10 Email Copywriting Rules You Should Break in 2026

The founder-led brands and strong personality brands, they can do longer story emails because the customer follows them for the personality. Data says that like first name personalization and subject line barely moves the needle anymore.

The first line is actual moment of conversion in an email, and if it doesn't grab them, they kind of bounce, right? They want to exit out, they swipe out or whatever, and subject line and headline are ultimately wasted.

If the good story copy is short, specific, and tied directly to the product or offer, then I think that is kind Kind of interesting.

From the open to the click, they're the masters of the flow. Just watch your list grow and your leads turn to go. Did we retain you so far, or do we have to extend it? If you want results, you know you gotta send it. Yeah, you know you gotta send it. Yeah, you know you gotta send it. Yeah, you know you gotta send it.

What is up everyone? Welcome back to Send It, where we discuss anything and everything retention marketing, specifically in Email and SMS marketing and e-commerce. My name is Jimmy Kim, and I'm here with my co-host Chase Diamond. All right, Chase. So today we're going to do what I'm going to consider our last hot takes episode. I think we've been on a run here together, and we've done things like email, SMS metrics, AI. We even have a BFCM one coming up, and I wanted to close this out with a copywriting one because honestly, I think it's overdue. I think this is really important, and you know, copywriting. has more rules floating around than any other discipline in retention marketing. And I think it's one of the more under-talked-about topics. And the truth is every copywriter, every agency, every guru, they kind of have their own set of laws or rules and all that stuff. And most of them are recycled basically from direct mail from like the 1960s.

Dude, I'm with you. Yeah, I really do believe that like half or so of the email copywriting quote unquote best practices really did come from folks selling encyclopedias door to door or selling courses on kind of late night infomercials type stuff, right? It's old, it's dated, and they're often not correct for 2026 inboxes. And then I think the other half, right, is from copywriting Twitter where everyone's repeating each other and pretending they have this new take of wisdom. And the reality is I think the rules need updating. Customers have changed, inboxes have changed. AI frankly has changed what's possible and everyone's rules don't account for that. Sure.

So I thought today on today's pod, what we'll do is we'll break down 10 of them. Some of them are like the sacred cows that people really call for, and it's probably going to make some copywriters a little upset, and that's totally fine. And just like the other hot take episodes we've done, we're going to disagree on a few of them, which keeps it really honest. So let's get in deep into the craft of writing actual copy, thinking about like the different lenses, how we can get tactical. And really this is designed for people who write any kind of direct copy or do email or SMS. I think this will be really helpful. So let's get right into it. I'm going to kick it off with hot take number 1, and I'd love to hear what you think about it. So long-form email copy outperforms short-form copy way more than any other retention marketer admits. This kind of goes against all those copywriting best practice articles. What do you think?

Yeah, 100%. I'd say the conventional wisdom today is that you have to keep it short because customers don't read and attention spans are shrinking, right? Maybe 8 seconds like a goldfish or, or less, right? All of which I think is a bit overstated, to be honest.

All right. Walk me through that a little bit more and what you mean.

Yeah, for sure. So look, I think customers, right? They don't read every word of an email. I think that part is true, but I do believe the customers who are going to buy will read actually more than people believe and think, especially for items that are quote unquote kind of like a considered purchase. So like for a $20 product, let's say, sure, I think short copy is totally fine, but if the product now becomes $200, $400, $1,000, maybe a subscription, I do think people need context. And I think the brands that are sending 3, 4 sentence emails for $300 products, I think they leave conversions on the table when they actually do this. The reason being is the customer needs more info to make that decision. And if you don't give it to them in the email, they're going to have to, if they're super interested, go to your site to find it. And oftentimes they don't make it that far.

Yeah, that sounds right. The email is the sales conversion ultimately, and you don't want to cut conversions short before the customer is convinced, right?

Yeah, that's, that's right. And I think the data backs this up. So, you know, if you run, let's say, multiple A/B tests across multiple categories, looking at longer copy, you'll see they're winning often on revenue per recipient, especially for folks that are doing more of like the lifecycle kind of based email. So things like abandoned cart, browse abandonment, different types of post-purchase.

