Over 300 billion emails are sent every day. That offers a huge opportunity to use email in the right way, not just to sell your products or services, but to do so in a way that creates a positive impact.
Far more than just a tool to generate sales, email is also a primary method of communication. But unless you’ve given your email strategy some thought, you might not be using email to its potential.
Whether you’re striving to become a B Corp or simply a better business, here are 5 tips to try today to use email as a force for good.
Switch To A Sustainable Email Platform To Reduce The Carbon Footprint Of Your Campaigns
Email has a carbon footprint, and your choice of email platform can make a huge difference when it comes to reducing the emissions of your campaigns.
In recent years, we’ve seen the likes of green web hosting and even green search engines such as Ecosia. Now it’s email’s turn to become greener, and EcoSend is just the ticket.
EcoSend is powered by renewable energy sources and plants trees based on your usage. Combined with other tricks such as reducing the use of images or attachments and opting for lighter template designs, there are lots of ways to lower the amount of CO₂ your emails produce.
Curious to see the carbon footprint of your campaigns? Try our free Email Carbon Calculator tool.
Help Your Customers Make Better Purchase Decisions & Encourage Them To Give Back
A study by Deloitte found that a quarter of customers are prepared to pay more for sustainable products. In addition, products made by companies that respect human rights or commit to ethical working practices.
As a business, one of the best ways to let your customers know about better ways to shop is through email marketing. This is especially the case if you’ve been making efforts to reduce your carbon footprint or improve working practices behind the scenes.
Likewise, if you support any charities or good causes, then why not give your subscribers a chance to participate?
Any such information isn’t just for your team to know. Instead, it needs to be shared with your wider customer base. Since email offers a direct line of communication between you and your subscribers, it couldn’t be a more effective way to boost the impact of your good work.
Respect User Data & Preferences
Despite email scrapers being illegal, some unscrupulous marketers continue to buy and sell customer data.
Another legal requirement that is often missed is adding the ability to unsubscribe from your campaigns, which ideally should be a one-click link contained somewhere within the email.
It’s safe to say that not following data protection laws, whether that’s showing up in inboxes unannounced or selling data to others is the very opposite of using email as a force for good. In fact, it’s everything that will cause subscribers to disengage, block and even report your email domain.
Double-opt-in forms along with segmentation can go a long way in making your emails a welcome sight when they land in inboxes, which ultimately will boost your email ROI.
Don’t Allow Your Campaigns To Become Micro Stressors For Your Subscribers
Research by Email List Verify suggests the average person receives 121 emails a day.
The large volume of emails we all receive daily (especially when senders over-communicate) can result in micro stressors for recipients.
For those new to the term, micro stressors are described as small interactions which slowly add up during the day to create substantial stress, fatigue and even burnout. Because micro stressors are small and frequent, they may not seem that stressful at the time. But when we get lots of these micro stressors throughout the day, they can result in negative impacts on our mental and physical health.
Your email campaigns may be classed as micro stressors if they:
Overdo a sense of urgency
Over-communicate
Send emails outside of working hours
Expect instant replies
Are not sensitive to certain topics or events (i.e. Mother’s Day)
One of the best ways to send better quality emails and ultimately use email for the greater good is to focus on quality rather than quantity.
As a brand especially, it’s important to respect your audience including their limited capacity to engage.
Rather than try to force their attention through sending high volumes of emails or overdoing a sense of urgency, email campaigns should instead consider the true wants and needs of the audience.
Make Your Email Marketing Accessible For Everyone
Accessible email ensures that users aren't excluded from your emails just because they have some form of impairment.
Similar to the climate impact of emails, accessibility is also a huge learning curve for everyone. Namely, there are things that you might not even realise are making it difficult for people to access your email content, depending on any impairments they may have.
With 1 in 5 Americans considered to have a disability, the need for accessible email marketing is greater than you think.
Ideas include adding alternative descriptions on images, using easy to read fonts, and avoiding placing text on images so that the text can be read by screen readers.
The Better Email also has a course on accessibility for email marketing which covers a wide range of aspects. However, it’s also important to listen to feedback from your own subscribers, especially if they are having trouble opening, reading or understanding your email content.
EcoSend—The Email Marketing Platform For Purpose-Driven Businesses ✉️ 💚
Looking for an email platform that will continue your mission to do good as a business? You’re in the right place!
At EcoSend, we offer you all the tools and features you need to succeed at email. However, unlike other email platforms, we run our systems on renewable energy sources to reduce the environmental impact of your campaigns.
We offer a free 7 day trial on our email plans so that your business can get to experience the EcoSend and decide whether we’re the right fit for you.
Have any questions about switching to our sustainable email platform? Please drop us a message and we’ll be in touch shortly.
