Email Breakdown #4: OptinMonster

Would you trust an accountant who’s constantly in trouble with the IRS?

How about a financial advisor up to their eyeballs in debt?

Or what about a personal trainer who’s not absolutely SHREDDED to the bone?

You probably wouldn’t trust any of the above (ok, I’ll admit the personal trainer one was a bit dramatic).

With that same advice, you also wouldn’t trust a company in the email marketing space if they couldn’t, you know…

Write a solid email.

Fortunately, the company whose email I’m looking at today isn’t what I just described.

Today, we’re looking at an email from OptinMonster.

OptinMonster is a conversion rate optimization and lead gen tool known for a lot of things — it offers everything from letting you create signup/optin forms to setting up campaign triggers and a bunch of other stuff.

The Email: An Affiliate Email Called “The 1-Hour Website”

This email’s a long one, so I’ve broken the main screenshot into a few parts:

Now, for the breakdown…

The Subject Line

Bravo, bravo.

OptinMonster made the email come from “Angie at OptinMonster.” Not just “OptinMonster.”

I know “Angie” is not writing specifically to me (nor is “Angie” necessarily writing these in the first place, could be some other copywriter), but it still sticks out and feels personal.

As for the subject line, it grabbed my attention.

Trust me: I’m writing this on WordPress as we speak, and WordPress is not fun to try and make a website with on your own.

In many cases, I’ve spent 3+ hours fighting to get one or two lines of text to look good on one of my pages.

So when I see you can build a whole website in 1 hour…

I’m interested.

The takeaway here is that the subject line offered a benefit relevant to the target audience and gave it a unique name — The 1-Hour Website — then promised to show you how to build it.

All in under 10 words.

Twisting the Knife (Ouch, That Hurts)

Yes, building a website is 100% overwhelming unless you do it for a living. And I don’t. So this speaks to me, a small business owner (the target audience.)

But that first line on its own wouldn’t really hit if they didn’t follow up with the next lines. As I described earlier, I know the pain of trying to build my own website — and I know it’s probably painful to spend several thousand dollars for a good web development/design firm to do it for you.

Then, they reveal that “it doesn’t have to be this way.”

So they brought up the reader’s pain, twisted the knife a bit by adding some specificity to it (DIY vs. paying an expert), then promised to fix the problem…

All in 4 lines.

Introducing: The Offer

Here, OptinMonster (or Angie, rather) continues twisting the knife before presenting the offer as the solution.

In this case, it looks like they’re promoting another company’s product as an affiliate — SeedProd, a drag-and-drop WordPress builder.

Offer fits the pain points quite well. Plus, they throw in an explicit CTA right there and provide a steep discount to make the offer more compelling.

The CTA is important. You want to use multiple CTAs where they make sense. Here’s a good spot because the email just introduced the offer. This part goes, “here’s the offer, and here’s how you get it!”

But of course, if the email ended here, it might not get too many sales because the features and benefits haven’t been explained yet.

So next…

Layer on the Benefits

Good structure to the benefits section, here. Start broad with the high-level benefits so the reader knows immediately what kind of, well, benefits this can bring to them.

Then, you get into the features further on.

This hooks the reader first, then explains the features to overcome objections and make those benefits concrete with features.

If they did it the other way around, the features wouldn’t really resonate with the reader. You put the reader first — what’s in it for them. Then, you give them the logic by including the features.

A Powerful Testimonial For Good Measure

Next up, we have social proof in the form of a testimonial.

Not just a one liner, but a paragraph-long testimonial that’s nice and detailed. It details how the customer actually uses the product and how it benefits them. It isn’t vague.

And at the end, OptinMonster adds their own social proof by saying, “1 of 3,000 5-star experiences.” That shows that lots of people use the product already and are enjoying it.

Social proof is a great thing to add, most of the time. Customers nearly always trust other customers more than they trust you, even if they do already have some trust in your brand.

A Discount And Guarantee to Seal the Deal

Once again, we see the discount here in an implicit CTA — and it’s even more compelling after the features, benefits, and testimonial.

But even then, some people might be on the fence.

So OptinMonster adds some “risk-removal.” That’s a fancy way of saying “free trial” or “money-back guarantee.”

In this case, you have a 14-day money-back guarantee with SeedProd. After framing this offer as the “1-Hour” website, that’s basically an unlimited free trial…

Making this a VERY compelling offer.

Lesson here is your risk removal has to actually be significant. If the product promised a website in 2 weeks, well, you’re not removing much risk with a 14-day guarantee.

To finish off the email, we have 1 more explicit call to action before Angie from OptinMonster lets you know they’re available if you have questions. Adds a personal touch.

Takeaways

This entire email is like a mini sales letter:

• Pain points and problems
• Shifts your belief about building your own website
• The pitch
• Layering on features and benefits
• Social proof (the testimonial)
• Exclusive discount
• Risk-removal (guarantee)
• Two CTAs (one implicit with the discount, one explicit)

And a “I’m here to help you make the decision” line at the end to close things out.

Overall, I found it fairly persuasive (I’m in the target audience). However, I’d make it even better by injecting a bit more humor. But maybe that’s my own personal style.

What to Do Next

1. Get on my email list.
2. Reach out to me if you want some help making money with email marketing.
3. Check out OptinMonster or take a look at SeedProd if you think either could help you out!