Here’s the cool thing about being a marketer and making industry friends:
You can send each other work. Especially if you both have email lists.
All you do is write an email (or several) to your list selling someone else’s offer.
But instead of taking an affiliate commission…
The other person writes an email to their list selling your offer.
(This may be a MUCH bigger thing than it already is soon. Chris Orzechowski recently wrote an entire issue of his Make It Rain Monthly newsletter about a similar strategy he’s using in his business to rake in bags of cash.)
This works best if you and your list swap partner offer complementary services.
For example: If you’re a personal trainer selling workout programs and/or one-on-one coaching, you might swap lists with a nutritionist who helps people get on a good diet.
See what I mean?
Personal training clients are likely interested in help with nutrition and vice-versa.
Today, I want to break down a live example of a list swap email one SaaS marketing and growth expert used to help his friend’s business.
About Aaron Krall
Aaron Krall is an expert in the field of SaaS marketing. He is the founder of SaaS Accelerator.
According to his LinkedIn bio, Aaron “helps SaaS companies with an ARPU of $100 or more achieve scalable, predictive growth and are looking for proven systems and frameworks they can implement into their business to increase revenue and build a scalable SaaS.”
Full transparency: I believe I hopped on his list — at someone else’s suggestion — precisely to study his emails.
The Email: Swapping Lists With Industry Friends
We’re looking at a list swap email here. Aaron Krall is a SaaS marketing/growth expert, and he has a friend (also named Aaron) who writes SaaS website copy.
So they did a list swap:
(Short, sweet, and extremely casual. I can fit the whole email in this post without making you squint at the screen!)
A perfect pairing — SaaS marketing expert and SaaS website copywriter. Each business’s clients will be a great fit for the other.
Now let’s get into the nitty-gritty…
The Subject Line: “free home page review (SaaS only)”
The subject line gets right to the point, but the style elements are the big winners here.
It’s all lower-case — even the first letter of the subject line:
That grabs attention because it’s not the norm, and it’s ultra-casual.
I like parenthesis, too. Symbols almost always draw more attention.
Furthermore: The copy in the parenthesis seeds exclusivity and curiosity.
People want to feel special. Saying “(SaaS only)” qualifies your leads and gets the target market opening.
The Body Copy
The email starts off conversational, and I mean conversational:
This doesn’t even look like a formal marketing or sales email. That’s the point. It’s like Aaron’s just letting you know about something cool he came across.
The third line has the pitch, but it still doesn’t feel very “salesy”. It’s just “Hey, if you need a homepage refresh, I know a guy.”
The level of formality and salesy-ness will depend on your brand voice and relationship with your list…
But this shows you can get straight to the point with a strong list relationship.
Next, Aaron gives a quick rundown of what his friend can do for the reader:
Copywriters can get fancy with their bullets if they want. But sometimes, you just need to tell the reader what they’re getting…
This is, after all, a free audit. It’s on Mr. Wrixon to upsell his free audit clients to paid homepage improvement clients.
Speaking of upselling…
We get a bit of dimensionalization and future-pacing:
In two sentences, Mr. Krall helps the reader picture the result… and indicates the reader can also hire Mr. Wrixon for these services.
Nice, casual, and transparent.
We then move to the CTA, where Mr. Krall qualifies the reader one more time:
When swapping lists, you want the swap partner to get great leads so they will partner with you again. That’s why Mr. Krall added some more qualification copy before the CTA.
We can’t forget the PS:
I like how Mr. Krall works in social proof here. He’s not just forwarding a testimonial about his friend’s services from his coaching client…
He’s discussing how he, a SaaS marketing expert, was impressed with his friend’s work. Yeah, you talk up your friends, but your reputation’s still on the line. If your friend does shoddy work, that can reflect on you, the recommender.
Takeaways
Here are some big takeaways:
1. The Copy Mechanics
Overall, the copy is very personable. Mr. Krall’s brand positioning lends itself well to that since it’s just him. You can see this quality in basically all of the copy, from the subject line (sentence case) to the CTA.
The email almost feels like it was “dashed off” in just a few minutes (I don’t mean that in a bad way)… and it probably was since Mr. Krall is a good email copywriter.
2. The Email Structure
The copy follows a classic sales argument structure — it’s just a lot shorter because the offer is free. It starts with a problem (a homepage that needs updating), followed by a pitch, what the offer entails, future pacing/results of using the offer, and a final pitch.
It’s all plain text, and there’s no fluff.
3. The Overall Strategy
You don’t have to sell your partner’s highest-ticket offers in a list swap. That puts too much pressure on you, yet you don’t know your partner’s offer and process as well as they do.
The leads, after all, are fairly hot already. Free stuff is easier to sell anyone on, let alone hot leads. And this isn’t affiliate marketing, anyways.
So just send them to the free stuff, like an email list or, in this case, a free consultation. They can take it from there (assuming you found a list swap partner competent at sales).
Do this right, and you could have a beautiful business relationship (and lots of extra $$$) on your hands.
What to Do Next
- Get on my email list using the signup form below.
- Reach out to me if you want help writing emails like this one.
- Check out Wrixon if you’re a SaaS company that needs a sales-worthy homepage revamp… and check out Aaron Krall if you want help growing your SaaS company (his website doesn’t appear to be active, so that’s his LinkedIn).