Email Marketing Solutions

Last week, as I was scrolling through Instagram, I came across an ad for mouth tape.

The name alone caught my attention (Hostage Tape) and I started checking them out.

I know that I, like many other people, am a mouth breather and the thought of taping your mouth shut at night has been something that I’d heard about but haven’t been able to wrap my mind around.

They’ve got a lot of great content on their website to help overcome objections. From customer testimonials to scientific case studies to a money back guarantee.

So I did what I normally do… and signed up for their email newsletter.

And this week we are going to take a closer look at the first three emails in their welcome flow.

Made Me Click Email Breakdown #7 – Hostage Tape Welcome Flow

As a reminder, every week I am going to pick a different email that I read and that “made me click.” I’ll break down the email from the subject line to CTA and share what I think they did really well. 

Hopefully I can share some insights into what makes a really good email and how you can use these insights to improve your click through rates and email conversions. 

If you have an email that “made you click” and you’d like me to break it down, shoot me an email at ben@henkenmarketing.com with a short summary of why that email stood out.

Now let’s get onto the good stuff…

Email #1 – Welcome To The Hostage Tape Army!

First things first, most brands go with info(at)brandname.com or hello(at)brandname.com or something like that.

Hostage Tape went with help(at)hostagetape.com

I don’t know if that was intentional, but I love it.

In a good welcome email we want to do a few things…

Welcome the subscriber to your tribe. In this case we are now a part of the Hostage Tape Army.

Congratulate them for making a good decision.

And introduce them to your why.

For Hostage Tape, due to the nature of their product, overcoming objections is a BIG piece to their marketing.

Taping your mouth shut is something that most people look at as a little crazy.

Hostage Tape’s welcome flow jumps right in with a sales email. 

There’s no pop-up on their site or an offer for 10% off your first purchase. So there’s no need to deliver on a lead-gen promise.

If you want to opt in for their emails, you have to scroll down to the footer of their website and subscribe.

So it can be assumed that if you are on their list, you are higher on the spectrum of buyer awareness. 

Rather than focusing on this pain point with a Problem, Agitate, Solution framework, Hostage Tape starts this email with painting a picture of what your life could be like after using their product.

“Truly restorative sleep…”

“An experience most people only dream about…”

“Changing lives… will change your life too…”

“The feelings of youth…”

In the bottom half of this email Hostage Tape handles a couple of objections.

They’ve already mentioned the science and testimonials in the first part of the email, but they reference the “insane testimonials” again here at the bottom. (and they include a testimonial in the footer of the email.”

We’ve also got a mention of the 30-day money back guarantee.

I would have liked to see a more compelling CTA than the generic “shop now” especially following “Don’t Let Bad Sleep Hold You Hostage”

But still a strong finish to this email.

Email #2 – WTF is Mouth Taping??

In email two Hostage Tape gets into the prospective buyer’s mind with these questions.

Especially question #2 – Isn’t it Dangerous?

This email is all about answering these questions and overcoming more objections that prospective buyers have.

I love the opening here… “You probably have some questions. In fact, it would be weird if you didn’t…”

So we’ve opened the floor for questions AND made the prospect feel at ease with their questions.

As we “skim” down this email, you’ll notice that there’s a line bolded – “mouth taping is no joke.”

Here Hostage Tape has answered the first question that they posed at the beginning of the email.

And then they go on to answer the other questions, making the answers stand out by increasing the font size and italicizing (is that a word?) the answers.

Now we move back into social proof. This is something that Hostage Tape leverages everywhere you see them.

It’s one thing to show scientific proof or tell stories about how we are supposed to breathe through our noses.

It’s so much more powerful to leverage before and after stories from other customers.

So the two testimonials here are gold.

And I like how Hostage Tape took obvious screen shots of these testimonials rather than copying them and fixing any grammar or spelling mistakes. 

Now here’s a CTA!

Maybe it’s time to #shutyourmouth

Love this.

(to be honest, I was ready to try Hostage Tape at this point, but I didn’t want to purchase yet for fear of being removed from their welcome flow… #emailmarketingproblems)

Email #3 – “It’s a problem”

The third and final email that I’m breaking down today.

In full disclosure, this email ISN’T part of their welcome flow. It was sent out with connections to the super bowl.

BUT I think this email would make a GREAT addition to their welcome flow.

Part 1 – Pain – “Poor performance and poor health”

We’ve seen in the first two emails where Hostage Tape has leveraged testimonials from their customers.

Now they are borrowing credibility from the NFL.

I can’t tell you exactly what the Ideal Customer Avatar is for Hostage Tape, but judging by their webpage, I’m guessing it’s a middle aged man.

So leveraging credibility from the NFL is a great approach.

This email uses that credibility and uses the Problem, Agitate, Solution (PAS) framework that I mentioned earlier.

Part 2 – Agitate – Missing out and suffering

Part 3 – Solution – Minimize the issues that come with mouth breathing

I really like the CTA’s at the bottom of this email. They tell the reader exactly what to do and what to expect.

“You can minimize the damage”

AND

“You Go Right Here”

Doesn’t get much clearer than that.

The Problem-Agitate-Solution is a great email framework to use because it can tell a story without getting into too much detail or length.

And whenever you can borrow credibility from a source (like the NFL) that’s an added bonus.

Lessons

>>Understand your audience and their objections

Objection handling is always a big part of selling. But depending on your product you may have to do more or less objection handling.

If you understand your ICA and the objections they may have to buying your product, you can approach those objections head on.

>>Leverage testimonials

Before and after testimonials for your product may be the most powerful leverage you have.

Use them often.

And if you don’t have these types of testimonials, take a look at your customer’s post purchase journey and see where you can ask for more testimonials.

Pro tip – provide your customers with a simple framework or have them answer specific questions rather than just giving them an empty box to type their thoughts.

>>Leverage other people’s credibility

Look for ways to leverage the credibility (real or assumed) of people that are using or talking about your product.

>>Look to add high performing campaign emails to your welcome flow

If you have high performing, evergreen campaign emails… add them to your welcome flow. 

The more that you can automate the better.

Next Steps

1. Leave a comment below – what did you think of this email? What did you like or dislike?
2. Share this breakdown with someone you know – know anyone with a DTC ecom store? Share this breakdown with them and they’ll thank you for it.
3. Follow me on LinkedIn for more content – and connect with me if you are an email marketer, ecommerce business owner, or course creator.
4. Subscribe to my email list – and get all my email breakdowns as well as my email tips and tricks sent directly to your inbox.