Consulting for GiveIndia

Emails

Give is India’s largest charitable fundraising platform that runs on a monthly giving model. They work with verified non-profits, not individuals, and cover missions related to human upliftment: education, hunger, elder care, disability support, and poverty. From 2018-2019, I worked with their tiny but passionate marketing team to create and execute their communication strategy.

At the time, communication was one of the biggest challenges that Give faced. The fundraising industry was full of players who used poverty porn and emotional blackmail to get donations. Not only were the visuals triggering but after a point, people began to be de-sensitized to the plight of others.

I helped the team establish communication guidelines that would apply in everything we put out: emails, social media, and ads. Here’s a short overview of what we crafted over many months:

#1 Treat both donors and beneficiaries with respect. Donors are not cash cows; respect their preferences and limitations. This means no messaging that makes them feel shame for their privilege or guilt about not doing enough. Beneficiaries are not victims; be sensitive with the vocabulary used when referring to them. This means no visuals of sick babies and weeping adults.

#2 Show donors the power of their actions. People give when they connect with a cause. But they also want to know if what they’re doing has any impact at all. Show donors who they are helping—real people with hopes and dreams. Share the impact of their contribution through quantitative updates, but more importantly, through stories of hope and upliftment.

#3 All messaging should pass the PCD test: Positive, Dignified, Compassionate. All communications and creatives must meet at least two out of these three tenets of voice and certainly nothing that goes against them.

I also helped the Give team overhaul their newsletter. From sporadic donation appeals, we turned The Giving Chronicles into a short weekly dispatch that turned the spotlight on one hero story in every issue. For those who wanted to know more, we added a Recommended Reads linking to more impact opportunities and stories. We used this section to highlight causes that get less attention or missions urgently in need of support.

The simple, uncluttered layout and focus on words over visuals was a conscious effort to make The Giving Chronicles more letter than news. We also included a simple Did You Know? section to bring to light the lesser known aspects of Give’s functioning.

Here are a few examples of The Giving Chronicles that I worked on.

Bigbasket emails (Since 2019)

Brand, Emails

Nobody wants to read. Open rates are dead. Email is spam.

People have been saying this for years — I disagree. I think email is a powerful way to get someone’s attention. It is not intrusive like calls and messages; yet, more personal than ads & social media. It gives you a wonderful canvas to say what you want to. And it stays in someone’s inbox, more or less permanently.

Provided, of course, you do it well.

I have built up email strategy for a number of brands: nurture sequences at CrackVerbal to guide young professionals looking to study abroad; engaging newsletters at Urban Ladder to put the fun in furniture shopping; nudging parents to let children play wild & free at shumee toys; telling uplifting stories of giving without selling poverty porn at GiveIndia.

Since 2019, I have been doing this for the marketing team at bigbasket, India’s largest online supermarket. During the pandemic, bigbasket faced a massive surge in demand, coupled with operational challenges. In spite of their best efforts, they could not fulfill many orders, leaving customers disgruntled. The team’s first priority was fixing the issues. But once things were getting back to normal, they wanted to reach out to all their customers to explain what happened.

Before I set to work on this email, I had multiple conversations during which the team was very clear about the problem statement. ‘We did our best but we still disappointed some customers. This falls short of the service standards we set for ourselves. How can we make it better?’

All along, we have been working to craft Bigbasket’s voice to reflect its values: authentic, straightforward, heartfelt. No gimmicks. No deflective humour to draw attention away from the problem.

So that’s what we did here. We owned up. We explained what went wrong. We told customers what we are doing to make things better. And signed off with a coupon-equivalent of an apology bouquet. We also asked them to give us another chance— and I am happy to see some of the comments here expressing that sentiment. You can see the email here.

Post-pandemic Update email Download

This email, sent to over 10 lakh people, caught attention and Bigbasket exceeded their expectations in terms of customers retained. It also created a buzz on social media.

Is it possible to make fruit interesting? Or cooking oils? In bigbasket emails, we try. We do this by telling fascinating backstories, busting myths, and sharing practical tips. You can see examples here.

