Most of what a business does is solve customer problems. Sometimes, you get paid for it.
Sell a weight loss supplement? You’re solving a weight problem the customer has.
Sell a guitar course? You’re helping a guitar player solve a problem with self-teaching or not progressing fast enough.
With this in mind:
You don’t need to complicate your email marketing all that much. Pick a problem the customer faces and provide a solution.
Of course, solving one problem creates a new one.
You can use this to your advantage in email copy: Explain a solution to a problem, explain a solution to the next problem, etc…
Until you reach the problem only your offer can solve.
Today’s email from Creator Marketing is a good example of this “problem→solution” chain. Let’s take a look.
| Table of Contents |
| About Creator Marketing The Email: The Problem→Solution Chain The Subject Line and Sender Name The Body Copy Takeaways What to Do Next |
About Creator Marketing
Creator Marketing is an advertising and marketing agency that, according to its About page, helps “design, build and produce marketing content to get your advertising campaigns performing 2X-10X ROAS.”
Creator Marketing is run by Founder and CEO Alex Velazquez. It’s a small, nimble team.
Its website lists clients as big as Netflix (to promote a movie), Entrepreneur (to promote their conference), Grant Cardone, and Financial Wellness Solutions Group. Not bad.
The Email: The Problem→Solution Chain
Today’s email is short and simple but offers plenty of lessons. It’s what I have decided to call a “problem→solution chain”:
Well-structured. Pleasing to the eye in terms of colors and spacing.
Also, the CTA button is “above the fold”. That means you can see it right away when you open the email. Thus, you shed fewer “this email is too long” readers.
(Not that long emails fail all the time… but you naturally lose a few busier readers if it’s long.)
So how about that copy…
The Subject Line and Sender Name
Our subject line promises a solution to a common problem in the target audience:
The word “Forever” is key. Without it, the subject line has less punch and, frankly, would be a snoozer.
Now, check out the sender name:
It’s the founder and CEO!
This made me open because I genuinely thought the founder/CEO wrote to me — Despite the title case subject line.
The Body Copy
The email opens with the subject line, sans “Forever” (pardon the lack of centering in the screenshot; my fault):
Creator Marketing immediately offers the solution to the big problem named in the subject line and headline and “dissects” the problem a bit.
Here’s what I mean:
Money can solve low income. But you need income to have money. You know, the “I need a job to get work experience to get a job.” conundrum. So a lack of funds makes it hard to fix the income problem. And if you don’t lack money, you don’t have the problem in the first place.
The other aspect is time. If you don’t have money, you can spend your time learning how to get clients and/or going after them…
But a lot of people just don’t have that either. Or, they do, technically, but they also have responsibilities like family. So they get stuck in an endless loop of low income, unable to set aside time to find out how to grow.
Getting known solves the money issue because you always have customers… and the time issue because you don’t have to constantly seek them out (or learn how to).
So Creator Marketing’s solution solves both issues that lead to the main problem.
But by stating this solution, Creator Marketing creates another problem:
How to get known. The next link in the problem→solution chain comes next.
Hard and steady promotion. Logical and simple. So that’s the solution to the problem created by the solution in the first section.
Creator Marketing (or, Alex, the sender, rather) fleshes this point out:
Alex makes it personal by saying, “My hard rule.” It’s less of a boring, abstract concept when the email mentions that the company or writer uses and recommends this rule to people.
The second line offers a bit of future-pacing copy and connects it to just how straightforward the goal is to achieve.
The reader gets excited. They know all they must do is this one thing long enough and they’ll reach success.
But although the solution is simple, it is not easy. So we’ve created another problem to solve. We have to go another “How” level deeper:
How do you promote yourself? Especially when you don’t have the time to devise a plan or even learn how to market yourself in the first place? How do you avoid wasting weeks on marketing that gets zero results?
Enter, the CTA section:
The end of the problem→solution chain is to book a call with Creator Marketing.
After all, the solution of crafting a plan to promote yourself isn’t easy. Expert help makes it a lot easier.
I like the CTA copy. It’s a mix of benefit copy and a “mystery click.” The reader wants more clients but doesn’t know what’s on the other side.
One more section, though:
That top line adds a touch of personality to the email. It just feels more organic.
I also like how Creator Marketing lists its website, phone number, and email address. It reinforces that personal feel. Almost like Creator Marketing is a trusted peer or friend ready to help.
An excellent approach to making your business approachable.
Takeaways
Here are some big takeaways:
1. The Copy Mechanics
The two big mechanical takeaways:
- Readability
- Casualness
The email uses spacing well and has a list despite it only having two items. Some italics appear throughout to emphasize certain points.
Another aspect of readability I enjoy is the “headline” at the start. It’s a nice touch that many text-based emails don’t have. It’s not necessary, but it does offer a bit more of a unique look.
As for casualness…
Notice the first- and second-person language. “I”, “me”, and “you”. It’s a conversation between the writer and the reader.
I understand that eCom brands may have to do “the team at BRAND” and that’s fine. But digital product and services businesses tend to be more personal-brand oriented and, most of the time, should be doing this first-person stuff.
2. The Email Structure
The email structure is as follows:
- Headline
- Solution 1… Also Problem 2
- Solution 2… Also Problem 3
- Justification/Reasoning for #3
- CTA
See? It’s a chain. Solution 1 doubles as Problem 2. Solution 2 doubles as Problem 3. Creator Marketing’s services are the solution to Problem 3.
3. The Overall Strategy
Not much strategy here. The main goal of the email is to add another pebble to the “customer relationship” scale and book a few calls.
One thing Creator Marketing could do to take this email further, assuming it performed well:
Stick it in a flow.
A Welcome Sequence or Abandonment Flow (maybe they make a “Call Abandonment” or Site Abandonment Flow) are good candidates.
It would let Creator Marketing address a key pain point among customers who have shown interest in their services.
What to Do Next
- Get on my email list using the signup form below for more Email Breakdowns and other helpful marketing content.
- Share this with someone who might find it helpful (or entertaining).
- Reach out to me if you want help writing emails like this one.
- Check out Creator Marketing — book a free ad analysis with them here (no, I am not an affiliate).