Unless you’ve been living under a rock, or have somehow managed to tune out the news (good luck with that), you’ve probably gained at least a passing familiarity with what the world has lovingly come to know as “crypto”. If you’re like most people though, that familiarity quickly degenerates into less than certainty when asked about it.

Even seasoned marketing veterans stumble a bit, and rightly so. Is it an asset? Is it a technology? Add NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) to the mix, and the grey areas get even greyer.

But without getting into the weeds of decentralized ledgers, encryption, and tokens just yet, suffice it to say that “crypto” equals “money”, money that has no intrinsic value, money that has no physical form, and money that has no connection to a central bank, but money all the same. And who cares if it sits on an uber-complex technology or has potential regulatory implications?

Certainly not retailers.

In fact, according to a report jointly conducted by PYMNTS and BitPay in which they surveyed 202 merchants with annual online sales of $250M plus, forty-six percent accept cryptocurrency as a legitimate form of payment. Companies earning $1B come in at a whopping 85%, while smaller merchants or those earning less than $250M come in at 23%.

But is the market ready for crypto-based rewards?

Apparently so, and that’s not such a bad thing.

While there are a lot of people out there that only marginally understand the technology behind crypto (aka the blockchain), it doesn’t take a mad scientist to appreciate that retailers see the value in it, or at least the advantages of extending crypto as a payment method.

But rewards? Sure, why not.

Loyalty programs have been around for ages, after all. American traders were doling out copper pieces to their loyal customers as early as the 1790s. And Green Stamps…remember those little guys? Sperry & Hutchinson were handing these out like candy decades before “digital” even came on the scene, and they were just a stamp having no more bank recognition than crypto today. As digital currencies take our imaginations (and our wallets), is it any stretch that customers could, and should, get rewards in Ether, Bitcoin, or some other stablecoin?

A Good Fit for Everyone

By offering crypto rewards, businesses overcome a laundry list of issues inherent to the traditional setup. Customers no longer need to register for some tacked-on “rewards program”, or create some special account to participate, and there are no weird geographical limitations or limited availabilities.

The blockchain changes all that, not only healing a horribly fractured and fragmented rewards market but also making things like keeping track of points and allocations much, much easier on the customer. As customers’ rewards are tokenized on the blockchain, they become free to use anywhere, even at another company—anywhere that accepts the same crypto as a form of payment. And just like that, customers are being rewarded for being customers, not just at some random sporting goods outfit out of Last Chance, Iowa, or trendy little coffee shop next to the Pilates studio, but everywhere—throughout the entire consumer ecosystem. Not bad, huh?

Even better, moving to blockchain allows everyone involved, from the program providers and administrators to the end customer, to interact under one base system without a bunch of intermediaries to compromise the privacy or competitiveness of the other.

Something Techy, Something New

No doubt loyalty rewards programs are here to stay, but beyond the niceties of the “shop anywhere” experience, or the ease of managing a crypto program, there remain other very real benefits to the blockchain approach.

It’s cheaper to manage. Yes, there are some upfront expenses on the business side, but they are far outweighed by the savings, particularly when it comes to maintaining customer data and managing the loyalty program’s budget.
It’s more secure than traditional methods. Blockchain records every single transaction to a distributed database, making every exchange not only traceable but also irreversible, preventing double spending, fraud, and any other means of blatant abuse.
It builds even more loyalty. Customers can redeem some or all of their tokens for a variety of uses, but because points are “in crypto”, they can even sell their stake for other digital currencies (or fiat currencies through their digital wallet).
It’s Lightning Fast. Transactions can be recorded and accessed by multiple parties in practically real-time, helping coordinators to credit points and manage transactions faster than traditional means.

Bottom line, companies looking to crypto have a tremendous opportunity to improve their bottom line while offering something catchy and cool to a whole new market comprised of people who can’t get enough crypto, and people who are quickly learning that crypto might actually be worth feeling enthusiastic about.

But There Are Some Potential Drawbacks

Crypto rewards are not without limitations. For all the perceived benefits to customers and the company, many brands struggle with the inability to control the flow of investment, or rather, the timing of such an investment. The idea of a customer (much fewer millions of them) amassing some sizeable hoard of crypto and then having the value of that crypto tank, is frankly terrifying. What’s the point of rewards if they can vanish overnight? How can the company possibly maintain its brand promise, while going back on everything it so positively spun?

And even if the value of the crypto holds, how does the company know what coin(s) to offer? With the adoption of a single currency like Bitcoin or Ether, customers could easily feel trapped by their options, especially when it comes to spending said currency with other “crypto-friendly outfits that might not accept that particular coinage. Unable to use their rewards, customers would be forced to convert to fiat currency defeating the whole idea of universal flexibility and pretty much undermining the program altogether.

