What’s in this article:
- A letter from Amazon in the mail may not have achieved what the company intended – but it received the attention. Here’s how it went down
I got mail from Amazon. I don’t mean a package for something I ordered or the usual email marketing message but an honest-to-goodness paper letter that was folded into an envelope and sent to me via the post office.
Become the best CRMer you can:
CRM Hack: Monitoring the User’s Heartbeat
What Does It Mean to Treat a Customer’s Email With Respect?
To Lock or Not to Lock Customers (into CRM Journeys)
What the Efforts to Promote Responsible Gaming Look Like Form the Inside
So, here’s my response:
Dear Amazon Prime Video,
I have received your letter and do appreciate you taking the time to reach out to me. However, I do wonder at your inability to match the personalized envelopes with a letter that would address the recipient by name.
The real reason I don’t use Prime Video is because there is nothing on there that I would want to see. Let me correct that. There are a few movies that have caught my eye, but they all require another paid subscription on top of Amazon Prime. In other words, they would not be included free with my membership.
As with any business, don’t assume people aren’t using your service simply because they don’t know about it. Consider the possibility that your service doesn’t meet their needs or interests.
Thank you,
Ariella Brown
What Amazon got right
It is using a variety of channels to communicate with customers. It sends me emails all the time, but rightly, assumed that a letter in the mail would get my attention.
It also may have me in the segment of customers who do not allow contact via SMS and so figured that I’m more of a letter kind of person. That is correct, as well.
While this is the first letter I can recall getting from Amazon, it’s not a new tactic. I did a search on this and found it mentioned a year ago on Reddit:
The letter shared on Reddit is almost identical to the one I received a year later. There are very slight differences, primarily in the movie titles. Other than that, I see a different order for the specific shows listed.
My guess is that these are responses to shifts in what’s most popular now versus what was most popular a year ago. So, while the letters aren’t all that targeting, they are using the marketing strategy of bringing to light what most customers are interested in.
One of the comments on the Reddit post indicate that Amazon must find the physical letters effective in bringing certain features to people’s attention. This one said, “I watch prime video all the time. They sent a snail mail letter about using Amazon music.”
The lesson here for all marketers is that even if you’re selling something digital, old-school approaches may work to get the attention of certain customers. It won’t necessarily convert all of us (as in my case). But it does register enough for us to read rather than just zap and even share the letter with others.