Amazon started in a garage as an online bookstore. Dr. Evi — I mean, Jeff Bezos delivered books via his own car.
Coca-Cola began life as a medicine that contained wine and… cocaine, among other ingredients.
(Fun fact: coca leaves are still used in Coca-Cola production, but a chemical company “de-cocainizes” the leaves first.)
Nintendo was founded in 1889 as a playing card company, barely 2 decades after Japan leapt out of tradition and into the modern age…
And almost 7 decades before the world’s very first video game was created in 1958.
Whether inspirational or absurd, there’s no doubt the “origin story” is a marketing classic.
Good origin stories never fail to pique the customer’s interest and establish an emotional connection with them.
They move you beyond “faceless business.”
Most good About pages, email launches, and welcome sequences contain a brand origin story, but you can apply this to products within individual sales emails.
In this post, we’ll look at an email from paddleboard company GILI Sports that uses elements of the “origin story” to sell one of their products.
About GILI Sports
GILI Sports is an online company that sells inflatable paddleboards. They seem to be known for being durable and stable.
The brand also donates some of its proceeds to various ocean-focused charitable causes. Some profits and time go to organizing beach cleanups and similar initiatives as well.
I believe I discovered GILI through another copywriter or marketer who broke down a previous GILI email.
The Email: Storytelling, Emotion, and Making the Customer Feel Good About Themselves
This email is great at establishing an emotional connection.
It highlights one of GILI’s highly-rated products, then dives into some backstory so the reader can learn more about it.
It also contains images (but used the right way) and a testimonial/review section to offer social proof and tie the email together.
You’ll see what I mean as you keep reading.
The Subject Line: Curiosity and Social Proof in One Sentence
I love this subject line. I don’t have the stats from GILI, but I bet this got a lot of opens.
It cleverly blends curiosity, social proof, and bond-building in 8 words (counting five-start as 2 words).
The curiosity comes from “This iSUP” because the reader has to click to learn which one. Adding to that is the “240 five-star reviews,” so now the reader wants to click if they’re interested in buying an ISUP.
And lastly, it’s a bit of an informative/bond-building subject line because it keeps the reader in the loop about the goings-on at the company.
An “Origin Story” Intro
Here, GILI does the product origin story but does sprinkle in a bit of brand origin story for context.
Now, I’ve railed against using images in email. But my position’s more nuanced than that.
Images like this work because it’s a text-based email with images, not an image-based email with text snippets, if you get what I’m saying.
So in this case, the image breaks up the text for the reader while drawing their eye to that big, orange “SHOP NOW” button.
One last thing: I like how the writer hyperlinked the name of the product to the product page. Implicit CTAs used in appropriate amounts work well.
Now, let’s look at the rest of the story.
Connect the Story to Values the Customer and Brand Share
Here, GILI gets a little deeper into the origin story by describing the island for which the product is named and continues to interweave the brand’s story and values throughout.
Then comes the big bomb:
Their charitable contributions.
GILI demonstrates they live out their values with passionate copy explaining how and why they help environment-related causes.
Which leads right back to the customer:
You, as a customer, are central to this.
Some of the money you pay for your iSUP goes directly toward helping the oceans.
Creating a good product draws in customers — but expressing real values and passion for living those values as a brand keeps around the customers who share them.
It makes the customer feel like they’re part of your mission. Part of your tribe.
And, I mean, the target customer feels good about themselves when they buy an iSUP if they know some of their money goes to a good cause.
The best part?
The whole thing is very human-like. It’s Jay the CEO talking to you — not GILI writing at you.
It’s Jay sharing his passion, from one human to another.
The Pitch, With Simple Features and Benefits
GILI cleverly worked in how they now use Buy Now Pay Later software without breaking up the email’s flow. That’s neat, and it’ll draw in more sales from people who prefer to spread their payments out.
This last text section finishes out with CTA language and an image of who I believe to be Jay (I could be wrong) using the product in question.
So now the customer can see the product in the flesh (well, not the flesh, you know what I mean).
Great stuff.
Oh Yeah, Here’s Some of That Sweet Social Proof
GILI can say they have 240 testimonials for this product, but why not show some of those reviews?
I appreciate how the reviews go in-depth. I’m certain GILI got a lot of “Love it!” short reviews with five stars…
But the longer reviews let the reader see what benefits and features the customer gets to experience. It dimensionalizes the benefits by helping the reader visualize them in action.
Normally, I’d point out how you can increase trust by showing some 4-star reviews.
But the point of this email was that this product has 240 five-star reviews, so showing only five-star reviews is the right choice.
The Final CTA
One more CTA for good measure, now that the reader’s seen the testimonials. The little blurb above the button is great because it makes the CTA more than just “shop now.” It’s pitching the social proof angle of “join others using our product.”
After the button are a few lines of boilerplate copy urging customers to respond with questions.
This can do two things:
- Builds trust. Customers can interact with a real person who answers their questions, building trust and humanizing the brand.
- Improves deliverability. In general, when customers reply to you via email and interact, your deliverability can increase.
Takeaways
GILI combines storytelling, social proof, and its brand mission into a sales email that packs a punch.
I enjoy how GILI was able to tie together their brand story, this specific product’s story, and their mission/values into a flowing narrative that connects with the reader and makes them feel good about buying.
As for some technical matters, I like how GILI sprinkles the images with CTA buttons throughout. Again, this is a text-based email with images, not an image-based email with text snippets. Big difference.
What to Do Next
- Get on my email list.
- Reach out to me if you want help writing emails like this one.
- Check out GILI Sports if you’re into paddleboarding!