Ever seen a “listicle?” Of course you have.
They’re the “10 tips to…” or “5 ways to…” or “956.32 things you…” types of articles you see everywhere online.
There’s a reason listicles are so prevalent. They provide value to the reader, and more importantly, they’re organized and easy to consume.
(Oh, and they’re a joy to write.)
The cool thing is you can apply the listicle format to emails.
Pick a specific problem or question your target customer deals with, and provide a list of solutions/answers.
Moxie Copywriting offers a crisp and clean example of the listicle email.
Let’s get into it.
About Moxie Copywriting
Founded by Anika Watkins, Moxie Copywriting is a copywriting agency that writes many forms of high-converting copy for businesses and agencies in various niches all around the world.
Moxie Copywriting offers its clients single orders and monthly plans, depending on their needs. Regardless of plan, they’ve managed to engineer the copywriting process down to 3-5 days. They also have a 3-week Facebook Ad copywriting course for freelance writers, service providers, and consultants called Ad Copy Accelerator.
It’s a copywriting agency, so you’d expect their emails to be top-notch.
Good news: This one is top-notch. Let’s take a look.
The Email: Offering Valuable Tips… Without Fearing The Sale
Listicle emails provide a list of valuable tips/information the reader could theoretically implement right away or in the near future.
It tells them what to do.
After telling customers what to do, many of them will see the benefits but won’t want to do it on their own. They may think to themselves:
“Wow, this person/company is smart. I don’t have the time to do this myself, and they’re better at it than me anyway.”
Know what that means?
They’re ready to buy… and this is where many brands fail:
They don’t sell. They’re afraid of angering their customers.
But here’s the thing:
You don’t have to send 100 emails before selling. You can sell in every single email if you properly set expectations regarding your email and selling frequency on your squeeze page.
Like I just explained, many customers may be excited to buy from you after one of these emails.
In this case, Moxie’s “what” are three email sequences you should use and what they consist of. But then they sell the “how” in the form of their copywriting services… since, well, Moxie knows how to write these sequences.
Let’s get into the email.
Subject Line: Clear Value and Brand Personality
Subject lines don’t need to be fancy if you aren’t making extensive use of storytelling.
For straightforward value emails:
Sometimes, you can just plop the main benefit the reader will get in the subject line and it’s bound to get opens.
The use of “biz” is clever because it trims down the subject line enough to fit in. I also like the strategic use of caps and emojis to sprinkle in some personality.
Let’s Cut Right to the Chase
Moxie Copywriting sets the stage in the first two lines. They introduce a problem the reader may be facing.
That last line is a lot more impactful than you might think because it goes after multiple stages of awareness.
There’s people who lack awareness at all — they don’t know about email marketing in particular or why it’s so important. This line introduces that it is important.
It’s also hitting on the “problem-aware” customer’s pain points.
They know they aren’t making as much money as they could, or they know there are other avenues of growth they’re missing out one (but don’t know what those are).
Lastly, it calls out to solution-aware people. These people know about email marketing and its benefits, but this line makes them anxious: “Am I taking full advantage of email marketing? Am I doing it right? Am I missing out on revenue?”
So although this line looks simple, there’s a lot of insight behind it.
Stats, Social Proof… and Some Personality
That last line in the previous section, powerful as it may be, is still a declarative statement without any evidence.
So the next few lines deliver that evidence.
Moxie cited HubSpot, which carries an immense amount of social proof. You’ll notice they cited the famed 4,200% average ROI for email marketing stat.
The line following the Hubspot citation gives Moxie a chance to keep things light and humorous while further clarifying what the stat means.
Tell Them the What…
As I discussed earlier, these listicle emails let you offer readers the “what” — tell them a few things they can do to solve some of their problems.
Moxie gives them the 3 list items, followed by a clear-cut explanation of each. Can’t complain here.
They also gave the first two creative names that fit with their brand voice, which is a plus.
Yes, I realize list item 2 contradicts the advice I gave in this very article. I can understand that position, but I’ll have to respectfully disagree. People can have different points of view!
And hey, some brands feel more comfortable dripping out value without selling right away. Ultimately, that’s up to them.
And Sell Them The How
Finally, here’s the “selling the how”.
Moxie gave them the 3 email sequences they can implement, moving the reader’s problem from “How can I make more money?” to “How can I implement these money-making sequences?”
Then Moxie cleverly emphasizes that writing a ton of emails can be a lot of work, especially if you wear many hats in your business.
This makes the “anxiety” of “how will I implement these?” even worse…
Setting up Moxie perfectly to say “we can do that for you!”
PS: One More Helpful Tip
Postscripts can be a good way to catch the skimmers and scrollers — the people who just want to see what’s at the bottom.
Moxie decides to offer a tip here for using the information presented in a different way. One last way to pack some more value into the email.
Takeaways
This is a textbook example of straightforward value + selling. Present a problem the customer has, show them why they need to solve it, introduce a solution, and tell them how they can get that solution working for them.
These emails work well when you’re dry on email ideas and just need to get something out there, but they’re right at home in planned sequences and campaigns.
They’re quite flexible and adaptable.
What to Do Next
- Get on my email list.
- Reach out to me if you want help writing emails like this one.
- Check out Moxie Copywriting if you’re an agency or entrepreneur who needs marketing help. Don’t worry — they may be a “competitor,” but I’m happy to send them clients if they’re a better fit than I am!