It not only damages your customer relationships but also erodes trust, so carefully consider where you learned of the life event. Purchasing third-party data can creep people out if used in the wrong way.

However, if you found out about the life event in an authentic way (i.e., via an application that already contains their birth date or by asking for their birth date on an opt-in form), reaching out to say, “happy birthday” is appropriate.

Also, always follow appropriate laws and regulations. Although this article does not address this topic, it is worth noting that the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) are a hotbed of requirements that must be taken into consideration when using data.

Data is Like an Amusement Park

As marketers and customer experience professionals, thinking about AI, BI and big data is a little like going to an amusement park: We get to imagine our businesses applying the best of humanity through the experiences we create for customers. When we do that, we have the awesome power to change how people feel in a positive, engaging way.

Create your life event marketing campaign in less than 5 minutes. Here’s how to get it done:

• Visit our online greeting card shop.
• Purchase one of our all-occasions card packs with code LIFEMKTG for 20% off*.
• Keep these cards in your desk drawer or in your car.
• Send or give cards to your contact list as their major life milestones come up in conversation.

Want us to help you execute a life marketing campaign? Get in touch with our team of experts to learn how we can help grow your business.

*20% Off: Offer is valid on assorted card packs only. Discounts do not apply to personalization charges, envelope upgrades (Peel & Stick, designed, etc.), note cards and already-discounted cards. Promotions/discounts are not transferable to affiliated websites and are calculated on the total before taxes and postage. Cannot be combined with any other promotion or applied to past purchases. Free ground shipping with online account (contiguous U.S.).

The post Don’t Lose the Human Touch When Using AI and Big Data for Marketing appeared first on Hallmark Business Connections.

Tackling COVID-19’s Emotional Toll 

Aside from the practical, financial, and moral concerns, your employees have dealt with, one of the biggest crises they’re experiencing is a drop in morale as they continue to deal with this “new normal.”

Humans thrive on social interaction. Even if they enjoyed working in their pajamas for a while, the reality of not seeing our work friends regularly can have a detrimental impact.

As we look ahead, it’s vital that employers prioritize personal interactions while employees continue to adapt to the work-from-home life. It’s not just in crisis times that these adaptations are necessary. The habits we’ve learned are likely to stick around, including this new era in which work is more flexible and less dependent on physical interactions and workspaces. 

5 Ways Businesses Can Appreciate Employees from a Distance 

What we do now to prioritize authentic employee engagement paves the way toward a successful future. You can discover new ways of working, innovative solutions, and—most importantly—a new level of empathy with your employees that could see you rising to future challenges with a more united front. After all, an engaged workforce is 17% more productive.

Here are a few ways to start:

1. Stay physically present on the screen. For leaders looking to support remote employees emotionally, active listening will be paramount. Good video conferencing software is your tool. When you’re on a video call, stay physically present—don’t navigate around your screen while the other person expresses themselves. Give them the same care and attention you would if you were sitting across from them. 

2. Move from flexibility to malleability. Flexible working has been the trend for a while, but ongoing remote work calls for greater malleability. That means finding new ways to work so your employees can keep adapting to their family situations. For example, every person on my staff currently has an infant. When daycares close due to COVID outbreaks and they’re faced with working from home and caring for their children at the same time, we’ve had to apply a whole new level of creativity to how we work—think hosting spontaneous video meetings or taking unplanned breaks in the day.

3. Plan your reactions to the unexpected. We can’t predict every situation that comes our way, but we can prepare our reactions to unexpected changes. When hosting a remote meeting, for example, what do you do when a teammate’s child calls out for her parent? Interruptions will happen, and your warmth and tact in acknowledging this will show how much you understand the situation and appreciate your employees.

4. Make time for feedback and peer-to-peer support. Sharing the details about trials and successes is even more important now. Set aside dedicated time to connect with employees, hear about their struggles, and gauge how to infuse your culture into their work lives. Further boost morale by connecting employees with supportive networks where they have space for peer-to-peer support meetings and can appreciate each other. 

5. Practice gratitude. This one might be the most important of all. Appreciation keeps employees engaged. Put your usual praise and appreciation on steroids. Whether you send a personal email, recognize team members by name on a call, or send a greeting card or care package, every little act of gratitude helps you create a culture of appreciation. 

The task of translating a normal workday into a collaborative, team-building experience in a work-from-home situation is new to many leaders. Companies can play a large role in making sure their employees stay connected to others and engaged in their work while they manage their lives. 

We can help you get started in 5 easy steps:

• Visit our online greeting card shop.
• Purchase any assorted greeting card pack with code LIFEMKTG for 20% off*.
• Keep these cards handy in your desk drawer.
• Send or give cards to your team as situations come up in conversation.
• Build an engaged and successful team that can weather any situation!

