Here’s one of these funny discoveries made on Facebook. I saw a friend of mine had posted a hilarious news headline and thought I’d try it out. It’s actually not far away from what I’d be proud of accomplishing in life. Stimulating happiness. Right up my alley. Preferably not with a pill though.

Now down to a bit more serious stuff. The app asks for access to my Facebook profile and other information. It gives me an option to choose if I want to edit the information I share with the app. This is already a respectful gesture with the possibility for people to opt-out. When I chose “edit info” I arrive to a page which says that sharing my basic profile info is obligatory – which is fine. And there is a box that let’s me un-tick sharing my email address. So I do. The app starts to process my profile info and turns it into a funny headline that I can share with my friends. I love it. As I mentioned earlier, it’s extremely accurate to my dreams. An app that enhances my dreams and let’s me communicate it in a funny way to my friends and family.

Why is the App Developed?

Most likely this app has been developed as a marketing initiative to either create awareness and/or gather email addresses for a database. The company behind might be working on a release of a product and takes the opportunity to find leads early on.

There are many ways to find leads. Some more common ones are the creation of lead generation Landing Pages. My all-time favorite is Instapage. Instapage lets you create a beautiful landing page with a sign up form. The landing page itself should have the objective to provide value to the user and intrigue him or her to “sign up” or “learn more”. It goes without saying that the strategy and creative process behind the landing page will be vital for success.

Email Marketing

Another great example I recently stumbled upon is Falcon Social. They also send emails every now and then. Two things I noticed:

1. The emails add value to me. Advice about for example social media or online monitoring with subject lines like: “Using social to stay ahead of your competition”. They never say: WE have launched a new product. Or WE have this and that. They always approach me with meaning.
2. The frequency of emails are not regular. Is frequency important? Yes and no. With clients we generally decide to have emails sent once per week or once per month. The same for Social Media posts – we take a decision to post once per day. Sometimes we manage to have a fabulous calendar and it’s all planned. But more often, we struggle to find the content which we know will add value. We struggle because content with meaning takes time and dedication to knowing and truly listening to your audience. So is it more important to post a social update or send emails regularly than sharing content with meaning? No. In the case of Falcon Social, the emails are sent irregularly. It can take one week in between them. It can take 2 weeks. There is no particular day when I receive the email. But I, as a user, will never notice “Oh, it’s Tuesday today, I should be receiving an email from Falcon Social”. or “Oh, it seems they didn’t send me an email this week”. Because more often, I tend to ignore emails arriving in my inbox for a marketing purpose rather an attempt to communicate with me. Decisions on frequency is good because it helps to organize the team internally, but it should be flexible and allow room for the e-mail marketing coordinator or social media coordinator to adapt when needed.

I received an email the other day from Falcon Social with the subject line “Learn how customers experience your brand and how you can optimize it—video.”

The subject line has “learn”, “optimize” and “video”. I’m sold. They use video to share their knowledge. And judging by the screenshot of the video, the guy looks pretty honest. It looks authentic.

I click on the video and arrive on a page to sign up. My first thought is “Woot? I thought I’d be able to watch the video”.

But when I read the headline and the value they can bring me by signing up – I choose to join. Here they are asking me for a few more details regarding my business. They already have my email address and send me regular updates. But this is their chance to learn more about me and address me with customized solutions. So in essence, this is a well thought lead generation process and landing page. They make an effort to bring me meaning while having the objective to woo me in as a customer. Pretty good job.

Coming Back to the Funny App 

The app may be “Light-hearted”, but it gives me meaning. And this is what is exciting about Marketing with Meaning. It has a range of options. Small and light-hearted or big and bold. Falcon Social is touching the big and bold part of the scale as they are adding knowledge (value) to my business.

What do you think of these kind of humorous, “light-hearted” apps for lead generation? And what is your email marketing strategy?