Email Marketing's Unsung Hero

Author

Max Sturtevant
March 21, 2024

Hello beautiful email folk.

Max from The Inbox Newsletter.

Feeling good today - copious amounts of caffeine are coursing through my veins.

Let’s talk about email’s unsung hero

The Problem

The problem with many emails is that there is just way too much going on.

The customer has a fried attention span. They aren’t going to read or want to open boatloads of information in any email.

They get overwhelmed.

And they don’t read any of it.

Plus, writing a sales letter with 100+ words can increase sales resistance.

When someone opens an email they KNOW you are trying to sell them.

By going overboard, you make it seem like the only way you CAN make sales is by spending forever trying to justify why the customer should buy.

Rather than just simply stating it.

A similar principle can be applied to email design.

If you’re way over the top, you’ll be distracting the customer from your true CTAs and selling points.

The simpler your design is, generally the better your emails perform.

The Solution

Luckily, there is a way to overcome these issues in your email marketing.

Remove all friction and get straight to the point.

It’s with Text-Based Emails.

You’ve probably heard of them, but they genuinely don’t get enough praise.

Text based emails are precisely how they sound - no pictures, just words.

And the emails show up in the customer’s native inbox provider’s email format, so when they open it it will look like it’s coming from a friend.

Personal touch + simplicity + transparency = 💸 💸

The best part is that the text based emails will stand out in the inbox.

While everybody is going crazy with designs, colors, etc…

You stand alone.

Not many ecom brands utilize these enough

Tips for High-Converting Text-Based Emails

  • Keep it under 100 words

  • Use the font “Arial” to make sure it looks as native to email platform as possible

  • Only use 1-2 main CTAs

  • Instead of a faceless brand, make it from the founder so it’s more personal

    • Make sure to use the founder’s name in the Sender Name section when you send the email

  • Add a “PS” section with a “My personal recommendation”

Text-Based Email Training

Shameless plug - I just uploaded a 4:22 long YouTube training on text-based emails.

I went over a bad text-based email and how I’d improve it.

Email Inspiration Of The Day

Brand:
Magic Spoon

Notes:

Wow. Look at how beautiful that is.

66 words of straight business.

No fluff, no nothing.

I imagine that got an amazing ridiculous click rate on this.

Keep your text based emails this simple and you will be rewarded

Left Variation

This was a branded text-based email. This means it was NOT in the native inbox format.

The email was 90% text based, but it had the brand logo at the top of the email, it had a picture of the founder, and then a picture of a couple products at the bottom.

Right Variation

Same copy as the left variation but a pure text based email.

It loaded in native to the inbox format and included nothing but words.

Test Insights

One could argue that the left variation was more personal because it contained a photo of the founder.

However, that email doesn't show up native in the inbox format and doesn’t look like it’s coming from a friend or colleague.

It looks like this factor of “native inbox” is more important than having “text based” emails.

Good to note!

Reply to this email if you have any questions or further content you want covered.

Cheers,

Max

PS - New massive doc on non-discount campaign strategies releasing soon 👀 Reply to this email “gimme dat” and I’ll personally send it to you today…