One of the interesting side effects of the quarantine has been seeing an army of normies become hip to Zoom.
People are even calling it the new “social networking” platform.
And listen, I myself love Zoom.
(Well, besides the fact that it’s YET ANOTHER TOOL THE FUCKING CHINESE GOVERNMENT IS USING TO SPY ON US AND STEAL IP WHILE WE DO NOTHING ABOUT IT, HELLO… WTF PEOPLE!!!… it’s actually pretty useful.)
My homies and I have been Zoomin’ for years.
In fact, we’ve been using it so much so… I think a lot of my colleagues feel a bit jaded by now.
I know I am.
On top of that…
There’s nothing more frustrating than pulling up your calendar at the beginning of the week and seeing 15 zoom calls spread throughout the week.
What Zoom giveth… Zoom also taketh away.
It’s great to be able to send people a link they can click and magically get transported into a video call with literally anyone.
It’s another thing to have the freedom to NOT have to be pulled into these meetings in the first place.
That’s why I got so pumped up when Michal Eisikowitz forwarded me an email from a company called Vidyard.
Now…
I actually hadn’t heard of Vidyard before.
I use Loom.
And I love Loom, too.
But it looks like Vidyard is Loom on steroids.
It’s got a number of extra features.
And who knows… maybe it won’t fucking crash mid recording OR let me record entire videos only to find out the sound wasn’t recording – multiple times per week, consistently – for literally no reason whatsoever… like Loom does. That’s always fun, Loom.
Listen, I love you Loom… but you gotta get your shit together. You’re on thin ice and Vidyard be lookin dumbthicccccc right now.
Plus… Zoom is like sooooooooooooooooo 2017.
Broke: Zoom
Woke: Loom
Bespoke: Vidyard
Anyway…
The email Michal forwarded me was fantastic. I knew immediately I had to break it down, because they’re doing so many things right with their email marketing.
And from the moment I read the email… I kind of wanted to make the switch.
That’s how you know it’s effective – when you’re having a hard time resisting a purchase decision.
I’m pretty excited.
I really think you’re gonna love this one…
So…
Without further ado…
Let’s dive into this week’s Email of the Week!
This is the 35th installment of my Email of the Week series. (Catch up on previous episodes here.)
And in case you’re new around here, here’s how this all works…
The Rules For Email Of The Week
Each week, I go out into the wild to find a super-effective e-commerce marketing email… and I break down what made it work. My goal is for you to tune in each week, so I can teach you strategies and best practices YOU can use to make your own emails better.
I find these emails in my inbox, but I also accept suggestions from readers who have a remarkable email they’d like to share.
If you recently received an email that was so awesome it made your jaw drop, I wanna see it.
Forward it to me (chris at theemailcopywriter dot com) with a brief message about what you liked about it. If I choose to do a breakdown of the email you sent, I’ll give you a shout out and link to your site.
The only rule is… you can’t pick yourself.
Now then, without further ado, let’s check out the Email of the Week!
I Survived A Meeting That Should Have Been An Email Pre-recorded Video
One of the greatest things about the medium of email marketing is it allows you to test out new and exciting ways to demonstrate your product’s features and benefits.
You can feasibly test a new angle every single day of the year… and triple down on the ones that hit it big.
I think Vidyard found one of those winning angles.
IDK if David Ogilvy would consider this a ‘big idea’… but I would, that’s for damn sure.
This email spoke right to my soul.
As a recovering Zoom meeting addict, this email just made me feel at peace.
It gave me hope.
It showed me the light at the end of the tunnel.
I can’t wait any longer – let’s just dive right into this sexy fucking email…
Subject line: Join the #OneLessMeeting Challenge
I want you to look good and hard at this subject line.
This is a thing of beauty.
As soon as you read it, you think “What the hell is the One Less Meeting challenge?”
You think to yourself: “Shit, is this another one of those cringeworthy Tik Tok things that my kids rope me into that make me die a bit inside because I know all their friends are laughing at me?”
It gets you curious.
The hashtag amplifies the curiosity (why haven’t you heard of this yet, it’s probably trending!)
Add in the fact that it’s a “challenge” and you got a perfect storm of a subject line right here.
Great job.
Let’s continue…
First of all, I love the design of this email.
Clean, minimal.
The focus is on the copy… where it SHOULD be.
Now, check out the tone of the copy. It’s conversational. It’s one-to-one. it’s clear and colloquial. A bit of a relaxed feel to it.
Very nice.
Very welcoming.
They get right into some pacing and leading.
I know I am DEFINITELY feeling Zoom fatigue.
I never heard that term, but it described my feelings perfectly.
They end this paragraph by introducing a new solution to a problem you might not have even known you had.
Now, we need to stop here for a second.
They used a very powerful, somewhat uncommon copy tactic here that not many people know about.
I call this the “hidden benefit.”
There’s a ton of obvious benefits from using something like Vidyard.
Things like:
- Host your videos
- Create new videos easily
- Manage your team better
- Etc…
A hidden, previously unadvertised benefit is that it will eliminate pointless, meandering, boring, non-essential meetings.
That last line of copy shows that there’s a new, better way to do things.
You don’t have to have your ass glued to your swivel chair for hours each day. You can film your video, report what you need to report… send it easily… and move on with your day.
This is LIBERATING.
Let’s keep going…
Wait… wha-
What’s that?!
A DRAKE MEME!!!
Oh hell yes.
Finger on the pulse of the cultural zeitgeist.