*20% Off: Offer is valid on assorted card packs only. Discounts do not apply to personalization charges, envelope upgrades (Peel & Stick, designed, etc.), note cards and already-discounted cards. Promotions/discounts are not transferable to affiliated websites and are calculated on the total before taxes and postage. Cannot be combined with any other promotion or applied to past purchases. Free ground shipping with online account (contiguous U.S.).

The post How to Keep Remote Workers Motivated and Feeling Appreciated Through a Screen appeared first on Hallmark Business Connections.

Knowing this, veterinary professionals have learned to cater to the “pet parent” mentality. Accordingly, practice teams refer to their patients by first names, talk to the cats and dogs during appointments, and show lots of courtesy and understanding when speaking about difficult end-of-life options.

Yet, few veterinary practices celebrate or recognize pet life events — birthdays, anniversaries and sorrowful occasions, for example. These are missed opportunities to do something incredibly touching for your clients. By celebrating the life events and milestones of pets, veterinary teams can increase client loyalty, generate referrals and reduce missed appointments.

Read more about how to make life-event marketing part of your marketing strategy on Today’s Veterinary Business.

The post Why Life-Event Marketing Should Be Part of Every Veterinary Marketing Plan appeared first on Hallmark Business Connections.

As noted in Deloitte’s 2021 Global Marketing Trends report, purpose-driven marketing pays off in improved loyalty and recognition. Indeed, 79% of research participants said they could recall a brand that responded positively to the pandemic by name. This indicates how important it can be to give corporate social responsibility more than just lip service.

Still, defining social responsibility in marketing can be difficult, especially for marketers unaccustomed to planning campaigns with a mission-driven marketing objective. Yet the litmus test for socially responsible marketing doesn’t have to be complicated.

Foremost, socially responsible marketing ventures tend to put people — think end-users and stakeholders — first. This ensures the messaging is meaningful, human, timely, and relevant. Data revealed by Accenture shows that nearly two-thirds of buyers find emotionally focused and deliberately positioned brands more attractive than their counterparts. And statistics from a 2019 Porter Novelli/Cone Purpose Biometrics Study suggest that about 8 in 10 consumers will put their loyalty toward purposeful brands. (This was pre-pandemic, and consumers have become even more in tune with socially sensitive marketing practices since the first quarter of 2020.)

If you’re still confused as to what socially responsible marketing produces, consider some of the tangible outcomes of purpose-driven strategies. ADA-compliant websites are one. So are marketing methods that aim to combat depression and social isolation for those representing at-risk or high-risk populations. Don’t forget about direct mail marketing that uses paper from sustainable forests or marketing leaders who actively volunteer for causes they support and encourage their diverse team members to do so, too.

To be sure, socially responsible marketing is an ever-changing journey that doesn’t come with a specific road map. It has its challenges. For instance, trying to communicate a message to a niche audience can seem exclusionary or insensitive. So, too, can recommending exactly the right products to one set of consumers compared to another. Yet despite its pitfalls, post-pandemic mission-driven marketing is a must-do, particularly today when people, communities, and the world are trying to make sense of all that’s happened in recent months.

Want help putting socially responsible marketing policies and plans into overdrive? Consider the following suggestions to help inform your upcoming campaigns and advertising decisions.

1. Remember that people still buy from people.

Consumers might have switched up the way they place orders or choose products — but they haven’t stopped buying from people and brands they like. Showcase the people behind what you sell, from folks in the C-suite to the back office. Highlight their work, tell their stories, and share behind-the-scenes content. You’ll humanize your company and build stronger connections with your audience.

2. Show your gratitude.

At Hallmark Business Connections, we talk a lot about the importance of gratitude. Saying “thank you” when it’s not expected can create a lasting impression that leads more people to your (real or virtual) door. You’d be surprised how memorable “Going for the Feels” can be. Sending out cards to customers, or giving them unexpected freebies, can make them feel like you’re their friend. And that’s great for building socially responsible connections.

3. Modernize your voice.

Has it been a while since you evaluated your corporate tone? Maybe it’s a good moment to give it a refresh. Times change and your verbiage will likely change with it. Perhaps you’ve always taken a more buttoned-up, corporate approach. Could a lighthearted tone work in today’s market? Try a few A/B split tests to carve out a new face for yourself in terms of your voice.

4. Offer celebration and support to customers.

When you find out a customer’s going through a life event, positive or negative, do you take action? If not, you might be missing out on a key opportunity to make real in-roads. To boost trust, offer support during the tough times and high-fives during those “You, go!” moments. At Hallmark, we try to take every chance to get closer to our customer base. Case in point: During Mother’s Day, we would often hear from people who had lost their moms. In response, we created content to support them and help them honor the women who raised them.

Becoming socially responsible might not seem intuitive all the time. That’s okay. You can engage with people and humanize your brand faster and easier than you might have imagined. Best of all, you don’t have to take the trip alone. Instead, surround yourself with partners you can count on — starting with Hallmark.

The post Is Your Marketing Purpose-Driven? Here Are 4 Ways to Add More Social Responsibility to Your Advertising appeared first on Hallmark Business Connections.