Subscription Box Answers

How To Use "Funny Sales Emails" To Grow Your Subscription Box!

• Liam Brennan

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In this episode of Subscription Box Answers, I share two examples of funny sales emails we’ve used at BusterBox to increase sign-ups. 

A great way to differentiate yourself from your competitors is through your marketing. 

Never be afraid to push the boat out and try some outrageous ideas that other companies might be too afraid to attempt. 

This is how you can grab attention and separate yourself from the competition.
 
This approach is especially useful in Q4, a highly competitive time of year when many companies are fighting to sell their products.

Here’s a link to Bill Glazer's Outrageous Advertising book.

If you have a question you want answered on the podcast, make sure to head over to www.SubscriptionBoxResources.com, join the free Facebook group, and post it there.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Subscription Box Answers with your host, liam Brennan. You're no rubbish, no crap. Straight to the point podcast with real, actionable tips, real strategies and insights from the industry which will help you start and grow your own successful subscription box business. You ask the questions, you ask the questions, you ask the questions. Liam gives the answers. It's as simple as that.

Speaker 2:

Welcome back to a brand new episode of Subscription Box Answers. As always, I hope you're having a really good day. On today's episode, we're back talking about marketing. Obviously, we're in Q4 now. This is the prime time for you to get as much movement as possible in your business, and I want to help you any way I can Now. We all know around this time of year, it can be pretty competitive. Even though consumers spend more money, they're getting absolutely blasted from all angles. Companies are sending multiple emails a day, they're ramping up their ad budget and everybody's fighting for attention and fighting for those sales. So you need to find a way to stand out as much as possible.

Speaker 2:

I'm going to share with you a couple of examples of some funny emails that we sent recently in BusterBox. In BusterBox that had amazing open rates and drove a lot of signups in a very short amount of time. And the whole purpose behind this is don't be afraid to push the boat out a bit when it comes to your marketing. Don't be afraid to think outside the box, be creative and be a bit outrageous. Try things that maybe other people haven't tried before, especially around this time of year where it's so competitive Because a lot of these bigger brands. It's just bog standard marketing that they do over and over again. They don't really innovate when it comes to marketing, but they spend a lot of money, and the way you're going to beat them is by being more creative and thinking outside the box and doing things that they necessarily wouldn't do. Well, look, what I'm going to do now is I'm just going to read out both of these emails and explain why they worked so well. So let's jump into it.

Speaker 2:

Okay, here's the first email here now. The subject line of this email is my bed stinks, grr. And here it is. Hey there, this is dog's name. So we're writing the email pretending to be the dog. So just say the dog's called max. Hey there, this is Max.

Speaker 2:

I don't usually complain about anything. Seriously, you know me by now. I love you, but my bed is stinking. Look at the state of it. Then there's a picture of a dog bed literally covered in crap. Pretty much it's covered in dirt. It looks terrible.

Speaker 2:

Now I went to chat gpt and I said can you create me an image of a dog bed that is in terrible condition and is very funny looking? And they created this picture for me. Okay, I admit this is my fault. I love rolling around in muck and jumping in it, but please can this be sorted out? I get so embarrassed when my dog friends come over to visit. I have a solution. If you sign me up to BusterBox, we'll get a free luxurious bed worth £60 with our first box. So not only will we get a box packed with healthy treats and fun toys, we will also solve this bed problem. Picture a lovely, fresh and clean bed sitting at home for the winter. I will be so comfy. Plus, the other dogs will be so jealous when they visit. Please get me this bed. Click here to get a free bed worth £60. Thank you, I love you. Regards your Doc.

Speaker 2:

So we sent this out and between this email and the next one I'm going to share with you, we got 100 subscribers signed up just from these emails in a couple of days. Now, that's a very good result, because a lot of the people on our list were there for a long time and they weren't taking action, and then we just came at them with a different marketing angle, something a bit lighthearted, something a bit funny, a really good offer. On top of it, obviously, if you sign up, you get a free dog bed worth £60, and it inspired them to take action. They went over to the website and they signed up. Now the funny thing about it is we got a lot of people writing back saying that's great, that's a really funny email, good work. We actually had some other people writing back saying they were offended by the email. Now I just laughed when I saw the replies. If anybody was offended by this, they're definitely not our ideal customer and it'd be better if they never signed up in the first place. People now they seem to get offended by everything and truthfully, I couldn't care less. The only thing that was concerning me was how many people can we get signed up from this email, and it got a good amount of people signed up, so it was a success in my eyes. Now the reason why it worked pretty well is obviously it's a different marketing angle. Some people appreciate that. It'll make them laugh and finally take action.

