My previous Email Breakdown covered a short and simple winback for a company that sells a non-consumable product. That product would be handgun holsters.
They had to make their winback a cross-sell email. After all, they can’t sell someone the same holster twice — I don’t know many gun owners who carry two guns at once, let alone one of the same!
That makes things easier and harder at the same time. That brand has to cross-sell, limiting its options.
However, the product they cross-sold (magazine holster to go with the pistol holster) is quite complimentary. Many customers need that at some point.
Consumables are a bit different. You don’t need to identify what the customer already bought in order to sell a complementary item.
More options to win back customers, but you can’t just present a complementary offer and call it a day. The customer already consumed the old product and forgot about you.
You gotta go a little further. You gotta get creative. Add some personality. Inject some humor.
Kind of like Lifeboost Coffee did in this recent winback email they sent me…
About Lifeboost Coffee
Lifeboost Coffee is an online coffee brand focusing on selling the cleanest, most digestion-friendly coffee out there.
The company was founded by Dr. Charles Livingston, who is also the CEO at the time of writing. According to the Our Story page, Dr. Livingston is a Chiropractic Physician by education/trade but has also invested significant time in nutritional research.
This wealth of nutritional knowledge drove him to create Lifeboost Coffee in an effort to deliver people the purest, healthiest caffeinated goodness. It’s created to be:
- Low-acid — Friendly on the stomach, reduces acid reflux
- Single-origin — Avoids cross contamination of molds
- Extremely clean — It’s certified organic, but LifeBoost also has a third-party test their products for mycotoxins, molds, heavy metals, pesticides, and 400 other toxins
Such benefits allow you to enjoy your morning cup o’ Joe and treat your body better in the process.
I love coffee, but I deal with acid reflux occasionally from it. Especially when I slam too much coffee on deadlift days in the gym. So I may be a Lifeboost customer in the future…
The Email: Win Them Back With Personality and Humor
Our email here is a bit longer for a winback email, but not too long in the grand scheme of things:
On first glance, we observe some light visual elements to enhance readability.
Yet, at the same time, this one’s clearly focused on plain text. After all, more people tend to buy again from emails that aren’t full of flashy images and HTML.
So let’s take a look at the copy…
The Subject Line: “Where are you? 🥺”
Lifeboost greets the reader’s inbox with a personal subject line that’s also a question… with an emoji at the end:
The type of question matters. If it were a yes/no question, the reader can just say “no” and never open.
That’s why Lifeboost doesn’t say “Is this goodbye?” Or anything like that. “Where are you?” is open-ended, so more customers could open.
Of course, the subject line also induces curiosity. The reader might be wondering what the brand is even asking about.
The Body Copy
The email copy immediately pays off the subject line and makes the reader giggle a bit in the process:
Those commas at the beginning are probably my bad. That’s supposed to be a liquid first-name field. I must’ve entered my first name, then accidentally replaced it with a comma before clicking the “subscribe” button. I do that sometimes after doing a “ctrl + f” with like 20 windows open.
That aside, I love the humor. Humor lowers the customer’s “sales/marketing defenses” to some degree and makes them like the brand.
It’s the “make them laugh as they pull out their wallet” approach.
We continue…
Interesting choice to include the reply up here, rather than toward the bottom. But I think it works — Lifeboost gets the customer to open up to the sales rep/email marketer early… before they can see the pitch and drop off.
The all-caps and informal use of punctuation may be a mistake, but it adds a “this was written by a human” feel to the copy.
Customers who don’t need to reply then proceed to the next piece of the email:
Ah, look. An image of their products! That image is clickable, by the way, which is a nice touch. Takes the reader straight to the website.
Perfect placement since the discount code is in the next little chunk of copy.
Lifeboost gives the customer a few ideas of what to buy with their discount, followed by a CTA and the discount code.
I like how they said “for your feel-good discount of 15% off” instead of just “for your 15% discount”. A little bit of extra personality doesn’t hurt.
The email doesn’t end yet…
Lifeboost adds a bit of flavor (pun partially intended) with some descriptive copy and product suggestions.
This can help close more sales because customers have a few products in mind when clicking through. Reduces the chance they experience “analysis paralysis” — they can just find the products the email mentioned if they aren’t sure what to try.
Oh, and the adjectives and imagery help the reader picture (and mentally “taste”) the flavors.
Now, we close out the email with some urgency for a final nudge:
Only 48 hours to use it. I like how they say, “48 hours goes by quickly!” because it’s something the customer will nod along and agree with… rather than “you have 48 hours.”
Those subtle psychological tactics give the slightest, gentlest extra push toward the conversion.
One last note at the very bottom:
Good that Lifeboost slides this in there. It’s small, but it’s there for the reader to see.
Readers know they have to get to $50, so they won’t be confused about why the coupon isn’t working… or angry that they must order a certain amount of coffee.
Takeaways
Here are some big takeaways:
1. The Copy Mechanics
The greatest mechanical takeaway here is the humor. But that’s just one element that contributes to the overall “personal-ness” of this piece.
The logo at the top, a clickable image, and some color/font formatting add readability and break up the text.
I also like the all-caps and occasional flouting of grammar rules in certain places to make the email feel like it was “dashed off” to the reader. Certain pieces of the voice also make it feel person-to-person.
2. The Email Structure
The email starts by roping the reader in with some funny copy instead of outright pitching them… even though the sales agenda of this email is clear.
The code only comes later, after the clickable image. Interesting choice, but I think it works because the reader will see the code on their screen at the same time.
Not to mention — they aren’t as likely, necessarily, to click the image since there’s no clear CTA. They may instead see the code and click one of the links.
3. The Overall Strategy
Canceled customers can be a lucrative segment. These people are familiar with your brand, and you have a list of them already. You don’t have to raise their awareness levels. That means less money needs to go toward ads.
However, this segment can be a tough nut to crack. They canceled for a reason. You must overcome additional resistance, especially if they canceled in anger.
Unsubscribes aren’t a huge deal in some cases, as this just cleans your list. But spam complaints, lack of opens, etc. can harm sender reputation. So you really have to be on your game here.
Ideally, you find out why and try to run winback campaigns addressing those issues.
But that takes time to set up. Surveys, segmentation, etc. If you can’t do that, a casual, funny email that doesn’t try too hard is your next best option.
It’ll most likely get good opens at least. Maybe some deliverability-boosting replies. Even if it doesn’t get many sales, it may get some without wrecking your sender reputation.
In short: Try to segment by cancellation reason. If you can’t, use humor and personality while playing the long game.
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.
- Share this post with someone who would find it helpful or insightful.
- Check out Lifeboost Coffee to replace your morning cup o’ Joe with something smoother, tastier, and friendlier to your gut!