And then of course there are taxes. Companies offering crypto rewards pass on a tax responsibility to their customers. In fact, reward recipients are responsible for reporting all cryptocurrency or fiat currency made, even if only a single, solitary dollar. The fact that crypto users can be assessed capital gains on trades, and even additional fees every time they redeem their rewards, can be a harsh reality, and a sobering wakeup call when it comes to how rewards are optioned.

But that friends, is another topic entirely.

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Spire’s Mike Stopper Extols the Value of the Newsletter

Spire Agency Posted On November 21, 2022

For some, the thought of an email newsletter for B2B marketing might seem outdated. Perhaps it’s because they have seen the tremendous changes in social media marketing, like the use of hashtags, stories, highlights, and live videos. Or maybe they simply see newsletters as promotional and boring, or even a waste of time.

But if we’ve learned anything during the pandemic, it’s the need for strong remote selling tools. At one point, we were not allowed to be face-to-face with customers because of shelter-in-place. And then at another point, prospects began to prefer shopping on their own terms and without contacting sales. So, as you continue planning for the new year, why not plan on integrating a newsletter into your B2B marketing mix to consistently stay in front of customers?

The Spire Wire, our agency newsletter, is an important way in which we keep our own clients, prospects, and employees engaged in our agency. It’s filled with news, stories, events, employee profiles, account wins, B2B stats, white papers, and even our #SpireOnSpotify playlists. For at least one day a month, we know our agency becomes a priority for this group as the newsletter hits their inbox. And we know these stories help drive not only agency awareness, but also traffic to our website.

A newsletter is a digital 1:1 meeting with your consumers. It’s personal and intimate, and professional and effective at the same time. Ignoring the potential of a newsletter, or believing they are “old school,” can restrict B2B brands from growth. A newsletter opens the door with news and updates to help further your reach, generate leads, increase user engagement and increase conversions.

That said, you should approach every newsletter with the explicit intention of providing your audience with immediate value. Ideally, your newsletter will motivate your customers to take some form of action, such as:

Read your latest blog post or news story
Sign up for an upcoming event
Check out a new case study
Visit you at a trade show
Watch a video
Learn more about a new product or service
Take part in a prize drawing, giveaway, or offer
Buy something from your online store

According to Statista, there are 3.9 billion daily email users, a number expected to climb to 4.3 billion by 2023. What’s even more impressive is that 58% of us start our day by checking email, according to OptinMonster. With 91% of all U.S. consumers still using email daily, newsletters are one of the most efficient ways to put your products in front of your customers.

In fact, according to the Content Marketing Institute, 74% of content marketers say that emails (such as newsletters) are the most successful way of helping their businesses reach their specific conversion goals. They also found that 40% of B2B marketers claim that email newsletters are the most important tactic in their content marketing strategy, and 31% say that sending email newsletters is the best way to nurture leads. And email is 4% better at converting than social media, which is why 4 out of 5 marketers stated they would rather give up social media than email marketing, according to HubSpot.

As with any other email campaign, there are several main email marketing metrics to keep in mind when tracking the success of your newsletter:

Open rate
Click-through rate
Engagement level
Bounce rate
Unsubscribe rate

For a newsletter to be effective, marketing and sales need to work together on ensuring a steady stream of news and insights. Without it, brands tend to struggle in generating consistent, impactful content. But when done well, there are five benefits that can result from a successful newsletter initiative.

1. Building Relationships

Simply by signing up for a newsletter, a current customer or prospect is giving you permission to communicate with them regularly, provided your information is of value. This is the beginning of an ongoing relationship that will strengthen with time.

“Signing up is a powerful signal of intent to buy. Send them an email until they do.”

– Jordie van Rijn, Online Marketing Consultant

That’s because newsletters provide a great opportunity to connect with your audience and show that you care. In a report by Salesforce, 84% of customers said that being treated like a person, rather than just a number, was an integral factor in winning their business. This goes to show that connecting with your audience on a personal level shouldn’t just be a bonus, but a necessity for growing your business. An easy and effective way to connect with them consistently with valuable information and not just a sales push.

Readers enjoy receiving real, raw thoughts from a brand or business they love. Done right, using newsletters to connect with your customers can ultimately translate to a more loyal and valued customer base.

2. Establishing Credibility

Using your newsletters to curate news updates, industry insights, and thought-leadership pieces can be a great way to engage your subscribers and add interest beyond your brand or business. By including summaries of news stories and linking out to reputable sources, you can instantly offer information that’s compelling, digestible, and relevant in an easy-to-read, bite-sized format.

