A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I wanted to send a gift to a friend of ours for her birthday.

We landed on sending some cupcakes via Baked By Melissa (totally her idea, btw).

Now, let me tell you…

If you’ve never tried their cupcakes, you haven’t truly lived.

They’re phenomenal.

Baked By Melissa sells mini-cupcakes, with all different unique flavors you won’t find at your neighborhood bakery.

Plus… you can eat a dozen of them and not feel that haunting sense of self-loathing you might normally feel if you were to down an entire box of ‘regular’ sized cupcakes.

As I’ve worked with hundreds of businesses throughout my copywriting and consulting career… I’ve started to develop an appreciation for companies who do what I call marketing from the heart.

Meaning:

They don’t write like copy like a trained copywriter would. That’s a GOOD thing. Because they don’t sound like every other copy douche with a bookshelf full of direct response classics.

To be honest… its kind of fucking refreshing.

I’m just so sick and tired of seeing the same variations of certain direct-response ad frameworks every time I go online.

“Who else wants [insert whatever benefit here]…”

“Attn Coaches, Consultants, Experts, Authors…”

“They laughed at me when ___, but then ____…”

“Stop doing _____, ____ is dead…”

FUCK YOU!!!

Sometimes you just need to put down your dog-eared copy of Tested Advertising Methods… and just write from the heart. (And yes… I’m talking to all YOU copywriters who are reading this right now.)

Some founders and teams do this.

That’s the vibe I get when I read the copy on Baked By Melissa’s site and emails.

Whoever is writing their stuff… they’re just writing from the heart and not worrying about whether they’re following some bullshit copy framework from a hundred-year-old book.

It’s kind of fucking awesome to see.

One of the BEST parts about Baked By Melissa’s marketing game was the order confirmation email we received after placing the order.

It was fantastic.

So…

I decided I was gonna break it down to show you all the awesome things they did… so you can make your own emails even better.

Wanna take a look?

Let’s dive in…

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 36th 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 Order Confirmation Email… Done RIGHT!

When someone places an order in your store, the very first email they should receive next is an order confirmation email.

Usually, these emails tend to get SUPER high open rates. People tend to search through their inbox to find these things, right after they place an order.

I know whenever I buy something online, I feel restless until I see that order confirmation email hit my inbox.

Being that we know this is how other people probably feel (yourself included)… we as marketers are presented with a unique opportunity.

We can meet our customers at a point of high emotional awareness… and deliver what I call a “shock and delight” experience.

We have an opportunity to make our customers smile… and IMMEDIATELY fall in love with your brand.

In fact, when you do this right… the second purchase is “mentally” made at that very moment when they read your order confirmation email. If you have a good order confirmation, people think to themselves: “This company is awesome… I’m definitely going to buy from them again.”

I mean…

I felt this way after reading this email. I can’t be the only one.

We are all moist robots, with the same underlying code in all our brains, anyway. We might be different but we’re kind of wired the same way, at the end of the day.

I’m sure once you read this email, you’re going to want to buy from Baked By Melissa.

Notice how this email makes you FEEL.

Branding is not about logos or anything like that. You build your brand with EVERY touchpoint your customers have with your company.

This email goes a long way toward building that loyalty and increasing retention.

Let’s take a look…

Subject line: Thank you, from Melissa! ????

This is an A+ subject line.

It’s short and straightforward. Gets right to the point. And, it looks personal enough… like it’s coming from a friend – not necessarily a company.

The emoji is OK here. Fits with their voice.

I like it.

Let’s dive into the body.

This is where the email REALLY shines…

 

Now… ordinarily, I think dressing up your email with background images is kind of a dead giveaway it’s a “promotional email.”

Ordinarily, I don’t love this approach.

HOWEVER…

I LOVE what they did here.

They screenshotted a handwritten note from Melissa.

This is so awesome.

Because even though you know Melissa didn’t sit down and write this out personally to every single person who buys from her company… your brain registers the fact that at SOME point, she DID sit down and take the time to write this by hand.

THAT shows she cares.

What’s really awesome about this is when you sit down and write a note by hand… it’s almost impossible to NOT just write to one person.

This note is a perfect example of a true one-to-one, human-to-human tone.

Sure…

She could have just typed this out. It probably would have been a lot faster and easier.

But sometimes doing the hard things is worth it.

I thought this was so awesome.

As you read the copy, Melissa’s passion shines through.

First… she addresses the question on your mind “is she a real person?”

(In fact, if you haven’t read her ‘Our Story‘ page… stop what you’re doing right now because it’s fantastic.)

She then goes into a super-quick one-sentence story.

She doesn’t natter on. She gives you just enough story to hook you in for you to feel a bond with her and her company.

Let’s continue…

 

This whole section does a great job of laying out her Unique Selling Proposition… AND it lists some unique benefits most other bakeries (read: competitors) can’t claim.

I love the “-and that’s only the beginning!” part.

It’s kind of an open loop.

It forces you to lean in and think “what else do they got?”

That curiosity hooks you in… and I bet it gets a LOT of people back to the site to explore. As they do this, they start planning out future purchases, long before they actually make them.

Really great little piece of copy right there.

The handwritten note ends with directions to go check out their other products (which we’ll take a look at in a second).

What I LOVE about the pictures that comprise the border is it’s pictures from her life.

The brands that inject that human element into their marketing… THOSE are the brands we love buying from.

They are the brands with personality.

They are the brands you feel good buying from.

Imagine if the brand was just called “Baked By Melissa” but you never saw a picture of Melissa. You’d think it was all bullshit.

There is a story unfolding in those images as you scroll down.

It’s such an effective use of a collage in an email, really well done.

As you’re reading, you can’t help but want to buy from this company again.

The personal touch… the humanizing elements… the fact that there’s a handwritten note included – which is in STARK contrast to what 99.9% of other companies include in their order confirmation emails.

This is just an A+ email right here.

But…

We’re not done yet…

After reading that note, you probably felt pretty good about the purchasing decision you just made.

SO…

While your happy chemicals are high, now would be a good time to introduce other offers you might not have realized they had.

Again… they’re helping you “mentally” make that second purchasing decision. This is great technique.

Overall… this is a super solid email.

Great copy, written from the heart.

Great strategic thinking.

A+++++

Awesome job Melissa and team!

Keep up the great work.

Big Takeaways from Baked By Melissa

  1. Forget the copywriting books, write from the heart.
  2. Think about how you can SHOW how much you care. A handwritten note goes a long way, even in an email.
  3. Tell your story in a single sentence.
  4. Let your passion spill over into your copy.
  5. Make your subject lines simple and personal.
  6. Images should tell a story and support your copy.
  7. Always be ‘seeding’ the second sale.
  8. Inject your USP when you know people are reading.
  9. Demonstrate how your different (read: better) than your competitors.
  10. Write your email from a real person.

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. Order some cupcakes from Baked By Melissa! I’ve had them. They’re fantastic. I highly recommend. And… you get a front-row seat to watch a company that does a great job with their copy and marketing strategy.

3 thoughts on “[Email of the Week #36]: Baked By Melissa”

  1. Wish I new about them for Mother’s Day! Those cupcakes look delicious and I was pretty damn close to buying some right now… when I get a good offer in the email I’ll probably pull the trigger to feed my sweet tooth.

    Great breakdown of the thank you email. Pretty cool how you can see her handwriting it has a very nice personal touch.

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