Episode 36: How to Win With Email Copy in 2023 | With Nikki Elbaz

Full transcript:

Nikki Elbaz  00:08

Too few people think about retention when it comes to email, and they think so much about acquisition, acquisition, acquisition – not just in email, just in general in marketing. There's so much focus on acquisition because it's exciting to get new customers – it is – but retaining them is obviously very important.

You're spending all this money upfront acquiring them, so let's keep them in the ecosystem. As well as, obviously, the fact that, when you retain them, then they become customer advocates and they help you expand your user base, and they help with acquisition. So definitely, there are so many things you can do for retention, to build that loyalty, and continue that loyalty.

David Bain  00:51

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Hey, it’s David. What email copy is likely to resonate with your target market and what's likely to turn them off? And has this changed much over the years? That's what we're discussing today with a lady who was the copywriter behind winning emails for eight and nine-figure eCom and SaaS darlings like Four Sigmatic, and Shopify. She's the former Head of Email at Copyhackers and the current Founder of the Nicki Elbaz email consulting firm. A warm welcome to the Strategic Marketing Show, Nikki Elbaz.

Nikki Elbaz  01:39

Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.

David Bain  01:41

Yeah, thanks for coming on Nikki. Well, you can find Nikki over at NikkiElbaz.com. So Nikki, is email more or less important than it used to be?

Nikki Elbaz  01:52

I would argue that email is always important; it has been important, and it is important. But what I think has changed is the idea that, now, we have to incorporate so much more than just email. We have to be thinking more omnichannel, we have to be incorporating SMS, we have to be incorporating Facebook Messenger, and just talking to all the different channels that our users are using. And working in tandem and not just focusing on email, but focusing on everything, and building this complete user journey with all the different touchpoints that everyone is using nowadays – with email being one of them.

David Bain  02:29

Got you. Okay, so email used to work well as a silo marketing channel but, nowadays, to make it successful – probably because people are used to seeing your brand in lots of different places, they want to experience consistent messaging from that same brand.

Nikki Elbaz  02:48

Yes. Once you see a brand in one place, and then you see it in another place, and you're hanging out in all these different places, your messaging that you're getting from everywhere is very fractured. You're seeing all sorts of different things, you're consuming so much content in so many different places, that seeing a brand show up in all the different channels makes it more of a cohesive, unified experience.

We'll see stats like if you send out an email, and then you send a follow-up text, your open rates will actually increase by – I believe it was 30%, versus if you just send out that email. So you're just getting more traction, you're getting more eyeballs, and you're getting more of this cohesive feeling.

It's an interesting thing because you would think, “Okay, so then just that SMS would get that higher open because they're seeing your name in one place, they're seeing it in another place, so then they want to pay more attention and open that that text.” but they'll actually go back to the email and then when they see the email again, they'll open that email as well. You're getting more traction for the different pieces because people like this cohesive experience where everything comes together.

David Bain  03:59

Does that mean that you have to choose a platform that's capable of sending SMS and perhaps other forms of chat messages as well? Or is it possible, just as easily, to tie up different platforms that do different things?

Nikki Elbaz  04:11

Yeah, we've had clients that do both; either everything in one platform or just picking that one that does just email, that does just SMS, it just does messenger – or just cold calling, even, we’ve done that, too. So yeah, you can do either. It's a question of, having everything in one platform obviously gives you the clearest data and the results and reporting that you can really, really trust. It's all in one platform, versus, having the platforms that are very tailored to exactly what you're trying to accomplish. So, the trade-off is like that.

David Bain  04:46

Now we're going to talk a little bit about the different types of emails that work more effectively depending on the different stage of a buyer journey the user happens to be on.

Just before we get to that, in general, would you say the form of email, the style of email, or the frequency of email that is most effective nowadays has changed much, compared with a few years ago?

Nikki Elbaz  05:09

I would say that, a few years ago, we didn't have as much capability tech-wise to do behavioral-based emails. It was a lot more limited in terms of what we could do, how much we could do, whether we could even do it at all, and whether brands wanted to invest in the tech for that. So that definitely has changed. And that is a huge shift because behavioral-based emails are so, so, so much more effective.