Okay. Let's, let's define what long is. What, what would you say long is to you?

Yeah, that's a good point. I would say long is somewhere in the ballpark of like 200 to 400-ish words for most retention emails. And that can press up to 600 to 800 words for like these high consideration purchases or these really key kind of lifecycle Different types of moments.

Makes sense. How about short? What would that be?

Yeah, so I think short would be something in the ballpark of like 50 to 150-ish words. So think about like promo emails, quick announcements, those more kind of time-sensitive type moments.

Yeah, so I think what you're basically saying is they both have a place in their own way between long and short. The wrong move is treating short as the default for everything. You agree?

Yes, exactly. That's correct. I think you have to default to the length appropriate to that specific moment in time. You don't need to default to short because everyone on X said that that's what you need to do, right? And then with the actual AI angle, I think AI makes longer copy easier to produce. It used to be, right, that like creating this longer copy just took way more time and people were constrained by that time requirement. Whereas now I think it's really easy to produce a thoughtful 400-word email. In maybe 20 minutes, give or take. So I think like the operational excuse and that operational layer needed to do this no longer exists. So you don't need an excuse anymore for that. And I think you do need to therefore test long because you might be surprised.

That perfectly wraps that up. Let's roll right into hot take number 2. The one CTA per email rule, I think is starting to become wrong. And copywriters have been preaching this for like 15 years.

All right, what do you got? What are you thinking here?

All right, so the rule says that every email should have one and only one call to action, and multiple call to actions can split attention, maybe dilute the conversation, and ultimately confuse the reader, right? And the rule is wrong because it conflates one CTA goal with one CTA button. One goal is correct, I agree there, but every email should drive towards one outcome. But that doesn't mean you have to have one button. 3 buttons that all lead to the same product page, I think is absolutely fine. The customer scrolls, You give them 3 chances to click ultimately to the same destination.

Yeah, right.

And especially if you're doing more of this longer form copy that we're talking about, right? Like actually having 3 CTAs to the same destination actually would outperform 1 CTA, I think in most tests because you give the customer multiple click opportunities at different points in the reading of that email.

Yeah, yeah. So you start off like the top of the email for the skimmer who decides to read fast. Then you got the middle of the email for the reader who needs that more context with the long form. And then I think you definitely got to get to the bottom of the email for the reader who consumed that whole thing.

Yeah, exactly. I think what's interesting is like multiple CTAs going to different destinations actually is fine if they're kind of tightly related.

Okay, tell me more about that one.

Sure. So like, for example, you mentioned at the top, so like the hero CTA, it could be something like shop the new collection, whereas like the secondary CTA could be around The launch story, right? Both are about the same product launch. They just take you to slightly different intent pages, but they're related, right? And the customer who clicks the buy button, right? And then the customer who needs more clicks the read button. And this way you're kind of meeting the customer where they are. Some are gonna be cold, some are gonna be lukewarm, and some are gonna be primed to buy. And then either way, whatever they click on, it's a win cuz you're moving the customer further down the funnel from wherever they specifically are.

Okay. All right. So where do you think the one CTA rule actually applies in your opinion?

Yeah, I agree with what you were kind of saying. So I think when you have competing destinations, so I don't think you want to put like a shop now button next to a take a quiz next to subscribe to YouTube next to yada, yada, yada. Right. Because those compete with each other and split someone's focus. However, kind of to the point I think that we're both trying to make here is having multiple call to actions. that serve the same goal is totally fine, right? Whereas multiple call to actions with, as we mentioned, conflicting goals, I think that is problematic. And I think the other issues, right? Copywriters who blanket rule one CTA only are probably just being a little bit lazy, frankly, with their thinking. The real rule is like the one goal, not the one link/button.

Okay. One goal, not one button. I like that. That's a good way to kind of wrap up that hot take. All right, here's another one. Hot take number 3. First-name personalization tokens are way overrated, and the broader personalization at scale pitch is mostly BS. What do you think about this? Chase, you've been on Omnisend for a while now, right? You moved over from Klaviyo now a few years ago.