To put together a must-read newsletter that captivates your customers every time, make sure you’re creating or curating content that’s relevant to them. Whether it be through instructional content or how-to articles that help them accomplish a goal, listicles that provide them with a collection of tips, trends, or products, or roundups that recap your company’s recent news, accomplishments, or updates, using your newsletter in this way is a great digital marketing tactic to repurpose content that already exists and package it up in a way that’s truly valuable. And done consistently, customers begin to rely on your ongoing content to make them smarter in their business life.

3. Deepening Brand Understanding

Every marketer knows that the key to any successful campaign is a strong and recognizable brand, and a big element of developing a brand is coherent, consistent, and compelling storytelling. Newsletters present the perfect vehicle to share your brand story, add depth to your business, and show your customers who you are and what you stand for. By revealing little snippets about what your brand is all about, what goes on behind the scenes, where you came from and how you came to be, your audience will stop seeing your business as a faceless entity and start paying attention to the real people involved.

“Products are made in the factory, but brands are created in the mind.”

– Walter Landor, Designer and Online Marketing Pioneer

Instead of using your newsletter to push products (you can use targeted ecommerce emails for that), try sharing inspiring customer stories and testimonials, mini profiles on your employees, words of wisdom from your founders or company executives, or even infographics showing business impact. Readers will enjoy the fact that your newsletter is more than just an advertisement for products. And the more they get to know who you really are, the more their loyalty to your business will grow.

4. Sharing of Knowledge

As stated before, one of the best things about newsletters is that they help brands stay in front of customers. But they can also help sales stay in front of customers.

The news, insights, stats, and information found in newsletters all become things your sales force can post on LinkedIn and other business platforms. Sharing these articles with the leads keeps a salesperson top-of-mind with the customer base, but without being too salesy.

More than half (55%) of decision-makers on LinkedIn use thought leadership to determine which organization to work with. What’s more, 20% of investors say that it’s the best platform when you want to learn about a topic. The content of your newsletter becomes a vessel for the sales team to bolster that thought leadership among decision-makers.

5. Generating Sales

We’ve all heard of the 80/20 rule. But for B2B, it’s more of the 95/5 rule, which shows that 95% of your potential buyers aren’t ready to buy today. These 95% are “out-market” today, but will be “in-market” sometime in the future. A newsletter helps you fill that 95% gap, and helps close that 5% sales opportunity.

According to Pagely, emails are said to prompt three times more purchases than social media posts, with their average order value also being 17% higher. A study by Campaign Monitor found that for every $1 that businesses spend on email campaigns, they can potentially see $44 in return. That’s why 80% of professionals say they continue using email marketing because it grows both customer acquisition and retention, according to Insider Intelligence and eMarketer.

“Never forget social media is for reach but email is for revenue.”

– Bryan Eisenberg, Marketing Author

So, how do you get started on publishing your first newsletter in the new year? Many major CRMs (HubSpot, Constant Contact, Mailchimp, and Emma, for example) have pre-made templates to get you started on creating a professional-looking newsletter, no matter what industry or niche you’re targeting. Now all you need is the content and a database of customers. Start with a few stories and perhaps a stat or two in your first newsletter and build from there. Once you have a mindset of finding stories, the content becomes easier to generate and your newsletter becomes even more effective.

Before the ball drops, don’t drop the ball on implementing an effective newsletter program. Newsletters have evolved to be a crucial tactic in a successful B2B marketing plan, and when executed well, they can truly increase your brand presence and boost your sales. As your business weighs which channels to utilize in the new year, we hope we’ve made the case to include newsletters as part of your marketing strategy.

And to stay up to date on Spire news, awards, and blog posts, don’t forget to subscribe to our Spire Wire newsletter.

Mike Stopper is Executive Vice President of Client Service and Planning at Spire and AAF Dallas’ most-awarded account director for the last eight years.

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Simple Media’s Rob Ewing Muses on Loyalty Gone Crypto: How the Blockchain Keeps ‘Em Coming

But is the market ready for crypto-based rewards?

A Good Fit for Everyone

Something Techy, Something New

But There Are Some Potential Drawbacks

Rob Ewing

Spire’s Mike Stopper Extols the Value of the Newsletter

1. Building Relationships

“Signing up is a powerful signal of intent to buy. Send them an email until they do.”

2. Establishing Credibility

3. Deepening Brand Understanding

“Products are made in the factory, but brands are created in the mind.”

4. Sharing of Knowledge

5. Generating Sales

“Never forget social media is for reach but email is for revenue.”

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