After a short little hiatus, Email of the Week is officially BACK!

Last week, my wife and I welcomed our first child into the world… a beautiful baby boy named Blake. So obviously, I wasn’t publishing a ton of content while we were stuck in the hospital.

Duh.

But now… I’m ready to sink my teeth into another juicy, tantalizing e-com email.

This week, we’re going to look at a few emails from Privy.

Have you heard of ’em?

They’re probably one of the most valuable softwares you can use in your e-com business. Their product has a few key functions… the most important of which is it helps you build your email list even faster with smart, dynamic opt-in boxes and tools.

Really cool stuff.

Now, although they’re not a physical product business (except for their brilliant Privy Box April Fools promo)… they do so many things well with their email marketing, I HAD to break down a few of their recent emails.

So…

Without further ado…

Let’s dive into this week’s Email of the Week!

This is the 31st 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!

An Email Marketing Company With Really Good Email Marketing

A few weeks ago I read an article on Privy’s blog about Ryan Lee’s email strategy in light of the COVID-19 virus.

I thought it was terrific.

The more I poked around Privy’s site, the more I realized just how much awesome content they have there.

Now…

I had heard of Privy before. I knew they were a company dedicated to helping e-commerce companies grow their email lists. So I figured I might as well sign up for their list to see what they were doing with their own emails.

I gotta tell ya…

I was blown away.

They do sooooo many things right.

Let’s start off with one of the first automated emails I received from Privy:

 

 

The one thing I really loved about this email was the subject line. It instantly caught my attention.

It’s kind of subtle.

On it’s surface, it definitely doesn’t seem like a “sexy” subject line.

But man, it DID make me curious.

As soon as I read it, I found myself thinking: “I THINK I know what Privy does… but I do I really? Is there something I’m missing? Does it do more than I thought it does?”

Anytime you can get your customer to think these thoughts… they lean in.

The allure of the curiosity is too much to handle and you HAVE to click.

You know what else I love about this email?

Notice the use of the word “I” in that first sentence.

From the beginning of the relationship, you feel like there’s a REAL person writing to you.

The body copy then goes onto to demonstrate how people use Privy. They don’t waste time listing features – they go right into examples.

Really well done.

Let’s continue:

This is just great copy. They hook you in with a feature & benefit block and then handle an objection in the second line. Plus, they’re very strategic with the video screenshot – it lets you know you can click thru and find out more.

Plus, they have a mini-offer with pricing info at the end.

They packed an entire sales message into 3 sentences.

 

Again, they have this 3-sentence copy triad: features & benefits, handle objections, and pricing info.

Then, they end with a call to action to become a paid user.

Simple, solid copy in this email

Thing is…

I originally thought my breakdown would end with this email.

But I was pleasantly surprised as more emails flowed into my inbox over the next couple weeks. Emails that demonstrated some really sound email marketing principles.

Like this one:

 

Talk about a hooky subject line.

For context: this was smack dab in the middle of the coronavirus. People were freaking out. Some e-com companies saw their sales plummet.

But in the midst of all this, Privy sent out an email with THIS subject line that demands your attention.

How does a brand grow 500% in a week… regardless of what they sell? That’s nuts!

What did they do differently?

They don’t sell toilet paper… does that mean they sell something ‘non-essential’ like me? 

This could be the answer to my prayers!

Notice how they did NOT title case their subject line either. See how much nicer it looks that way?

Let’s dive into the body…

 

 

The copy begins with some pacing, meeting the reader where she’s at.

Notice the tight, pithy sentence structure punctuated with emojis.

This is super tight copy.

They do a brilliant job of meeting you where you’re at… but then they hook you with the fact that some brands are having record days.

The curiosity builds through these 5 lines of copy.

You HAVE to keep reading.

 

This email is a perfect example of JUST enough copy to hook you and get you to click thru. I clicked the fucking shit out of this link. Easiest click decision in my life.

Sometimes you don’t need 1,000 words of copy to convince someone to click.

The one thing I love about this email is the commitment to plain text.

This email is purposely NOT “well designed”… and I love that.

It looks, feels, and smells like an email from a friend.

That’s how emails SHOULD be.

They didn’t bury their copy with a useless hero image.

Their goal was to draw you in with the copy. And when an email ONLY has words in it, you have no choice but to read.

This was really great.

Awesome job on this email, Lauren Hall.

I tip my hat to you.

Privy is a juggernaut, though.

They can’t stop, won’t stop with their broadcasts.

Check this one out:

 

This subject line is straight-up benefit + curiosity. Plus, there’s some specificity with the number 10 and the word Shopify.

Again, it draws you right in.

Besides…

If even ONE of these 10 things worked for you, reading the content would be totally worth it.

 

 

I love this email so much.

First of all, it looks like Dan just dashed it off. It looks natural.

Plus, he’s got some personality in there. Look at that second line.

“Woah.”

One little word makes this email feel like it was written by a real person (because it actually was)… instead of a nameless, faceless corporation.

This is so so so important – you HAVE to inject some personality into your emails. Even if they are coming from a brand name, a little bit of personality goes a long way.

This makes people LIKE reading your emails. If they like reading your emails, they’ll read more… and buy more often.

Its science.

(I think.)

Again, you see a very powerful 5 lines of copy.

Pacing, leading, hook, proof, CTA.

Look at the sign off of this email.

Most companies would put some dumb shit like: “Connect with us on social!”… and completely waste that piece of real estate.

Dan wrote this from the heart, with genuine intent to help YOU, the reader. And he’s making the ask the same way a friend would, with sincerity.

“If you wouldn’t mind…”

Totally conversational.

It seems like everyone at Privy has a great sense of writing in a clear, conversational tone.

This copy style resonates throughout all of their marketing.

I really like it a lot.

I think they do an awesome job.

Everything they do impresses me, especially during this coronavirus shit we’re all dealing with. They even launched Shop Small Ecomm – a directory of thousands of smaller ecomm brands that they’re using their platform to support, in this time of uncertainty.

They just do everything right.

And from what I hear, their product is awesome, too… not just their marketing.

Anyway…

If you’re looking to grow your email list for your e-com business, I’d definitely check them out.

Great job, Privy team.

Big Takeaways from Privy’s Emails

1. Write your emails in a human (not corporate) tone.
2. Curiosity wins when it comes to subject lines.
3. Sprinkle on emojis for some added pizzaz.
4. Keep your copy as tight and pithy as possible.
5. It’s OK to switch up sending names.
6. Never give away the punch line in the email.
7. Tease your readers: make them salivate so they click thru.
8. Enter the conversation going on in your prospect’s mind, especially when certain world events are hijacking their amygdala.
9. Have fun with your copy. Loosen up a bit.
10. Don’t just focus on features, DEMONSTRATE your products and your features will become desirable.

What You Should Do Next

1. Subscribe to my email list so you can get ALL of the Emails of the Week delivered straight to your inbox, automatically.
2. Leave a comment for me below and let me know what you liked about this email.
3. Send this breakdown to someone you know who has a physical product business. You might help them grow their email list even faster!
4. Sign up for Privy. Everyone I talk to says they are the gold standard in email opt-in software for e-comm. At the very least sign up for their emails… they are awesome.