Yeah, and honestly, I put it off for the longest time because migrating sounded like an absolute nightmare. Email flows, SMS segments, forms, templates. Dude, it was a lot. And it's not exactly something you just knock out in an afternoon these days.

Dude, that's exactly right, because that's the part that people keep getting stuck on, even when they know they want to switch. Nobody wants to rebuild everything.

Yeah, and it's a lot, right? And that's why I love what Omnisend's doing now with their new migration. Switching over takes just 5 business days, and their team does a ton of the heavy lifting, which is fantastic. They help rebuild automation. Segments, forms, templates. So you're not starting from zero. Plus, for my account, and I've seen other brands, they're saving up to 35 or so percent. It is really incredible.

I've experienced this myself. 5 days is an incredible fee. That's fast. And I know that they really got a system down because listen, the hardest part about signing up for a new platform isn't the price or anything else, though that's a nice benefit. It's that moving, that Makes it really hard and making sure that stuff doesn't break, right?

Yeah, 100%. That was my big concern.

And you know what? What's really cool about Omnisend is that they got a bunch of new AI stuff now too, right?

Yeah, we've been geeking out pretty hard with it. So they have their Omnisend MCP, which essentially connects Omnisend with ChatGPT or Claude. So instead of having to dig through dashboards and trying to piece together everything yourself, you literally can just ask questions, pull reports, check performance, and move way faster directly within Claude or ChatGPT.

Yeah, which is basically how people want to work now.

I think it's really going to be the only way to work now and in the future. And if you've been thinking about switching, especially if you're on Klaviyo, you do need to check out Omnisend.

Big shout out to our sponsor here. Go to omnisend.com and check out their migration page. We've got a link. If you sign up through our link, you'll get 30% additional off for the first 3 months on top of the savings that you'll have. But putting this off because it sounds painful Migration's hard and that's what they build for and you should go check them out. Now back to your pod.

Yeah, I think when you walk into most retention marketing conferences, half the talks happen to be about subject line. Um, and everyone always says use the customer's first name, reference their last purchase. You gotta personalize the subject line, right? Um, and the data says that like first name personalization and subject line barely moves the needle anymore. Maybe 1 to 2% on opens in the early data. And again, we all know that open rates are kind of broken anyway. And the customer can tell, you know, when it's kind of the token replacement of, hey, first name, it kind of feels a bit more mechanical in that sense. It doesn't always feel personal, especially when the email itself is super generic, right? I might say to you like, yo Jimmy, or hey Jimmy, here's our new collection, but that's not gonna feel personal to you. It just feels like your database wrote the email.

Okay, well, what about the alternative? How are you thinking about the alternative here?

Yeah, that's a good question. I think it really comes down to using like real legitimate personalization, which in my opinion happens at like the segment level, not specifically the token level replacement of someone's first name.

Okay, we got to break that down a little bit for the audience here. You want to jump into that?

Yeah, absolutely. So let's say like a new customer gets a different email than like a 5-time Repeat customer, right? That is not gonna be the same email as just having their name swapped in. I'm literally talking about different copy, a different angle, and an entirely different offer in total. So you see there how like, because we're not just saying, hey Chase, hey Jimmy, we're actually focusing on the behavior, kind of the segment level that someone is in. And therefore like the token itself of the name or whatever isn't as relevant because the content now is targeted. So the thing is, like, if you have the customer's first name and you need that to make the email feel personal, the email isn't going to be personal. The personalization needs to come from the content being relevant, not how you address someone.

And I think the customers don't care about their first name anymore being in the subject line. I think that's just like an old school thought process. They care more about the— if the email itself is really talking to them about something they care about, right?

Exactly right. And then one other thing to add is I do believe there are specific places like when first name personalization can work, um, AKA like in a transactional email saying just something simple on like, hey Jimmy, your order's on the way, or your order's on the way, Jimmy. I think that feels appropriate. Or like in a long-form kind of lifecycle email when you're trying to feel a little bit more human.

Yeah. So you're a little bit more, uh, strategic here, not scattered everywhere. Right.