Any brand that is now able to give behavioral-based emails – based on behavior that their users are doing, triggered on what they are doing, what they're not doing, and all that kind of thing – it’s so, so much more effective. So, has the style changed? Styles are always changing. But more than the style is the response to how people are using the software, to how they’re experiencing the product, to whatever it is. Getting that really tailored journey, that's what has changed more than anything else, I believe.

David Bain  06:07

I think it would be worthwhile just to dive into what you said there a little bit more deeply because behavior emails are something that all of us have experienced, whether we know it or not. Recently, I was on a flowers website and for, I think, delivery reasons I decided not to go ahead because they couldn't actually deliver on the day I wanted. But, half an hour later, I got an email with a 10% voucher to say, “If you go ahead, then there you go!” That's obviously some kind of behavior mechanism that they've got in place for a rule-based email that goes out there as well.

What are one or two examples of other behavior emails that are particularly effective at the moment?

Nikki Elbaz  06:44

Yeah, abandoned cart emails (which is what you just described) is definitely the number one where the tech has been in place for that for quite a while, which is why we're so familiar with them. But now, for example, a SaaS company can see what users are doing on the software, what they're not doing, which features they're interacting with, and which features they haven't even seen yet, and tailor the user onboarding experience, or the activation experience, to the way that people are using the software.

In the same way that, when you're in the software, you'll get little pop-up tips and things like that, you can also be getting emails that are triggering based on what you are or are not doing. Transactional emails are also behavioral-based. We don't often think of them like that but transactional emails do very, very well, because they're behavioral-based. Someone just placed an order. You are sending them an email right off the back of that. Someone is waiting for a delivery, they open the door, and the package is on their doorstep. They get an email that says, “Hey, your package arrived!” That's behavioral-based. So yeah, there are all sorts of examples and places where we can stick them in, and as frequently as we can stick them in, the more effective our email strategy is going to be.

David Bain  07:54

It would be great to get a feel for what you think, in terms of email, is the most effective type of email for different stages of the buyer journey.

Maybe starting off with awareness, I think we're all used to, nowadays, being contacted on a cold email basis – perhaps from a LinkedIn scraper, or perhaps from some other email list that's been gathered from different places online. Is email a valid communication medium for that awareness stage? Or would you say that it's not necessarily the best for the awareness part of the journey?

Nikki Elbaz  08:32

I actually think that, in the awareness phase, email is more respectful than, say, a LinkedIn outreach or something that's more of a push platform than a pull platform. Because you are approaching them, as long as you do it respectfully, and you tailor the messaging so that it's very relevant. We get so huffy about cold email because, often, it's done so badly.

Whereas on LinkedIn, or on Twitter, just the fact that people are reaching out kind of gets us a little bit huffy, in general, because it's supposed to be relationship-building. It's supposed to be more of a place where we're just surfing for content and learning, and then getting that immediate sell feels a little off-putting. Whereas in email, to get an immediate sell, it fits the platform a little bit more, because it's just a communication platform. It's not a place where people are engaging and trying to build relationships.

Yes, you can build relationships by email, for sure. If your mom sends you an email, that's more relationship-building than sales, and we’re used to getting nurture content and things like that in email, but it is less of a community and more of this one-on-one. One-on-one, a sale is appropriate. So I would say that email is actually a better fit for cold pitching. But again, you have to do it right. You have to make sure your messaging is very relevant and do it respectfully.

David Bain  09:53

What's an example of a recent cold pitch that you've received, or perhaps sent, that has particularly resonated with you? Where you've looked at the text or looked at the subject, and thought, “That's really nicely done.”

Nikki Elbaz  10:07

I actually just ran an email accelerator, teaching email strategy for eCommerce and SaaS brands, and we just yesterday had a guest speaker on speaking about cold pitching. She recently cold-pitched me, and she was the only person that I've ever been cold-pitched by that I said yes to. So, definitely, her pitch was very effective, very respectful, and very relevant.

Her whole strategy, which she broke down in this masterclass that she gave for this course, was about not doing things at scale and doing things very personalized and very well-researched. Finding exactly what the person needs, why they need it, how they can help, and really building up the relationship rather than just the sale. It wasn't that sandwich of compliments like, “I love this” and then at the bottom, “I love this” and then in the middle are all these whole paragraphs of all the things I'm doing wrong and how she can help fix them.

