Getting your emails read is really tricky.
Your subscribers are flooded with promotional emails every single day.
If your email hero section doesn’t grab attention immediately, the rest of your email won’t even matter.
In case you don’t know what a hero section is, it’s the top part of the designed email your reader sees immediately.
That’s assuming your email are visual/design-heavy.
If you write direct response emails, this doesn’t apply to you.
Anyway…
Learning how to write/design a strong email hero section is one of the most important email marketing skills you can master.
In this breakdown, I’ll show you how protein bar brand David absolutely nails their hero section and why it works so well.
Let’s dive in.
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:
Contrary to popular belief, nailing the email hero section is actually really simple.
An effective hero consists of three elements:
- Headline → to hook the attention of the reader
- Sub-heading → to add context to the heading and create desire
- Call to action → to direct users to the offer
That’s it.
Your headline hooks the reader.
Your sub-heading creates desire.
Your call to action directs readers to the offer.
If you want to spice up your hooks, ask yourself this question:
“Am I saying things my competitors can’t?”
It’s the most simple marketing test on the planet.
If the answer is no, you probably need to do some editing.
But if the answer is a resounding yes, your chances of selling go up dramatically.
In this email, David calls itself “The most effective protein bar on this planet.”
It’s a bold claim that passes the one-question test.
They then elaborate in the sub-heading:
“David packs the most protein for the fewest calories for any bar on the planet, making it the ultimate tool for building muscle and losing fat.”
This is great because it communicates the USP (most protein for fewest calories) and promises a benefit (build muscle and lose fat).
I also love that they’ve included nutritional information.
Anyone in the market for a protein bar is interested in:
- How much protein does it have?
- How many calories does it have?
- How much sugar does it contain?
28g protein – check.
150 calories – check.
0g sugar – check.
If I were to nitpick a little, I would make the CTA button a bit bigger.
I would also remove the “Shop all” button and just have the David logo in the middle.
Navigation buttons in the header are usually a distraction. I prefer displaying them in the footer.
Now, onto my main critique for this email:
It’s missing a bridge section.
All the setup was done in the hero section to include an Us vs Them table.
How much protein/calories is in David compared to other popular protein bars?
They actually have something similar on their website:
A visual comparison table would have taken this email campaign from an 8/10 to a 10/10.
It would’ve really drove the USP home if you put David vs Barebells vs Quest inside the email.
Anyway, let’s look at the product/footer section:
Highlighting one specific product (typically a best-seller) here is smart.
I also like the creamy peanut butter background.
Again, one thing I would’ve done here is highlight the CTA button a bit more.
There isn’t much going on in the footer unfortunately.
I know they’ve added social media links, but I think a navigation bar with “Subscribe and save” and “Bundle builder” buttons could be a way to increase click rates.
Either way, great job David.
To recap:
TL;DR
Key takeaway #1: Your hero section is the most important part
Key takeaway: #2 Make a bold claim in your headline.
Key takeaway #3: Ask: “Am I saying things my competitors can’t?”
Key takeaway #4: Make CTA buttons visible.
Key takeaway #5: Highlight your USP visually.
Key takeaway #6: Add a navigation bar in the footer to increase clicks.
What’s next
Go buy a David protein bar. Or at least get on their email list, since it seems they’re sold out.
If you haven’t already, subscribe to my email list to get every Emails That Sell analysis plus my weekly newsletter.