That's correct. And then kind of the broader take. So I think like most personalization tools are selling kind of shallow personalization that doesn't actually work, while real personalization, which is segmentation, relevance, timing, right? That's really the holy grail. That's harder to do. And that often gets less of the attention and therefore the marketing budget. So I think you need to focus more on like this relevance personalization versus just kind of insert first Yeah, that's why I like what the boys over at GetAllen are doing over there.

They're doing some really cool personalization changes. But anyways, hot take number 4, let's go over to that one. Asking questions in email copy is overused and rarely converts the way copywriters ultimately claim. Like every copywriter course teaches the question hook. Are you tired of dry skin or like wondering how to get better sleep or ever struggled with X basically, right? And in theory, I think the question creates engagement. The reader might not know what to say, but it creates engagement. nod along, it might build a rapport, but that's the theory. The reality to me is that most question hooks come from these cheesy, like infomercial-y kind of things that were probably powerful in like 1995 when it was like a novel, like the long direct form, direct response. But now I think they're a tell that the email is just basically going to be a sales pitch right away.

Exactly. And when you do that, you know, subconsciously customers kind of self-defense mechanisms, Go up immediately. Like it raises red flags in their head right away.

Signals, this is a sales email before the email has even earned a right to sell, in my opinion.

Yeah, I'm with you. So what do you think here is like the alternative?

Yeah, you know, one of my favorite things that I like are like statement hooks. I think these are like strong, declarative, open, opinion-driven kind of thought processes. So like, most people sleep wrong, for example, or like your skincare routine is too complicated, or We've been doing protein wrong for decades. It makes a claim and it doesn't ask for permission to make that claim. These statements feel like the writer has something to say and questions feel like the writer is fishing, right? Like there's a difference there.

And here's where I partially kind of push back on that. I think questions can still work in some contexts, specifically when they're actually unexpected questions, not like the typical kind of cliché ones, I guess.

Okay, like what?

So for example, like something along the lines of like, what's the last thing you bought that you actually loved? I think that's a little bit unexpected. And I think it engages the reader because they're thinking about it.

Yeah, versus like the, are you ready to upgrade your skincare, which is basically autopilot or AI written, right?

Right. I think that is like a cliché one. And I think the cliché ones happen to be the issue and the problem at hand. Whereas like specific unexpected kind of real questions that are genuine, I think that can work. And I think like looking at it kind of a little bit broader, like if you're using, let's say a copywriting technique because it's quote unquote best practice, it's often very overused and best practice means that everyone does it. So if everyone does it means at least today it's not gonna differentiate. So I think like the more novel-based approach beats the typical kind of standard approach because Things today are so saturated. Yeah.

And look, in 2026, every inbox is saturated ultimately.

All right.

I want to keep going and keep this thing up. Hot take number 5, and this one's going to be a little bit strong. Storytelling in email is overrated and most storytelling or most story-driven emails are actually wasting the reader's time. This is going to upset probably every brand storytelling consultant, but here's the thing. Story-driven copy gets hyped over the last 5 years. Ultimately, every brand started telling their founder story, or every email had this narrative arc, but every product launch has like a hero's journey and the inbox gets flooded with these stories that kind of like no one's asked for. What do you think?

Yeah, I agree with you. I think the story has to serve kind of the conversion. If the story doesn't make the customer more likely to buy, It feels a bit self-indulgent, dude. The best way I think about it is like, if the good story copy is short, specific, and tied directly to the product or offer, then I think that is kind of interesting. So like our founder kept burning out trying to find clean skincare that worked. So we built it, right? 2 sentences done. Then you focus on selling. Where I think like bad kind of copy is like, Around the story stuff is like the 8-paragraph origin story, the detailed founder background, the I left my corporate job to follow my passion arc. I don't believe that anyone wants that. I don't know. What do you think?

All right. Well, I'm with you, but here's the data point. I think this is really interesting. The brands pushing pure story emails, no offer, just narrative, usually kind of have terrible engagement on those. The customers click through to the product after, but the open-to-revenue ratio tends to be bad because customers come from the email for value. Story is one form of the value, but unattached story isn't value. It's just like brand content. When you think about this, what do you think works better here? Do you have a better way of thinking about story?