It was just very respectful, very much admiring what I've built, and then telling me how she can help me just further things and be a support for me. So that was impressive, in its own right, but what I found even more impressive was: I told her my objections to what she was asking to help with, and the clarity of response to that showed me that she had such a handle on the way my business works and the way the working relationship would be. She clearly had experience working with copywriters before, subcontracting work, and she just met my objections with so much equanimity and so much responsibility. I found that to be very, very impressive. It was such a clear fit.

It was less about the pitch (although she clearly phrased everything perfectly and thought things through), but it was more that she was such a perfect fit, because she had done so much research, and she had so much experience. That was very interesting to see, that it's not just about the pitch, it's about making sure you know your audience very well and you know that you're a fit for your audience.

David Bain  12:13

Now, the consideration phase for B2B brands, or brands with longer sales cycles, has traditionally involved things like white papers. First of all, is something like that still a great idea, in terms of generating signups to your email list?

And then secondly, I think a lot of brands don't necessarily do a good job with actually articulating that they're going to continue to communicate with someone after they download a document. So how should that message be articulated? Should it be part of the landing page? Should it be on the initial email? How do you blend those two different styles of communication together?

Nikki Elbaz  12:51

That's a very good point. I think that's why, instead of a white paper, if you do something like an email course, you’ll see better open rates and click-through rates for things like that. Not that it always makes sense; sometimes white papers are a better strategy. But you'll see that difference in engagement metrics.

There's a whole discussion now about whether content should be gated or whether it shouldn't be gated, and I'm definitely on the gated side because I think that follow-up is so critical. Whereas the proponents of ungated tell you that, “If they're looking for it, and you're giving quality content, then they'll come back to you.” There's definitely truth to that, but people often need reminders. They often will forget the pain that they're experiencing and then, three months later, when they're like, “Okay, I’ve really got to figure out a solution for this. What was that thing I downloaded? Where is it? I deleted it. I had no more storage on my computer.”, then they don't always remember you.

It's not that you didn't do a good job with the white paper, but it's just human nature that we procrastinate decisions, that we forget all the different things that we've downloaded, etc. I think having that email follow-up really keeps that engagement, and I think it is important to continue it.

But yes, managing that expectation upfront in the beginning, even on the landing page, is a great idea. In that initial email, where they download the white paper from that confirmation link, say, “We're going to follow up with more valuable content for you.” That's another idea behind keeping things gated. You get to continue the conversation and engagement, not just in a sales way but in a, “Okay, you read this now, what are the next steps and how are we going to be taking this?” versus just, “Okay, take your white paper, enjoy it on your own.” No support, no guidance, and no helping you to continue using it in a way that will serve you best.

David Bain  14:44

Now, we talked about emails assisting conversions a little bit earlier, with things like someone adding something to a cart and perhaps not taking immediate action and then having an email go out to assist with that or encourage that or to give some kind of offer.

I'd like to just jump to loyalty because I'm sure that email could be used very effectively to encourage someone who's just become a customer to continue being a customer for a long time. Can you think of one or two examples of how to use email to improve loyalty?

Nikki Elbaz  15:13

100%. I think too few people think about retention when it comes to email, and they think so much about acquisition, acquisition, acquisition – not just in email, just in general in marketing. There's so much focus on acquisition because it's exciting to get new customers – it is – but retaining them is obviously very important.

You're spending all this money upfront acquiring them, so let's keep them in the ecosystem. As well as, obviously, the fact that, when you retain them, then they become customer advocates and they help you expand your user base, and they help with acquisition. So definitely, there are so many things you can do for retention, to build that loyalty, and continue that loyalty.

Obviously, there are things like loyalty programs or even requesting a review or requesting feedback. It sounds like an ask. It sounds like you're asking for something from the customer (which you are, and you should respect their time, etc, etc.), but often, customers want to talk to brands and they appreciate brands reaching out and saying, “Hey, we care about your experience. We want to hear more.”

