You may have noticed I don’t talk only about email or “in the weeds” copywriting anymore. I discuss broader business topics…
Particularly customer retention.
Email fits into customer retention, but it’s just one piece (albeit a powerful one).
I realized the hard way (read: real-world client experience) that the best email copy on earth won’t get a business anywhere if it focuses on the wrong things.
I also realized that tons of businesses are so caught up with acquisition…
They let existing customers — people who bought and/or subscribed to recurring purchases — fall by the wayside.
Not roasting these business owners for that. Nothing lights up the brain’s dopamine machinery like closing new sales. I totally get it.
But getting sucked into the acquisition hamster wheel is a surefire way to get stuck “in your business”…
Instead of compounding your revenue and gaining the capital needed to grab market share.
I decided then and there that I’d pivot to helping companies with customer retention.
I brought this to one of my coaches, Kevin Rogers (of Copy Chief fame). He agreed that I should pursue this.
He also recommended a resource:
The world’s foremost expert on building, growing, and scaling subscription businesses.
His name is Robert Skrob.
I immediately bought Mr. Skrob’s book, Retention Point (well worth the $10 price tag), and got on his email list.
That brings us to today’s Email Breakdown — one of Mr. Skrob’s emails.
Not only will you get some nuggets of email copywriting wisdom…
But you’ll gain some insights into strengthening customer retention and growing a subscription business.
Keep reading for this double whammy of an Email Breakdown.
About Robert Skrob
Robert Skrob is one of the world’s foremost experts on member retention and revenue growth for subscription businesses. He is the founder of Be Unleavable, the brand through which he educates subscription businesses on how to grow.
I read his book Retention Point, and it’s great. He changed the way I look at subscription-based businesses and how to grow them. All it took was 1.5 hours of reading.
Only $10 on Amazon, but it could earn your subscription brand an insane amount if you implement what’s inside. Highly recommend it.
The Email: Give ‘Em Something Valuable… For Free
We’ve got a text-based email with the exciting free stuff available as an image:
There’s a good amount of copy in this short email. Yet the image offers a break in the middle while delivering the free goodies.
Let’s look at each element of this email — starting with the subject line — and see what makes it tick…
The Subject Line: “[Info-Graphic PDF] 10 Retention Accelerators to increase your growth”
This subject line is a straight shooter, promising a benefit in plain language:
Notice how “Retention Accelerators” is written as a proper noun. You’ll soon learn it is a proper noun and part of Mr. Skrob’s system.
But subscribers might not know that. So the capitalization catches attention. It indicates something important is in this email.
Another aspect that catches attention is the brackets. If you’re on my email list, you’ll notice I put [New] before any blog post for the same reason.
The Body Copy
Mr. Skrob starts his email with a question that puts the customer in a happy and positive mental frame:
See? He’s got his readers thinking about their best customers.
Their brand advocates.
By phrasing this as a question, he gets the reader nodding along and anticipating some awesome insights about them.
“Yes, I know and love these customers. What about them?”
Mr. Skrob then delivers on that implication of an insight in the second sentence.
The reader is hooked now. They know the goal (the Retention Point) they must reach to get more of the benefit (their best customers) but aren’t sure how to reach that goal.
They need the bridge (the solution)… and Mr. Skrob offers them one option:
His “Retention Point Accelerators” are that solution.
He also links it with an implicit CTA to scoop up the “first round” of interested readers.
A link to the book is present, too, in case people are open to buying it. But he makes it clear that it’s a link to a paid product, so those who don’t want it can just ignore it.
Clever.
Mr. Skrob then shows an image of the most vital section of the PDF — the Accelerators themselves.
BOOM. A valuable resource, absolutely free.
I like how he linked to the downloadable asset and included an image (which also links to the PDF). Makes viewing this free resource as easy as possible… for as many readers as possible.
Also, showing the image gets the reader to know exactly what they will see when they click, increasing the chance that they grab the PDF.
And when they click, they’ll be pleasantly surprised by brief explanations of each Accelerator.
Oh, and notice how he put his book’s website URL in the image. The book elaborates on these Retention Accelerators.
So putting the book site URL is a nice way to nudge the reader toward the low-ticket, front-end offer again.
Immediately after revealing the solution (the 10 Retention Accelerators), Mr. Skrob fires off the top 3 benefits of implementing it:
Again, perfect timing. You can tell Mr. Skrob understands sales psychology and how to structure sales writing.
Lower churn rates + faster membership growth = EXPLOSIVE recurring revenue growth.
What subscription business could resist such a promise?
Plus, Mr. Skrob makes this resource even more compelling by reiterating how short it is:
“And it’s all condensed down into just two pages.”