Yeah, I'd say when you integrate the story into a value-driven email, I think that's important, right? So the promotion actually has a story behind it. Right. Which then means the product has like an origin moment. But the email is structured around an offer or benefit with the story itself more so as like the supporting element, if that makes sense.

Yeah. So story is like an ingredient but not the whole meal.

Yeah, exactly. And then kind of one thing I was thinking about as I'm talking about this, like kind of one thing to push back on myself a bit, I think like the founder-led brands and strong personality brands, They can do longer story emails because the customer follows them for the personality, right? So like Glossier, Olipop, et cetera, like some of those personality-driven DTC brands, I think that's important. So like if your brand is a personality, I do think story emails can work. But if your brand is a product company, I do believe story emails can be a little bit of a filler. So you have to understand and be honest about like which kind of brand you are. Um, and don't fake something if that's not you.

Yeah, I, I like that one. That's a good wrap-up to hot take number 5. All right, hot take number 6. The first line of body copy matters more than your headline or subject line, and I think it's the most under-optimized part of email.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you think about how the reader actually reads an email. Subject line gets them to open. Once they open, the headline registers for maybe like half a second, right? Then they're in the body copy. And the first line kind of determines if they want to continue reading. And most copywriters, they spend like 80% of the time on the subject line and 20% on everything else, including that first line, which I think is wrong. The first line is actual moment of conversion in an email. And if it doesn't grab them, they kind of bounce, right? They want to exit out, they swipe out or whatever. And subject line and headline are ultimately wasted.

Yeah, that first line, right? The hook. I think it's very rarely treated as carefully as it should be. I think most marketers default to, hey, first name, hope you're doing well, or we got some exciting news to tell you.

Both are terrible and both make the readers scroll right past or exit out right away.

Yeah. So in your mind, what's like a good first line? What's that look like?

Yeah, man. A good few patterns that work that I've seen work, like the contrarian opener, like, Most retention strategies fail because of this one mistake, or like a specific owner, like last Tuesday at 3:00 PM, our founder made a decision that changed everything. Something that is hooky, right? And then there's like the direct opener, which I really like, which is just straight to the point. We're cutting prices on the bestsellers 24 hours. Here's why. All of these make the reader want to know why and want to know more, and they create momentum versus the average email opener, which is, We're so excited to share, or, we hope this email finds you well. I'm sure you've seen all of these, yeah?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think the moment that someone receives that, there's just a lot, a lot going through their mind and none of it's typically a good thing.

Yeah, and let me give you a little practical advice for the listeners here. Spend equal time on your first line as your subject line. If your subject line gets like 30 minutes of crafting, the first line should also get about 30 minutes. Most marketers are spending 30 minutes on like the subject line, And like 30 seconds on the first line. The first line test is really important. A/B test those first sentences the way you would A/B test the subject line. And the lift, in my opinion, is usually bigger or better, right? And most people don't test this because they optimize for the subject line obsessively and they kind of ignore the rest of the email.

Right. The subject line opens and then the hook really sells and converts.

Yeah, that's really it. That's the hot take here. So let's roll to hot take number 7, the PS line. Let's talk about this one. The PS line is still One of the highest leveraged parts of an email, and most marketers seem to have abandoned it. Why do you think marketers abandoned this idea?

I don't know. I personally use it on all, if not most of my own emails. I think it's so important. If I had to like guess though, I would imagine most people probably dropped it because it feels old school, kind of direct mail-ish, not like this modern brand. Plus it's an extra line of copy to write and Most people are just lazy. But I think like the data really does show how important they are. Like the PS lines are some of the most read parts of any email. Like they have even done like eye tracking studies that have shown this for 30 years. People scroll to the bottom to see the PS and then read it. Hmm.

Why do you think that?

I think the PS line, it feels a bit more personal. It kind of feels almost like similar to a handwritten Handwritten letter, I guess. And then the PS signals like, this is the part that matters the most. And the writer wants to make sure that you actually saw it. So therefore the reader wants to read it.