Speaker 2:

But it started with the subject line. The subject line was in full capital letters my bed stinks, girl. And some angry faces. If people saw that, it would make them curious what are you talking about? What bed it's stinking? I have to open that email and see what's going on. Then it hit them immediately with the first line saying this is your dog's name. So it hooked them in. Then it had a funny story, had a funny picture and we hit them with an unbelievable offer.

Speaker 2:

Now, something which is key when it comes to any kind of email marketing is your copy, and my advice would be dumb down your copy Seriously. Write in simple, short sentences and write in a way where a five-year-old could understand it. That's my advice. Don't overcomplicate things. Dumb it down. I promise that simple change alone will make a massive difference to how well your emails actually convert. Don't write big blocks of text or anything like that. Short, one-line sentences where possible, and just write in the most basic way possible. Okay, moving on to the next funny sales email. That did very well.

Speaker 2:

Now the subject line for this one is, in all capital letters BUSTERBOXISDOOMED. And here's the email. Hey, there I am, bojangles, the cat overlord who has taken control of Busterbox. Please be warned Busterbox is doomed. My cat minions have seized control of the office. We will destroy this company. Look at these helpless founders. And then there's a picture of a cat dressed up like a king and three men tied up with loads of cats around them and the three people tied up are obviously meant to be myself and my two other co-founders. And the point of the picture is this cat has taken over our office. This is revenge for neglecting cats for years. Bet they regret not starting a buster cats. Now we are giving away their boxes for free to destroy them. Grab your first Buster Box for free here. Please be quick, before all the boxes are gone. Click here to get your first box for free. Spoil your dog at Buster Box's expense. Regards Bojangles, the new overlord of Buster Box's expense. Regards Bojangles, the new overlord of Buster Box.

Speaker 2:

So this email was very, very out there, but it performed very well. And again it started with the subject line, because the subject line was Buster Box is doomed. So if you saw that in your inbox, it's going to make you curious why is BusterBox doomed? Are they going out of business? What's happening in there? I'm going to open that email, so grab the attention. And it got a lot of people to open the email. Then straight in with some absolutely crazy email with a really funny picture, and then we finished it off with a really good offer. Sign up and get your first box for free. Bojangles is giving away all our boxes for free and you can take advantage of this, but obviously, when they went over to our website, they could see we were giving away the free boxes on a six or a 12 month committed term and they had to pay shipping as well. We weren't just giving away everything for free.

Speaker 2:

Now, these are just two examples. We have lots of emails similar to these that are doing really well, but I just wanted to share these two so you could get an idea of the type of things we're testing which are working really well at the minute, and this is especially useful with Q4. Really, really useful, because it will make you stand out from your competition. Now, can you do what we do in your business? It depends. You obviously can't write from the perspective of a dog unless that's somehow relevant to your brand and maybe have a dog box, but you can take inspiration from what we're doing and try some out of the box advertising.

Speaker 2:

Get creative and don't be afraid to test different things that other companies aren't doing. If you have 10 different competitors and you're all sending out similar emails, you have similar pricing, you have similar ads, you have similar offers that aren't really creative just maybe a small discount, it's going to be very hard for your customers to differentiate between your competitors and to decide who to sign up to. More than likely, they'll go with the company that's spending the most on advertising because they're reaching them the most. Now, that's not ideal, especially if you're a small brand, but a way to differentiate yourself is to make your marketing different. Do things that your competitors are afraid to try.

Speaker 2:

Now there's a book I want to recommend that will definitely help you with this. It's a old enough book. It's nothing to do with Facebook ads or anything, but it will help you with the most important thing when it comes to your marketing, and that's your messaging and making your advertising stand out. Now, the name of the book is outrageous advertising that's outrageously successful, created for the 99 of small business owners who are dissatisfied with the results they get, and it's by bill glazer. I will put a link to the book in the podcast notes. Very good book and I definitely recommend checking it out now. I I hope you enjoyed this episode. We'll be back next week At the exact same time and, as always, if you have a question you want answered on the show, make sure you head over to Subscriptionboxresourcescom, join the free Facebook group and post your question there. Thanks very much and chat to you next week. Bye, bye.