A+
Sometimes people really screw up when they use memes. They’ll use them wrong and make everyone uncomfortable.
Not Vidyard.
Tyler (the writer of this email, I’m assuming) did an awesome job with meme selection.
It’s a powerful, relevant demonstration.
You ‘get it’ immediately.
Just super solid job Tyler. Seriously, this was perfect.
You’ll also notice in the copy below the meme, he introduces a new term.
A ‘unique mechanism’ if you will: asynchronous video.
Now, I LOVE this technique.
This is textbook great marketing, introducing this unique mechanism and positioning it as a solution.
However…
I don’t know if the term asynchronous video is sticky enough.
I didn’t win the Scripts Spelling Bee when I was in 8th grade. I’m not going to be able to type/pronounce that word when I’m talking to other people… and I don’t wanna look like a moron attempting to do so.
But…
Tyler mitigated this issue by not only introducing the #OneLessMeeting challenge hashtag… he also clarified the term by explaining it’s just a pre-recorded video.
I LOVE the copy about the challenge itself.
He issues it clearly: book one less meeting and send a video instead.
This is reminiscent of a Gossage technique, where the whole point of the ad is to get the audience involved. If you can do that effectively ‘selling’ the product is effortless, it happens as a natural byproduct of the engagement activity.
I love love love the use of hypothetical internal monologue in the next line.
Again: pacing, leading… pacing, leading.
Now, if ALL Tyler did in this email was introduce this idea and pitch Vidyard… it’d still be an A+ email, in my book.
And, if we’re being honest… on this blog, my opinion is the only one that fucking matters.
But…
Tyler didn’t stop there.
He did something incredibly smart.
He linked to content instead of the pricing/get started page.
Here’s why this is so smart.
The moment this challenge is introduced, the first thing that pops into someone’s mind is:
“Yeah, I’d love to give this a try, BUT…”
There are probably 5-10 objections that’ll crop up.
I look like shit on camera.
I have a double chin.
I can never get the lighting right.
My voice sounds funny.
You get the picture.
Whatever objections you have, they’re most likely solved in that piece of content. This content is designed to empower you… to shift your internal belief system so you KNOW you can do this.
And once you have this new belief installed in your brain, it’s only natural for you to want to try out a pre-recorded video to send to your colleagues.
So…
Now that you’re all dressed up and need someplace to go…
What software do you think you’re going to use to record and send this video?
Um…
Hell!
Vidyard!
Duh.
This email is flawless.
Elegant.
Effective.
Simple.
It ticks all the boxes.
It does a wonderful job positioning and demonstrating AND dimensionalizing the benefits of having one less meeting in your life.
5 stars.
Great job Tyler and the Vidyard team.
You guys are awesome.
Special Shout Out to Michal Eisikowitz
Do you know Michal Eisikowitz?
If not, you’ve probably been living under a rock.
She’s a B2B and SaaS conversion copy authority. She’s a fantastic copywriter and a great person. I’ve spoken with her a few times, truly a wonderful person.
We also both spoke at TCC IRL 2019 in Brooklyn. Her talk was great.
GO OPT IN TO HER LIST RIGHT NOW: click here to get on Michal’s email list.
And you should also connect with her on LinkedIn, while you’re at it… especially if you need PRO-level copy help.
Now…
Michal offered an incredible analysis of this email as well. I wanted to include it here because she touched on a few other points I didn’t include:
Here’s why it’s so fabulous:
- Pain point. It taps into a timely and highly relevant pain point that nearly every working person is currently struggling with. People are getting SO sick of Zoom, and this offer leverages that reality.
- Strategic use of images. It’s a text email (which makes it feel more personal and less promotional) but it does use just two fun and eye-catching images to get the point across.
- It makes this social. Instead of just saying “hey, Zoom is annoying, try us!” Vidyard is creating a global hashtag around this reality. This makes using Vidyard right now that much more fun and cool — especially if, like most humans right now, you’re craving more social interaction.
- Clear CTA. What Tyler wants us to do after reading this email is super clear: book one less Zoom meeting and use video instead. This is a clear, doable, and even desirable challenge. To make it even easier, he directs you to resources you can use if you’re not sure how to go about it.
- Best practices. The email overall uses some great practices: comes from a person with a NAME (not a faceless company), is easy to read (no blocks of text), and uses a friendly, conversational tone.
I’m not a big fan of these hashtag challenges in general, but this email caught my eye – because it was written and designed well, but mostly because it was the RIGHT offer at the RIGHT time.Who doesn’t want #onelessmeeting?
Big Takeaways from Vidyard’s Email
- Pace, then lead.
- Challenges get people moving.
- Find the hidden benefit to using your product and make it front and center
- Find the pain points people are experiencing in this “new normal” and adapt your messaging accordingly.
- Thoroughly remove ALL objections… and people will have a hard time saying ‘no.’
- Drake memes are almost always a good choice.
- Keep your email designed focused on the COPY.
- Send your emails from a person, whenever possible.
- Write like a real person, not a faceless corporation.
- Every email is a demonstration, another chance to find the winning angle for you to amplify in all your other advertising mediums.
What You Should Do Next
- Subscribe to my email list so you can get ALL of the Emails of the Week delivered straight to your inbox, automatically.
- Leave a comment for me below and let me know what you liked about this email.
- Try out Vidyard!I’m definitely going to check them out. They look like a much beefier version of Loom, with a lot more important features.