So it's like free real estate slot at the bottom of every email. Yeah.

Yeah, I'd say it's a free real estate spot that probably 70-ish percent of brands aren't taking advantage of.

Interesting. So what do you think is a good PS? Like you write a lot of PSs on your emails. What do you think?

Yeah, that's a good question. I think there's a couple of ways that you can approach this. I think the first is reinforcing the offer. So if the offer was a 20% off code, it could be PS, the 20% off code expires Sunday at midnight. It also could be reframed as like a bonus. So PS, add X, Y, and Z product to your order and we'll toss in a free bonus at checkout. And I think the other one is like a personal touch too, is like PS, We just hit 50,000 customers. Thank you for your support in this milestone or something along the lines, right? Like the key is like with your PS, it needs to be additive value, not just a blanket repeat of the main message. So don't just say buy now again and again and again. You need to say something that the body copy doesn't already say. And from a click rate perspective, dude, the link in the PS often gets nearly as many clicks. As the main hero call to action. I think people will be surprised to hear that. And potentially even sometimes more depending on the email itself.

And the best part, it costs you literally nothing. It's an extra one line of copy.

Dude, it's so easy. Like, I think like the challenge here for people is to go add a PS to every campaign for the next 30 days. That's what we're going to challenge you to do. And take a look at what that click rate happens to— like what happens with it, right? And honestly, I think it then needs to become like a default in your templates. Every email needs to have a PS slot where it forces the writer to fill it with something useful. And if you pulled from every brand I've worked with, the PS, as you mentioned, I believe is really the number one, if not tied for number one, most under-optimized line in these emails.

Well, there you have it. Great, great thought process. I would love to hear if some of the listeners try this and eventually tell us and let us know. So let us know in the comments below. All right, let's go to hot take number 8. Hot take number 8 is stop trying to be funny in email copy. Most brands aren't funny and the attempts are hurting them. And this one's probably going to upset some people because I know they want to be funny because every brand voice doc says, we're playful, we're witty, we're clever. I mean, these are things that I see all the time and then their email comes out and it's a little cringe in my opinion. What do you think?

Yeah, look, I think humor is one of the hardest things to do in general, especially in copy. Most of us marketers just aren't that funny and we're not trained writers. So it's hard. It's really hard to be funny, especially in an email when you're a marketer who doesn't write for a living.

Yeah. I remember a long time ago when I was learning copy, someone told me funny doesn't sell. And it sounds like this is exactly that. And I think that's a great hot take there, but I think there's a difference between being like the witty And trying to be witty, right? Real wit is rare and forced wit, it's kind of everywhere ultimately.

Yeah.

Will you walk me through like what bad humor in email actually looks like?

Yeah. So I would start with the puns, right? So the pun email headlines like, let us help you plant a better year, right? I feel like that's a little bit not good, right? Casual fake friend like, oh my God, you guys. OMG, you guys, you're going to love this one. That doesn't feel real because you know you don't have that kind of relationship or self-depreciating ones like that doesn't really land. Like, we tried to write a funny email but failed, right? I feel like those don't work either. And the customers can almost feel like almost a secondhand embarrassment for the brand, which is the opposite of what you want. And if brands look like they're trying too hard and it's, you know, it's trying too hard is generally uncool in my opinion. The emails that work, are the ones that feel confident, clear, and direct without trying to be funny, like the funny friend ultimately.

So what do you view as like the right approach then?

Yeah, I'm always with the clear and direct, right? That's my default. If the real humor naturally emerges in their writing, great. If you're forcing it, you got to cut it out. And the brands that can do humor is the ones who genuinely have funny voice, usually built into years of consistent personality. Things like, let's say like Liquid Death or Duolingo, for example, they've earned it. They didn't decide that they were going to be funny as a brand in their brand strategy session. They just earned it because that's how they are and that's how they operate. You can't strategize your way into humor. It either comes naturally from the people behind that brand or it doesn't, in my opinion.

Yeah, I'm with you, man. And if it doesn't, that's fine. You can be clear and confident instead, where I think clarity converts better than failed humor. Every single time.

