Pigeon mail vs Email

Do you think there were marketing pigeons?

Pigeons carrying messages like 'Ramu merchant has returned with the finest silks from China! Get them at 5 gold coins!'

And clickbait pigeons?

Pigeons with a nice big red gem tied around their necks to entice people into opening it?

And what if you wanted to unsubscribe - did you feed the pigeon bad worms so it stops coming?

(I fact checked: There were no marketing pigeons)

---

Humans invented writing so we could send messages without the barriers of space and time. With all our inventions and technology, we kept pushing the boundaries so much; that today at the tap of a finger I can talk to someone on the other side of the globe. Seamlessly.

Because of this seamlessness, what was once fascinating is now routine (and also quite annoying).

We have infinite channels of communication at our disposal today. All of them clogged with advertisements and content.

Maybe the best way to stand out is to actually send a pigeon. But that's not feasible, is it? Instead, we're gonna speculate on how to bring the magic of pigeon mail into email marketing.

---

Pigeon mail was written for you by someone, and the message was very important. After all, they sent a whole pigeon to seek you.

Now, let's look at emails. All of us ignore a lot of emails everyday. Let's think about the emails we ignore and the emails we open. Why do we open emails from our boss or transactional messages from the bank, but not 'Happy Diwali from your favourite sweet shop' emails? For the same reasons- they're personalised and important.

This becomes very important in B2B marketing. The personalisation is what makes the receiver look at the email in the first place, and it's importance or value makes them attribute some significance to it.

A B2B purchase is nothing like impulsively ordering a dessert. A lot is at stake, a lot of people are involved - so logic is stronger than emotion.

Plus, emails are considered professional mediums of communication, which is ideal for logic-driven business purchase decisions.

That means, for B2B emails to perform well, they need:

1. Personalisation

2. Perceived value

---

First, how do we personalise emails while doing outreach? It's more than {{first name}}. The message has to be composed for them.

We segment the target audience into groups. Each group's needs differ.

Some prefer short, straight to-the-point content, some prefer details (to feel like this person knows what they're talking about). Some people would watch a video, some would rather skim through a report; some would want to explore our offerings digitally before reaching out or looping their team, some would call directly.

It's like how you would write the same Diwali invite differently for friends, cousins and relatives.

Second, how do we make it important and valuable? First, we ask ourselves, 'would we send a pigeon for this?'

If the answer is no, either we have the wrong audience, or the message needs more value. The communication has to address their specific needs and pain points. The mail has to be about something they care for, and the message itself needs to have value i.e. it should convey important information, or give them a useful insight or resource.

---

Is that enough to make an email feel like it came with a pigeon? Maybe not.

A group of zeroes and ones cannot emulate a living bird. Email will always be a cold medium of communication compared to pigeons.

However, we can make it a room-temperature email instead of a cold one ;)

And at scale, it'll work just as good as pigeons.