Uber-Powerful Marketing
For those of you who know me, you know that I am an avid Uber user and advocate. Uber allows you to get a taxi, private car or rideshare from your mobile phone, connecting you with a driver in minutes. The venture-funded company has only been around for four years and is already in over 130 cities worldwide. Uber’s revenue is doubling every six months!
Besides having a great “product” and providing fantastic service, Uber owes a large part of its success to its marketing. Uber’s ubiquity makes them highly visible, but I think that what’s helped them grow the most is their word of mouth/social marketing, email and strong cross-promotional marketing.
Referral Marketing
My Facebook friends and Twitter followers are probably tired of seeing my weekly “Use my Uber promo code, rzafo, and get $30 off your first Uber ride” post (hint: use my Uber code!). Every time I receive a promotional email from Uber saying my next ride is free or that a friend used my code and now I have $30 credited to my account, I share my code on social media even more. I’ve had a few people ask me if I work for Uber, and I suppose in a way I do. Uber succeeds by having their customers promote for them. Referral marketing is a clever tactic if you can make it work for you – a 2010 study showed customers who had been referred were more profitable, more loyal, and had a lower acquisition cost than non-referred customers.
Email Marketing
One of my favorite things about Uber is their marketing emails, which is unusual for me. I am normally one to scroll right to the bottom and click “Unsubscribe.” All of Uber’s emails feature the following characteristics:
- Easy to read
- Consistent template
- Clean and simple design
- Clear messaging
- Social sharing buttons
- Embedded links to promotional landing pages
Although these elements make Uber’s emails visually appealing, they aren’t what makes me open and fully read the emails I receive. What’s the first thing you notice about an email? For me it’s the subject line. When I’ve gone a month or two without taking an Uber ride, that’s when I notice a promotion in my email inbox, subject line reading: “Your free ride awaits you.” A free Uber ride? I’m in!
Good email marketing will write a compelling subject line, and personalize the message. Uber uses my first name in the first three preview lines of their emails, and because they know my purchase history, they can tailor their offers based on my preferences.
And if I haven’t taken an Uber ride in a while, they’ve got a drip campaign set up to lure back inactive users.
Cross Promotional Marketing
Around Mother’s Day, Uber executed an email campaign saying they were partnering with nail salons to pick up Mom and allow her to indulge in the ultimate Mother’s Day with a personal driver to get a manicure. Cross-promoting with other businesses allows them to reach new customer bases. This is a two way road – Uber customers will want to get manicures, and nail salon customers will want to take Uber. Brainstorm for a few minutes and think of other companies that you would like to partner with – who’s customer base would you like to reach out to?
Take a few of these points and try them in your next marketing campaign. Successful marketers know that the key is testing; send slightly altered versions of the same message to segmented groups and observe the responses. When you find what gets the best results, keep doing it!
To learn how to get more out of your marketing budget, you can reach me at sengel@g1440.com or by phone 410-843-3826.
Sarah Engel is a Marketing Consultant at G.1440 who joined the team after graduating from Towson University with degrees in Business Administration and Electronic Business. She’s an infographic nut and a forever-long Apple fan. When she’s not behind one of her Apple devices, she is often found volunteering with her dog King, or heading to the beach for the weekend.