Yeah. And let me give you a specific test here. Read your last 5 emails out loud. If anything you made makes you cringe a little bit and say, cut it, the cringe is the customer's reaction too. Read it out loud and the best copy editing tools out there, you know, aren't going to tell you this, but to me, reading it out loud is going to give you the best answers. So my biggest advice here is like, stop chasing the personality. And you should start thinking about more in the clarity. Personality emerges from consistency, not for trying, right? All right, hot take number 9. Let's move to this one. I think we've beat that one for a little bit there. Stop putting urgency in every email. You've trained your customers to ignore it. Every email is limited time, only 24 hours, don't miss it, act fast. I know you've seen this one, yeah? All right, real quick. It's kind of wild that we're already talking about holiday planning in July right now. Just like any other event, there's basically a conversation everywhere. Where people are already diving into BFCM planning, testing promos, prepping inventory, creative acquisition, the whole thing. And it makes sense because e-com brands, Q4 is when not only when traffic gets expensive, but it's when the traffic is the highest. That's why I find retention.com super interesting right now. You're already paying to get more people to your site, but the most valuable visitors are still leaving without buying anything or joining your list. And retention.com helps you turn those anonymous traffic into opt-in email subscribers. So you're not just renting attention for the holidays, you're building an audience that you can keep marketing to after the season ends. And they've made it super flexible right now, which is huge. You can start for absolutely free, turn it on when you need it, turn it off when you don't, and you pay as you go, which is crazy because everyone else is charging these big contracts. So if BFCM planning is already on your mind, which it should be, this is probably one of those places that you want to go Go check it out. Go check it out. retention.com. Go start for free. We'll take you back to your pod.

Yeah. And customers roll their eyes whether they do it intentionally or unintentionally because they've seen the same urgency 200 times before.

Right.

And urgency only works when it's real and rare. And if everything is urgent, then, well, nothing is.

Yeah.

And this is a bit of a kind of like a cynical version, but like most retention marketers are using fake urgency. It's, it's just what it is, right? The limited time sale gets extended every week. The doorbuster deal happens every month. And then the customer learns that the urgency is not real. And once they learn that it's not real, they wait for the next quote unquote urgent sale and they never buy at the urgency moment because they know the next one is coming and they want to hold out to see if the next discount is going to be better than the current or the previous.

So what, what do you think are some good alternatives here?

I think you have to use urgency a bit strategically. Um, so not in every email, uh, maybe let's say like 1, 1 out of 5. And when you do, it has to be legit. It has to be real. There needs to be a real expiration with real scarcity and real consequence for, for waiting. And you need to vary your hooks because if most of your emails aren't urgency-based, the urgency ones can therefore stand out. Right? They feel like real moments instead of just like you kind of faking it like you probably historically have been. So other hooks that kind of work better than urgency for most emails are things like curiosity, value, exclusivity, news, et cetera. Those are all kind of like emails that customers actually want to read, where I think like urgency is more focused on becoming like a closing mechanism, not like an actual opening hook. So stop using it for the opening hook. So I think like with that, right, like scarcity claims do need to be real. And the way that you make it real is, you know, making sure that like whatever you're saying can be proven. Don't say there's only 12 left if there's 1,200 in a warehouse, right? That's just straight up a lie.

No, I get that. Okay. And, you know, I would say and add one thing, if they catch you in a scarcity lie, they don't really trust you anymore. And I think that's when it becomes even more real.

Yeah. I want to circle back on kind of the line I mentioned prior, like real scarcity, real urgency used strategically, like that is the formula that you need to kind of optimize for. And if your business model requires fake urgency to convert, I think it's a bigger problem with your offer, right? So you need to therefore fix the offer instead of just trying to find short-term solutions to quote unquote, like trick people.

Right.

And then kind of one pushback, it's a little bit, I want, I want to kind of call it here is urgency does work for actual time-bound moments. So if it's an end of sale countdown, like a cart abandonment type rescue, If there's maybe even like a subscription renewal deadline, those are like legit, real urgency moments. So if it's urgent and it's true, that's great. If the urgency is fake, I think that is where the problems lie.

