Want to know what I love more than seeing great emails out “in the wild”?
Seeing great emails from brands I buy from…
Especially brands with whom I have a subscription.
Because I know that behind those great emails is an amazing and, in this case, delicious offer.
Good Ranchers is one of those brands. And in this post, I break down a welcome email I received from them.
Keep reading:
About Good Ranchers
Good Ranchers is a meat subscription service (akin to ButcherBox) focusing on American-raised and packaged meat. It offers beef, chicken, pork, and seafood.
You see, a lot of the meat on store shelves is often not so good. Furthermore, according to Good Ranchers, 85% of grass-fed beef in the store comes from other countries. America has tons of farmers and ranchers raising cattle, so we could easily buy more from our fellow citizens.
Mr. and Mrs. Ben and Corley Spell founded Good Ranchers to strengthen the American farmer and rancher by getting more of their high-quality animal products to the American dining table. Of course, this also means American families get tastier, healthier, more humane meat.
Good Ranchers started with like 3 options, and have since grown to 10 at the time of writing. You can get all of one meat or a mix. You can also choose how often you want the deliveries, and I believe Good Ranchers lets you lock in a price on your subscription.
Let me tell you:
Their stuff is GREAT.
The sirloins are amazing, but the burgers, in my opinion, are on another level. So much flavor. All I do is salt them and cook them in butter and holy sh!t, Batman.
Good Ranchers has some of the best customer service I’ve ever seen. FedEx drivers screwed up my delivery once, causing the meat to spoil.
Good Ranchers, without asking for much more than a few details on the situation, happily sent me a new box at no extra cost.
This happened another time when my order arrived while I was traveling. Despite the copious amount of dry ice, the meat went bad after sitting in the Texas summer sun for days.
It’s always bad when good meat goes rotten, but Good Ranchers makes things a little better by putting the customer first.
Meat boxes cost a fair bit of money. Customers don’t want to risk jumping ship for another one for the risk of being disappointed and out a few hundred $$$.
So when they find a meat box company with good products that cares, they will stick around for the long haul.
Lots of non-email marketing lessons in there.
Pro-Good Ranchers rant over. Let’s look at their welcome email.
The Email: Welcome + Discount
The Good Ranchers welcome email offers a succinct “welcome to the brand” message along with the lead magnet — $20 off your first order.
I’m usually not one for graphics in emails. However, the pictures in this email don’t interfere with the email’s goal of closing that first sale.
NOTE: The email itself is too long to showcase in this section. You’ll see how each piece ties into the whole throughout the email below.
The Subject Line and Preview Text:
The subject line is short, sweet, and straightforward:
A welcome message + reminder that their gift (for signing up for the list) is inside the email.
That’s all you really need for a welcome email. Anything fancy or “cute” might confuse the new subscriber — who doesn’t likely know you well — and they might never make that first order.
Moving onto the preview text:
Not much depth to the preview text, and that’s fine. It’s better than it being blank or randomly showing the first few lines of body copy.
It might even spark a tad bit of curiosity.
The Body Copy
The welcome email is fairly short on copy and includes a fair bit of graphics.
But visuals work well in this niche — why not show a bright red slab of grass-fed beef?
And I don’t think the graphics are intrusive. To me, they complement the copy.
Here’s what I mean:
See what I mean?
Delicious chunks of beef pair well with a simple welcome message and CTA.
That scoops up the least skeptical/most urgent buyers.
But Good Ranchers knows that customers vary in their skepticism/urgency. So we move onto the body copy:
In just a few lines, Good Ranchers:
- Demonstrates its values (American-raised meat)
- Offers benefits (no guesswork on meat, warm and fuzzies by supporting families in need)
- Another CTA (where the $20 off is bolded, a nice touch to draw the eyes)
These few lines of copy help show the customer they’re in the right place. They found a company that shares their pro-America, pro-charity, and pro-good-food values.
The CTA offers Good Ranchers a segue to a few of its top subscriptions, such as the Ranchers Classic:
You’ve got the name of the subscription, everything it includes (in visual and bullet list form), and another big “ORDER NOW” button.
Plus, Good Ranchers reminds you in the list that you’re supporting American farms, ranchers, and food banks.
We see the same thing for another popular box, The Cattleman, of which I am a subscriber:
Yum. Amirite, or amirite?
Good Ranchers throws in one more option for a bit of product diversity:
So Good Ranchers offers three distinct options — variety pack, beef, and chicken — to cast as wide a net as possible.
Great way to secure the sale immediately from people of all different meat persuasions.
The email body comes to a close with some of the company’s main selling points reiterated:
Plus, a 100% satisfaction guarantee and one final CTA button.
Doing this helps secure buyers who have read this far and simply want a “guarantee”.
That’s because some people may be almost sold but need that last bit of reassurance. Doesn’t really decrease sales to add more to the email if you already provided plenty of buying opportunities.
So is the email done?
Nope, one of my favorite parts is up next:
Good Ranchers throws these funny little PS’s in for personality. I love them.
Sometimes, they’re goofy little tidbits like this. Other times, they’re straight up puns or even jokes.
Either way, Good Ranchers ain’t afraid to be a little funny. Sticks them in your mind for next time.
Takeaways
Good Ranchers spends just enough time acquainting the subscriber with the brand — since the subscriber has already heard of and is interested in them — before dropping several opportunities to buy in front of them.
The graphics don’t distract but enhance the email. It is meat, after all. A little bit of imagery goes a long way.
Overall, all welcome emails want to secure the sale and build rapport. The priority on each depends on the brand and niche.
For brands like Good Ranchers, securing the sale is the first priority…
And I think this email does that quite well.
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.
- Go buy meat from Good Ranchers. You won’t regret it!