When you hear the word “sauna,” what’s the first thing that comes to mind?
Sweat.
Heat.
Recovery, maybe…
That’s what a normal person would say anyway.
I’m Estonian, and when someone brings up the word “sauna,” here’s what comes to my mind first:
Suffering.
Devil’s Airbnb.
Torture.
It’s kinda funny, actually.
You haven’t really been in a sauna until you’ve experienced it the Estonian or Finnish way.
The “suffer until your ears bleed” kind of way…
Here in Spain, when you go to a sauna, it’s usually people chilling in 60-70°.
Every time I step into one of those “infernos,” my mind goes:
“YoU dOn’T kNow wHaT a rEaL sAuNa iS bRo.”
Anyway, today we’re looking at an email campaign from Sauna House.
If your brand has a blog, and you want to feature your articles in your email marketing strategy, this is an example of how to do it.
We’ll break it all down, but first:
What is Emails That Sell?
Each week, I break down an email from a DTC e-commerce brand. Some of these brands are absolutely killing it when it comes to email marketing.
My goal with this series is to challenge conventional email marketing. Expect to learn different copywriting techniques, sales psychology, and consumer behavior — everything that moves you away from hard-selling discount campaigns and other mass-market tactics.
If you have an email you want me to break down, send it over to me on LinkedIn or at marketing@siimpettai.com.
Let’s get into it now:
Visually, it looks great.
A simple logo header.
A headline that promises a benefit.
A clear CTA.
If there’s one thing, I think you could go one layer deeper with the benefit.
Why do people want to boost their immune system?
Probably to be healthy and stay illness-free.
Here’s what that would look like:
Boost your immune system → Don’t be the one stuck in bed with a sore throat
Essentially, what you’re doing is getting your readers to think past the sale and imagine what their life looks like AFTER they’ve experienced the benefits.
It’s called dimensionalizing – a technique I learned from my mentor Chris Orzechowski.
Let’s look at the bridge section:
I LOVE what they’ve done here…
Partnering with a Doctor is smart.
It increases authority, which is one of the persuasion principles.
Another great thing is that they’ve written the tips IN the email.
What a lot of brands do is just tease the topic and send users to a blog.
I think that’s so impersonal.
When you email your friend, you don’t tell them to “click the link to learn more,” do you?
Make your content easy to consume.
Onwards…
Addressing an objection is smart.
I’m paraphrasing, but Claude Hopkins said something along the lines of:
Preventing a problem is never as sexy as fixing it.
It’s much tougher to sell acne prevention cream to someone with flawless skin than it is to someone who is suffering from severe acne.
An email about boosting your immune system will naturally catch the attention of people who are already ill.
Pain is the ultimate trigger.
And so I think addressing the question “Should you use Sauna or Cold Plunge when Sick?” is a smart move.
To finish, they’ve delivered a conclusion and a CTA:
Every blog feature email should have a TL;DR.
Not only is it a better reading experience, it makes the email skimmable.
And even if they don’t click through, they’re still getting something valuable from the email.
If you care about delivering great email content, that’s a pretty good habit to build.
To recap:
TL;DR
Key takeaway #1: Dimensionalize product benefits.
Key takeaway #2: Don’t direct users to your blog — write a longer email.
Key takeaway #3: Preventing a problem is never as sexy as fixing it.
Key takeaway #4: Pain is the ultimate trigger.
Key takeaway #5: Have a conclusion or TL;DR.
Key takeaway #6: Make it skimmable.
What’s next
Go take a sauna. It’s good for you.
If you live in the US, book it through Sauna House. I’m not sure if you’ll get the Estonian experience, but it looks fun either way.
If you haven’t already, subscribe to my email list to get every Emails That Sell analysis plus my weekly newsletter.