Yeah, my rule of thumb has always been like, be honest, use urgency when it's honest and skip it when it's not. It's the easiest way to kind of run that line. And it kind of keeps you honest as a person when you're thinking about it. So, all right, let's go to hot take number 10 as we're going through this. And this one kind of ties a lot of things together, but hot take number 10 is you write your email copy like you text your friend, not like you're presenting at a board meeting. What do you think about that one?

Yeah, I think that's right. And the reality is most folks are doing the opposite, I have to say.

Yeah, yeah. The brand voice doc says professional, polished, confident. And when it comes out, it kind of comes out like corporatey, distance, and formal, and phrases like, We're thrilled to announce, or we want to reach out, or we hope this finds you well. All of which, in my opinion, is dead. Nobody talks like that in real life. Nobody writes like that to their friends. Why are we writing emails to friends or customers like that? What do you— got any thoughts around this?

Yeah, I think the problem is like email is borrowing a lot of like the corporate marketing tone from like the early days. And I think like retention marketers just continue to copy that formal tone. And they mistake that as brand voice. That's what they think their brand voice is. It's like this corporate speak.

Yeah, dude, that's stale ultimately. And customers can tell when the copy is written by like a committee versus like a person, in my opinion.

100%. So what does the alternative look like here?

You know, this is what I'm a big fan of. I like to write short sentences, casual language, the way a real person would explain something, right? You might even have contractions and you might even like really like talk about different fragments that you have, sentence fragments that aren't like perfect, like Sentences always. Words like honesty, look, here's the deal. Those are good because that's what people, real friends, let's say. And my thing that I always tell is like, you'd never text a friend, I'm thrilled to announce that we have a new product launch. You text them, yo, new product launch just dropped, check it out, right? It's like the same brain. It registers casually. And that's to me, in my opinion, how email should sound like.

Yeah. And then with the actual AI angle, I think like AI unfortunately defaults to like corporate tone unless you train it specifically not to. So I think if you're using AI without strong brand voice context, the emails tend to just be more formal, not less.

Which is, which is like the opposite of what you want. Yeah.

Yeah, that's, that's exactly right. Like I think the brands that are leveraging AI the best right now are using it, or maybe they're even writing it by hand or using it to write in a casual kind of human tone. Which again, I think you mentioned this before, like it sounds like a real friend or a person has actually texted you, not like the marketing department was tasked to drive revenue and is speaking at you. So I think the test here is like to read your email out loud. It's such a simple thing, but it allows you to catch things that you might not otherwise catch. So, you know, you're really trying to understand like, does this sound like something a person would say or is this a corporate press release? Right. If it sounds like the press release, you do need to rewrite it. Cut the formal words, kind of add contractions, shorten sentences, those types of things.

Yeah. And let me add one little specific tactic to that. Read the email like you're texting it to your closest friend who's a customer. Those words, and you've got to look at those words and say, what words would I cut? What sentences would you rewrite? That's your edit really. And the casual register isn't unprofessional, it's confident. It says, we don't need to perform formality to feel credible. So it's really like write like a person, sound like a person, and customers buy from people, not from departments. So, all right. So, you know, with that, I think we're wrapped up on 10 here. So I'll say this, TL;DR for this entire pod, mediocre marketers follow rules and great marketers know when to break them. That's ultimately what I've learned here today.

Yeah. You know, with AI continuing to flood inboxes with this really kind of templated copy, if you can break the rules that we talked about that people think you have to stick to, it's going to be so much easier to stand out this way.

Yeah, be that marketer, basically. So, all right. Well, with that, that's a wrap for today's, you know, hot take. We've done a little bit across a bunch of different ones, but hopefully you enjoyed this. You might have Agreed with some, you might have disagreed. We might have challenged you. But honestly, if any of these hit you hard, you should let us know and maybe share that information with us because we're curious to hear what you think about it, and especially if you have data around there. And that's how all of us get better. So with that being said, this is a wrap for this episode of Copywriting Hot Takes. Thank you for tuning in as always. We'll see you on the next episode. See you guys later.

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