I was just speaking with a founder of a company who, about three months after launch – they did phenomenally well in those first three months and they were just like, “Whoa, what just happened? We need to do some user research.” They reached out to their customers, and they were very, very scared to hit send on this survey request email because it's so common to ask for feedback, it's annoying for people, we don't want to bother our customers, etc, etc.

The responses that they got – he said he was just refreshing the page, refreshing the page, and refreshing the page. They were just getting responses and responses and responses, and such deep responses they really took the time to – in that last question that was an open-ended question, they were just getting all this juice. It was just so gratifying to see that people really like to give feedback. It's not an ask. It is an ask, but it's also giving. So even something like that can be a loyalty play.

David Bain  17:19

Yeah, lots of great thoughts there as well. Obviously, people want to receive an email if it's the right email, so don't be afraid of sending an email, but also the importance of sending that request for a review at the right time as well. I think a lot of firms do it a little bit early.

Do you do anything to try and establish the right moment to send that email out?

Nikki Elbaz  17:38

Absolutely, and that ties back into the whole behavior thing. A lot of times you'll get a review email either before delivery, which makes no sense, or right after delivery. Sometimes that works, if it's a snack and you think they're gonna eat it right after delivery. Just understanding your customers and knowing how they use your product, running some qualitative research and understanding when is the best time to ask for that feedback, that review, or whatever it is, knowing where all these points should be in the journey, and getting that from the research. Definitely, definitely. No one's going to send a review if they didn't even receive the product yet. So definitely, yeah.

Even a referral request will often be at the wrong time. It will be after a first purchase, which could make sense, but often the first time you purchase something, you're just not feeling loyal enough for something like referring to a friend. That would be even better suited after a repeat purchase. So just dig in a little bit more deeply and understand where they are – both from a logical perspective and from a ‘talking to your customers and hearing their experience’ perspective.

David Bain  18:48

What's an example of a brand that's making great use of email at the moment?

Nikki Elbaz  18:52

Oh, there are so many. It's funny because so many are doing it so wrong but there are definitely a lot of fun ones.

David Bain  19:01

I’m tempted to ask for some brand names that are doing terribly.

Nikki Elbaz  19:05

Just sign up for half the email lists in the world. But I guess my favorite – I’ll have ones that I cycle through, where I like them for a period of a few months. I think the one that has consistently stayed on my list is Drizly. They are an alcohol delivery brand and what I like, what they do really well, is that everything is very on-voice and very on-tone. They are very consistent in that sense.

They also really managed to balance the campaigns and automation very well so the customer experience, and the lead experience, and all that is very smooth because they've built their flows really, really well. Then also, the campaigns that they send out, they're very consistent with them, and they have the right communications. I can't say that I open all the campaigns (because it's often not relevant. I use them mostly for gifting), but just seeing how robust they are, but also how strategic. It's not just sending out campaigns every single week for the sake of sending out campaigns. The customer experience, with all the flows, is also set up properly. It's just such a nice balance, and they're just funny. They're just fun emails.

David Bain  20:16

Not necessarily thinking about what we've been talking about so far, what is the number one thing marketers need to incorporate into their strategy?

Nikki Elbaz  20:24

Email. I'm biased about that, but not quite. It's a channel that has amazing ROI. It's a channel that really gets you building that relationship. Whereas, with other channels that are also giving you ROI, they're less relationship-building so they pay off less – both from an actual metric perspective and then from a brand-building perspective as well.

Again, yes, work in tandem with everything. There are kind of two camps, where people think that email is amazing – they hear the stats, but they don't really believe it, because they're annoyed at all the emails that they get, because they haven't experienced good email – and then also the camp that's just like, “No, I've never heard these stats, I just don't believe it. The future is in ads or things like that.” I think every brand should be doing email, even small brands. They just should be doing it differently, with different strategies. But it's a medium that really builds the relationship and also has great ROI.

David Bain  21:26

I've been your host, David Bain. You can find Nikki over at NikkiElbaz.com. Nikki, thanks so much for being on the Strategic Marketing Show.

Nikki Elbaz  21:33

Thank you for having me.

David Bain  21:35

And thank you for listening. Here at IFP, our goal is simple: to connect you with the most relevant information, to help solve your business problems, all in one place. InsightsForProfessionals.com