For several years I’ve encouraged my BFFs to study and join the Maker’s Mark Ambassador program. It’s a great case study of creating the club everyone wants to be a member of, a great way to be Uncopyable. You might be in that club because of something I said!
On July 14, I received an email from Rob Samuels, a Grandson of the Founders, and Managing Director for Maker’s Mark. You can read the entire email by clicking here.
It is an exceptionally brilliant marketing piece, for multiple reasons.
The subject line grabs the attention of every Maker’s Mark Ambassador:
“ACTION REQUIRED: The 2022 Ambassador Gift”
This is a great example of what I’ve been teaching for years – Next Step Marketing. Whenever you communicate or have an engagement with your moose, what is the easiest, brain-dead next step you can get them take? In the case of emails, for example, the next step is you want them to OPEN the email. That’s it. That’s the entire objective of your Subject Line. Period. This Subject Line first helps the receiver to self-identify as one of Maker’s Mark’s top moose. You are a member of their Ambassador club, and they need you to do something for them. So, you open the email.
Rob begins by reminding Ambassadors how their annual gift has become a true tradition in the Maker’s Mark community. It sure has! Every holiday, those of my BFFs who are also Ambassadors, start chatting up their excitement about what this year’s gift will be. Being an Ambassador and getting a cool holiday gift makes you a member of the Cool Kids.
Rob then asks, “Do you wish to receive your 2022 Ambassador gift?”
Whoa! What? Do I want my gift? Heck, yeah, I do!
But maybe there are a number of people who don’t really care anymore. Rob shares about being a Certified B Corporation™, whose goal is to limit environmental impact when they can. If some people don’t care if they get the gift, this could be a good place for Maker’s mark to reinforce that objective! Don’t mail stuff that’s just going straight to trash!
The rest of the message explains how I can help. If I do want the gift, all I must do is go to my Ambassador account page and click a button. If I don’t go to the site by July 19, 2022, they will assume I don’t want the gift. Next step.
Brilliant! For so many reasons.
They are letting us know that Maker’s Mark has set the objective of lowering their impact on the environment. That’s the obvious thing, right? They are good guys and it’s smart to let us know.
Ah, but there’s more.
- They’re cleaning their moose list. An engaged Ambassador is a very important asset to the company, so why not try to identify them?.
- It creates engagement. Engaged Ambassadors connect with other engaged Ambassadors.
- Ambassadors are proud to be in the club, which they show by drinking Marker’s Mark at home and when out. This reminds us.
- Ambassadors talk to bartenders about being an Ambassador.
- Ambassadors give Maker’s Mark to their friends.
- By going to the site and confirming I want my gift. I’m saying I’m a real moose. I’ve raised my hand to say, “Yes, I want to hear more from you.”
- Rob has also built anticipation. Holy cow, it’s mid-Summer and Rob is already talking about the holidays. I can’t wait to see what they’re sending this year!
- Without saying in specific words, Rob has reminded me of my role as an Ambassador.
- Rob is creating a potential FOMO situation.
- I haven’t heard from Maker’s Mark in a while, but what a great way to re-engage!
- Next time I’m walking through Total Wine & More, guess what’s going to be top of mind?
Let’s play with some numbers. I have no idea how many people are in the Ambassador program. I’ve been a member since 2008, so it’s been around a while. Do you think they have 10,000 members? Let’s go with that.
Now let’s use the 80/20 Rule and decide 20% of those members go online to confirm they want to receive the holiday gift.
That’s 2000 people. Doesn’t sound like a lot, but I’m betting those of us on that list will spend big, if given a good reason. I’ll bet Rob has plans for those 2000 people. He can now send extremely targeted offers (ne: high ticket) to us.
And if he doesn’t do any of this, well…
Hope Rob reads this.
