I grew up fighting with a busy mind every night.
Staring at the ceiling…
Fighting to fall asleep by 1am…
Just to wake up at 7am for school.
(School should start later for kids. This is a line in the sand for me.)
I’m no stranger to sleep deprivation, and, especially after learning its deleterious effects, I take my sleep seriously.
I crank the AC, use a weighted blanket, have sleep headphones that double as a mask, and have melatonin on hand if needed. And I’m always following other sleep companies to see what other innovations are afoot.
(In fact, as I write this, I work with at least two brands in the sleep niche!)
One of these brands is a cutting-edge sleep tech company called Eight Sleep.
At the time of writing, this brand had just come off its Memorial Day sale, and I was pleasantly surprised by a few of the tail-end emails.
So, yeah, I broke two of them down. They’re similar but swap out key elements, offering you a lesson in email testing and resend techniques.
Check it out…
About Eight Sleep
Eight Sleep is a sleep tech company that makes a high-end, cutting-edge sleep/mattress system called “The Pod.”
The Pod can do a lot of things:
- Heat and cool your body throughout the night based on your body temp and the room temp — each side of the bed can be customized
- Adjust the head and foot of the bed for optimal comfort, whether sitting upright to read or sleeping with slight head and foot angles
- Track vibrations to detect snoring on both sides of the bed
- Auto-adjust if it detects snoring to cease said snoring
- Monitor your time spent in different sleep stages (and overall sleep time) based on heartbeat and other biometrics
- Wake you up with a gentle vibration and thermal alarm
- Provides analytics on your sleep
Oh, and the Autopilot tech that fuels much of this learns about your sleep over time, adjusting these things automatically.
Pretty advanced stuff.
As for the names behind the brand…
Eight Sleep was founded in 2014 by:
- Matteo Franceschetti — CEO at the time of writing
- Massimo Bassi — CTO at the time of writing
- Andrea Ballarini — Former COO
- Alexandra Zatarain — VP of Brand and Marketing at the time of writing
According to the About Page, pro athletes and top performers across various industries currently use Eight Sleep (lesson in there about calling out your audience).
The brand released its all-new Pod 4 around the time I wrote this Breakdown, refining its tech while adding more features.
The Emails: Two Emails For One!
Today, you get an Email Breakdown twofer — meaning a two-for-one if you aren’t as hip as I am.
Here’s the first subject line and email in the series:
And here’s the second:
See? They look the same, with a few tweaks to the first and last lines.
Let’s look at everything in more detail…
The Subject Lines and Sender Names:
The first email came from Matteo, the CEO of Eight Sleep:
I like how the brand decided to send from a person. And it’s believable that the CEO wrote it since, as you’ll see, the email’s pretty short.
As for the subject line, this email goes the obvious route. It’s Memorial Day, so the CEO is “giving the customer a Memorial Day gift.”
This adds some curiosity since they aren’t sure what the gift is, even if they’re coming off the past several emails in Eight Sleep’s Memorial Day campaign.
This one’s also from a higher-up in the company — the VP of Brand & Marketing.
As for the subject line, it leverages the savings angle rather than the Memorial Day angle. There’s no curiosity here. Instead, it’s about getting opens from non-openers by being more explicit about the benefit.
Both emails offer the same deal, but different subject lines grab the attention of different customer types (or catch customers who simply missed the first one).
The Body Copy: The First Email, Sent May 26, 2024
The first email of these two breaks the news (or reminds the customer) of the most updated version of The Pod:
It also presents the Memorial Day savings amount.
Notice the use of urgency — “for 3 more days” — to shake people off the fence.
I like the implicit CTA use. Linking “Pod 4 Ultra” gets some curiosity clickers to move to the product page, which could help close some of the more buyer-ready customers.
But for those who aren’t ready yet, the email offers up a list of bullet benefits:
That first line starts building the offer’s value by framing it as a new and improved version of the old product.
Notice the bullets. Some position the new Pod against the old. Others sell the overall features the Pod is known for but in a benefit-driven fashion.
Eight Sleep manages to balance new and existing customer customers.
I bet this creates a bit of FOMO among existing customers, too. I mean those who bought the previous Pod. Now, they want the newest thing with the hottest (or coolest?) features and, given the target audience, have the money to shell out.
That brings us to the last line and signoff:
A nice and simple CTA with the sale reminder.
The signature is simple. No bold, italics, or graphics. Just Matteo’s name, title, and company. Helps the email keep a personal fee.
The Body Copy: The Second Email, Sent May 27, 2024
The second email tries a different opening line. But instead of mentioning the sale up front, it focuses on a big benefit:
Rather than get into the weeds right away, Eight Sleep gives the customer what they want — more sleep.
One hour is a LOT, too. If you sleep 6 hours a night, 7 hours can make a world of difference.
I like how the benefit copy’s bolded, too. And notice the implicit CTA at the start of the sentence. Once again, capturing the readers ready to click through.
We then get to the “meat”, the benefits section:
Everything is the same as the first email. But here’s the thing:
The benefits complement this email’s hook better, in a way. Each bullet almost provides a “scientific” or “feature-based” justification for why Eight Sleep helps you sleep longer.
Great choice.
Like the first email, our second email closes with a CTA and signoff after the bullets:
Once again, the main point of the copy is bolded. The email reminds people of that sale, after all.
This signoff is even more personalized than the first email. Abby doesn’t even have her title. That may work to some degree since it brings here “down to earth” more.
Takeaways
Here are some big takeaways:
1. The Copy Mechanics
Neither email has a whole lot of copy. But we still have a few mechanical takeaways to study:
Bullets
Eight Sleep layers on benefits (and improvements over the previous product version) with bullets.
Notice how most of the bullets have “XYZ feature” followed by some way that feature helps.
For example:
Personalized sleep positions for back pressure relief and improved circulation.
The only two bullets lacking this are the first two. But those compare themselves directly against the old model, which appeals to existing customers.
Implicit CTAs
These always grab curiosity and, depending on the price point, make sales.
Personal
These emails are pure text and come from higher-ups at the brand. Helps establish a connection and “decorporatize” the brand.
Bolding
Each email bolds certain phrases, such as the sale amount or big benefit, to draw attention and place emphasis.
2. The Email Structure
Email 1’s structure is as follows:
- Product launch reminder + promo details reminder
- Benefit bullets
- CTA
- Signature
Email 2’s structure is as follows:
- Product + Big Benefit
- Benefit bullets
- Promo details reminder
- Signature
I like Email 2’s flow better for one reason — the Big Benefit in the first line.
Opening with the Big Benefit and following it with bullets that back it up “build value” for the customer.
Then, Eight Sleep makes it a “no brainer” by reminding the customer of the discount.
Still, both emails are excellent from a structural perspective.
3. The Overall Strategy
This was part of a general Memorial Day campaign. Here are some takeaways:
Resending — Short-term repurposing
The big strategy takeaway:
Resends. Or, in other words, short-term repurposing.
Not everyone opens an email. Even the best ones. Resending high-performing copy with a different subject line angle (and perhaps a new sender name to grab more attention) to the non-openers can capture more sales.
The Holidays
I noticed Eight Sleep, which rarely uses plain text, alternated between plain text and image + text emails through this campaign.
Seems like they’re trying to capture as many types of customers as possible by experimenting with many elements, including the format and style.
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 Eight Sleep for cutting-edge, top-of-the-line mattresses!