You may have noticed that I'm not exactly a branding expert...
I mean, my emails are wicked boring, right?
Actually, there's a good chance you've NEVER even seen my logo or colors unless you've stopped by my website, storiesandcopy.com.
There's a good reason for that, too.
First of all, I totally get why business owners and solo entrepreneurs love creating fancy emails with sexy graphics, logos everywhere, GIF-packed images, and colorful CTAs with emojis that are ever so enticing to click...
But that ain't me.
You see, I have a very very very very very annoyingly deep belief in what makes 'branding' work.
In the past, I've had clients who've used all those fancy little trinkets, images, and what not in all of their emails...
Until I came in and completely stripped those emails down as naked as they'd possibly let me.
A lot of times, before this email strip-show goes down the client and I will have a big discussion over branding.
As you can imagine, it can get pretty ugly sometimes.
I've been called boring as hell.
I've been told that I'm wrecking their brand.
Like there was this one time I was working for a pretty awesome e-commerce brand that was scaling faster and heavier than the damn blitzkrieg.
We got on a call...
And I got a Marine-Corps-Boot-Camp-BERATING for creating 2-3 emails in one of their automations in complete plain-text with ZERO images and looked as naked as a new born...
After I survived the verbal shelling, I wanted to end the call and fire the client.
I mean, I just got screamed at for my philosophy, what would you?
But I took a breath.
And I said something like this:
**paraphrased, of course**
**queue me jumping on a soapbox**
"Okay, I get it...
When we think of a brand, we usually think of logos, colors, fonts, headers, and all of that nice stuff...
But in reality, if you were to ask your best customer about your brand, I'd bet they'd never mention those things.
Instead, I'd bet they'll tell you their experiences with you.
Like how you helped their lives in some way or how awesome your brand story is...
Because, in reality, your brand isn't a picture of your company...
It's the PERSONALITY of your company.
So if you have awesome clients who jump to work with your or customers who want your stuff...It's because they like your personality and how you make them feel.
So when I say let's write in plain-text, I want to make it seem like they're getting a message from a friend or a family member.
And the more images and big fat texts you put in the email...
The more we're gonna seem like just another company selling them shit - is that what you want?"
So we tested it.
I said "give me 10 days and if my side of the test doesn't convert then I'll budge"
I was confident in my approach.
Almost cocky.
I wanted to up the ante.
So I told him that I'd even take out ALL OF THE DISCOUNT on my side of the automation - but he can keep his.
I felt like a cowboy bettin' in the wild west in a saloon-style Mexican standoff putting EVERYTHANG on the line...*tips cowboy hat*
I was reckless.
I was wild.
I was maybe a little in way over my head.
But, I was also victorious.
10 days later...
I didn't just have a higher open rate, click rate, and conversion rate...
But I even offered to create ANOTHER test that involved upselling the buyers from his automation and buyers from mine.
And the results from that showed that MY BUYERS actually had more of the tendency to buy from the upsell sequence.
Some even converted AGAIN and become VIP members.
All of this with dull interesting emails that had nothing but solid messaging and persuasive copy.
At the end of the day, that's all you need to get more sales through email and build a loyal tribe from your list.
Not saying that a few fancy images here and there won't help...
But if you can focus on your words and being human, you'll be more than fine and also love your results.
And that's what I'm trying to do with MY emails to YOU:
Be more human in a sea of companies.
I hope it works.
Anyway.
It's Friday.
Time to chill hard, take a step back and enjoy the day.
Talk soon,
Francis
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