What makes email marketing work?

Brand, Emails

For over 3 years, I was ‘the newsletter lady’ at Urban Ladder, writing and working with the design and marketing teams to put out a daily mailer for our 1 million-strong subscriber base. In an era where promotional mails are treated as spam, we managed to capture hearts with our content. This is a behind-the-scenes look from my time running these mailers. First published here on Adgully.

None of us like being cold-called. Or shown ads we can’t skip. Or accosted outside supermarkets and dentist’s offices to be handed flyers. Most promotional email is no different. It’s intrusive, annoying, and rarely offers anything of value. So when we started the Urban Ladder newsletter back in 2013, we set ourselves a lofty goal. To create email that people actually look forward to.

Today, our reader base is one million strong and our unsubscribe rate less than half of the industry average. And we are possibly one of the few brands in India whose email newsletters are widely read, loved, and Tweeted about regularly.

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We are often approached by other organizations who want to know the ‘secret sauce’ behind our emails. Frankly, there is none. There is, however, an entire team of analysts, writers, and designers who work behind the scenes to learn more about our readers every day, create useful and interesting content for them, and keep the engine fuelled and running.

During a recent lunchtime discussion, this question cropped up again and the entire team weighed in with their views of what makes our newsletters tick. There were many specifics, but at the core of it all, we recognized two things – a concerted effort to understand our readers more and more deeply, and an unwavering commitment to do right by them no matter what

So, for the first time ever, we are putting down on paper the guiding principles behind our newsletters (and as we write these, we realize that they apply to practically all our communication, online and offline) in the hope that they help other brands and content strategists.

Rule #1: We recognize our readers for who they are.

We don’t see our readers as nameless, faceless entities that ‘consume content’. To us, they are who they are–real people who lead real lives. Who have good days and bad days. Who dread Mondays and tiresome commutes and long meetings. Who love TV shows, follow the IPL, love the scent of new books, and look forward to a cup of adraki chai when it’s raining outside.

So when we sit down to write our stories, we speak to them directly, using words and examples that resonate with them, be it familiar everyday experiences, pop culture references, or contemporary slang.

We also recognize that while we do design good looking furniture, it is our customers that take these and create gorgeous spaces around them. Which is why we make a conscious effort to shining the spotlight away from us and onto our customers’ lives and spaces. Celebrating their moments and their creativity is our way of showing them just how big a role they play in our scheme of things.

Rule #2: We try to be helpful. Or interesting. Often, both.

So you’re trying to sell something. (Who isn’t, these days!) But can you do that in a way that does not annoy the reader? This is a question we ask ourselves every time we set out to create a newsletter.

Say, for instance, we are trying to sell seating. We could slap on its price and a big CTA button that says ‘Buy Now’. But we could also do this. Or this.

By turning to humour and weaving stories around our products, we elicit chuckles and find a place in our readers’ minds. The next time we email them, they will still open our newsletter even if they don’t want to buy furniture, just to see what story we are spinning today. They, in turn, have become willing brand ambassadors, spreading the word about us and sharing the content we put out for the sheer joy of it.

Rule #3: We are honest and transparent.

We remind ourselves every day that our readers choose to remain engaged with us and that we must never take this for granted. Which is why when we make mistakes, we apologize openly and make amends, be it publishing an incorrect price or a quip that causes offence.

If we know our prices are increasing, we give our subscribers an early heads up, to help them proceed with planned purchases. When we mention terms and conditions, we put them upfront, in easy-to-understand language, so that they never have to squint to read the fine print or squirm to understand it. All of this works together to build trust.

There are no magic pills–but the right decisions can work magic.

While designing communication strategies, be it for email or for something else, the tendency of most brand and communication professionals is to look outside for insights. It’s great to research email marketing best practices and subject lines that work, but all of these come later. The place is to start is actually inside. Inside the heart of your brand and your promise to your customers.

Keep experimenting, spend time and effort in understanding your audience, and above all, treat your readers with respect. Because while there’s no perfect email marketing strategy, there is one that is perfect for your brand.