Perfect setup for the next section, which urges the reader to use this resource:
Mr. Skrob knows his stuff works. So if he makes no sales in this email, that’s fine. He just has to get his reader to do something simple — print off this free resource, share it, and get great results.
They’ll come back later for the book and maybe higher-level offers.
Speaking of sharing it, the reader sharing this document with their team and peers gets Mr. Skrob’s name in front of more eyeballs.
But back to the “results” portion. Mr. Skrob adds a bit more copy to show just how easy it is to get these wins:
You’ve got 10 Accelerators to pick from, but businesses across industries have seen results just by focusing on two of them.
There’s no reason not to print this resource out and start using it ASAP. The reader just has to pick two of the Accelerators and go all in on them!
We reach the closing of the email. It does everything right:
Mr. Skrob asks the reader, conversationally, to let him know what they think. And also to reply with questions.
Replies = deliverability boost, a chance to secure some conversions (downloads or sales), and an opportunity to uncover common questions among readers.
That latter point is excellent for market research, lead magnet creation, offer creation, etc.
Mr. Skrob leaves us with a long PS:
This PS offers a big chunk of proof. Mr. Skrob’s done this for over two decades across niches.
Thus, he’s “seen it all.” He knows his broad principles and strategies and the particulars of different niches and business models.
All that gives the most skeptical readers one final nudge to click through and grab his free series of short videos.
Which, of course, likely segments them on the backend and puts them into a relevant funnel.
Finally, his standard signature block:
A professional headshot adds a human touch while maintaining a professional air.
Mr. Skrob also has his company’s name, address, phone, and email. Making himself open to communications.
Subtle trust-boosting factor in there.
The best part about signature blocks is they aren’t hard to design.
I’m not a graphic designer, yet I’ve done them for clients. You can too!
Takeaways
Here are some big takeaways:
1. The Copy Mechanics
The offer here is a free resource, but the second half of the email provides us a formula you can apply to paid products.
Mr. Skrob introduces the benefits of the resource, but that’s not enough…
He explains how to use the resource to achieve results clearly and specifically. And they’re easy enough to follow.
Speaking of specificity…
He mixes specificity with social proof to make taking action on the free resource even more tantalizing. He’s seen all sorts of businesses score wins with just 20% of what he gives away in the resource.
Another takeaway is the two formats you can get the resource:
- Clicking on an implicit CTA
- Clicking on the image
- Simply viewing the image
Captures as many types of readers as possible.
2. The Email Structure
The Copy Mechanics play off the Email Structure. They’re closely related here.
From our Copy Mechanics discussion, we can derive the following formula for the second half of the email:
Benefit + instructions to achieve benefit + (specific result x proof).
I multiply the result by the social proof because, well, you can think of it more as a multiplier. You can’t just say, “many businesses use this resource” very effectively (proof). Readers don’t care. They want results.
Thus, you can say “you could achieve XYZ result” to some effect (specific result).
But more powerfully, you can say “ABC businesses have achieved XYZ results with this.” That combines results and social proof while reducing the need to hedge your language.
Anyways, quick example to apply to a paid product in a different niche — let’s do a sleep mask:
Feel more energized and happy every morning + put on sleep mask + many customers report more and better sleep the first night they wear it.
Now, let’s construct the first half:
“Goal-driven agreeable question” hook + educational content + offer.
The “educational content” section in this email is short — it’s simply defining the Retention Point — since the resource is free. Paid products may involve a little more education so you can frame your product as the result.
So our email formula/structure is as follows:
- “Goal-driven agreeable question” hook
- How to achieve goal in hook
- Offer
- Benefit
- Instructions to achieve benefit
- Specific result X social proof
There’s a free email formula for ya.
3. The Overall Strategy
The aim here is to gain trust and favor with the reader by scoring them a “free” win. My evidence is the focus on getting the reader to take action on the free resource.
If things go right:
The reader will see tangible results in their business using nothing but a free resource and some elbow grease.
Then, they will wonder how much they could accomplish by purchasing and following Mr. Skrob’s paid offers.
Yes, there are other CTAs — the book and the free video series.
But those feel secondary. Mr. Skrob took the approach of “sell in every email,” hence the book and free video series CTAs.
If people buy the book or get on that free video series list, great. But I don’t think Mr. Skrob’s hurting for sales or subscribers.
What to Do Next
- Get on my email list using the signup form below for more Email Breakdowns and other helpful marketing content.
- Reach out to me if you want help writing emails like this one.
- Check out Robert Skrobb’s website and his company, Be Unleavable, and get on his email list. You’ll get tons of great content about creating iron-clad customer retention and never worrying about acquisition again.