My favorite book on storytelling is “Storyworthy” by Matthew Dicks.
Matthew describes stories as 5-second transformational moments where the main character goes through a belief change.
Yet, in eCommerce email marketing, most story-based emails don’t have any transformations at all.
Matthew calls these types of stories anecdotes.
So this time, we’re looking at an anecdote email by Hostage Tape.
The reason why I’m including this in the Emails that Sell series is because it’s a great example of coming up with an entertaining, funny, and wildly persuasive campaign out of nowhere.
All you have to do is know your target audience, paint a vivid picture of their pain, and frame your product as the solution.
Let’s jump right in…
Subject line: “It gives me the ick”
Key takeaways:
- Plain text emails risk the reader opening the email and going “seems kinda long, should I read it?” Adding the reading time can help you pass the “effort test.”
- Short, lowercase subject lines that promise a story are a surefire way to stand out in the inbox.
- Sometimes, the people on your email list aren’t the ones who suffer from the problem. They’re the ones who have to deal with the consequences.
- Set the scene with facts: “I was waiting in line for coffee this morning when I overheard two women in front of me” immediately paints the picture for the reader.
- Introduce conflict to raise the stakes of the story: “I know I shouldn’t be mad at him.”
- Study platforms like Reddit to find stories/phrases/words which are relatable to your target audience. “I’m grumpy every morning” or “I used to be a freaking morning person!” sounds exactly like something someone sleeping with a heavy snorer would say.
- Add links throughout the email to increase CTR. Don’t assume the reader will read until the end.
- Bold the most important line in the email “I’m not gonna listen to him snore for the rest of my life.”
- The email does a great job of fighting objections. “It sounds psychotic,”; “It’s a lot cheaper than a CPAP machine. What do you have to lose?”
- Entertain first, then sell. This is a sales email in disguise, however, when you also entertain your audience, their guard of “being sold to” drops.
What’s next:
Perform a Google search: “What’s it like to live with *pain* reddit?”
Which horror stories pop up? Take inspiration, and go write one of your own. Frame your product as the solution.
If you haven’t already, grab my 21 creative email campaign angles.
