Matthew from Really Good Emails breaks down why marketing emails fail and how to fix them. Use your actual voice, personalize with names and dates, write subject lines that spark curiosity, and limit each email to one or two clear actions. Treat every send as a chance to build trust, not push a sale.
Chapters
How's everybody doing? No, no, no. That's unacceptable. Did you guys have a good lunch? Nice. Oh, man, I had tacos. They were so delicious. Love it. Well, it's great to be here in San Francisco. I'm from Greenville, South Carolina. I'm @whale on Twitter. You can ask me about that sometime if you want. It is a funny story. I run and founded Really Good Emails, which is a place basically where I started curating what I thought were best practices for emails. Email tends to be the bastion of marketing teams. And as a designer and a product guy, I said, hell no. Give that back. So I took it and tried to create a space where I was able to add, you know, my ethics and my interests in emails. And over the last 2 years, we've grown to be a 25,000 subscriber list. And it's a side project. So we'll see where it goes from here. The people that are at this conference, you all included, are way more talented than I am. So, you know, you guys should be up here and I should be listening. But in the meantime, I'm having a lot of fun. So I'm really, really thankful to be here. The other thing that I do is I run Fathom and Draft. Fathom and Draft is a business-first design studio, and I'm the director of that. And again, out of Greenville, South Carolina. So I want to tell you 3 things that are true. Email is the shittiest shit that ever shitted. It's awful, right? But the reality is that it's good news because it can become really good without too much effort, like unicorn good. The other thing that you guys should know is you should not trust people who cannot cuss in fucking public. All right, so brand voice. Um, this is what I want to communicate with you all today. The reason why most email sucks is because we are somehow— we miss the point that there's an opportunity to talk to our customers like people. So I want you to— oh man. Oh, look at that. It's so good. Oh man. I'm so happy that my kids get to grow up with GIFs. So great. All right. So I'm glad. Thank you for whoever clicked play. That was great. I want you to know the suck. That is an awkward phrase. But I think if I'm careful, I can coin it. You know Matthew Smith? He's that guy that coined that phrase, know the suck. But it's this thing. What happens when you actually know what sucks for your customers, for the people who are reading or using your product? Do you know that? You know, we create personas and all those kinds of things, but have you talked to them? Have you gone to their house? Have you heard their complaints? Not just about your product, but rather why your product exists. What are they hiring your product to do for them? What are they hiring your emails to do for them? These are the questions that, you know, really matter and can give you a bead on what they do and really make your product and your communication with them through email really count. So can we— oh, that's awesome. All right. Speak to what's missing. Barbara is missing. It's not okay. If you guys haven't seen season 2, highly recommend it. Here's the thing. When we started Really Good Emails, the reason why we did was that there was information asymmetry. Who's heard of that term before? Okay, so there was a time when selling cars from a used car salesman, that dude knew more about vehicles than you could. And so he was able to leverage his information to basically create an information asymmetry and make money off of you in that, right? Now through cars.com and a million other, you know, utilities, we know as much or more about vehicles as a salesperson. So that's changed. But where there is information asymmetry, there's an opportunity for growth and connection and real value. And that's what we saw, is that with the web, you can right-click, you can view source, you can see the entire thing. But with emails, it's in individuals' inboxes. And no one— not no one, but very few people were exposing that. How many of you have a favorites folder in your Gmail account for emails? Right? A good bunch of you. Really Good Emails wanted to be that. We wanted to help people have a space where those things were public. So we spoke to that missing content, and then we spoke with a missing voice. We like to cuss. We like to be rude. We like to say funny jokes about ourselves. And we like to be vulnerable and say, "Oops, we fucked that up. I'm really sorry. What can we do to make it better?" We like to talk to our customers and our readers. It's a side project, so, you know, like, we do the best we can, and we let people know, "Hey, we're limited human beings. Please be human with us." All those kinds of things, and that missing voice, that rhetoric, ends up making a big difference. So these are the things I want you to walk away with. Also, by the way, The entire, everything I'm saying is all, I'll be sending out notes so you don't have to take notes or anything like that if you don't want. It's all in a deck for you. So I want you to be able to define what sucks for your customers. I want you to be able to ask them what are they hiring your product to do for them with their time or with their money. What are they hiring the email to do for them and who do they want to hear from? And don't forget that they are actually paying you with their time and money. Don't waste it. Alright, subject and preheader. You can drive with curiosity. When your dad says, "Would you guys like to go get a treat?" That's curiosity. And that's really valuable. If you see a stranger and he says, "Would you like to go get a treat?" That's different. That's how email feels to me most of the time, right? Right, is like, "Get in my white van." No thanks. So think about how to speak to your customers in a different manner that feels a little bit more like dad. And how do you get there? You build trust. And that takes speaking to them like people. So value. Value when you're speaking to your customers has to do with being able to say things that are really powerful for them, that you know that you get to convey to them as a trusted individual. So, "25 new companies that make money." That's fluff subject line. "3 things I genuinely think would improve your day. This is the way I talk to a friend." Very different sort of language. And not every company gets to choose that language or that language, but it's important that you find a voice that is authentic and how you would speak to your customers not in a way that you're throwing information at them, but that it really connects them as people. Clarity. If you have information that you have special resources and access to, that's extremely valuable to just simply state something as it is, and the value is clear to them because your customers in your email subscriber list, they're looking for that information. So you don't need to be obtuse about it. and you don't need to use gimmicks, just tell them what it is. Connection is my favorite, favorite thing. I'm single and I want intimacy in my life. Just letting everybody know. So in email— yeah, this is good. This is my personal subscriber list. So in email, name is amazing. No one is using this as they could, including really good emails. This is my dream. My name is Matthew. It's not Matt. And Matthew means something to me. And when people call me Matthew, it matters. And I have a specific 7 letters in my name. That's data, 7 letters. It starts with an M. That's something that could be used. If you have somebody call you by name, especially in response or when they see you on the street, that's That's my name. It matters. So why not use it in that way instead of Matthew, here's 25 new things, blah, blah, blah. You have the opportunity to use that from name or the name that you have in your subscriber database in a way that you would talk to a friend. So rethink that entire thing. The next is location. We can guess at somebody's location. It's dangerous. But location is interesting. Like when you're having a conversation with a friend and you're like, where are you? That's an interesting moment to ask. And you can ask that and get to know them a little bit better. So what could you do with location? You can show things. You don't have to just spell out Greenville, South Carolina. You could grab a map from, you know, Google, throw it as a background. All kinds of things you could do that make your customers feel connected. Actions. Have they purchased something? Have they left something in their cart? Have they looked at something and not bought it? Have they stopped being active? Like, how about a friend that stopped writing you? Think about that emotion and bring that into your email strategy. There's so much opportunity to connect with your customers as real people, and when you do, it'll change everything. At Relay Foods, where I was the chief creative officer, our number one most valuable customers were those who we made a mistake with on our first order. Couldn't figure it out for a little while, and then it was obvious. They had a connection with our customer service. So, "I'm really sorry, ma'am, that your avocado wasn't ripe the way it should be. Can I bring you a new one?" That never happens anywhere, but we did that, and that person became so loyal that it was just— it was their value and their ability to spread the word and create more customers was incredible. And that's the opportunity that you can create in email. Anniversaries are amazing. I've known you guys for like 15 minutes. This is incredible, this thing we have together, right? So what could we do with that? What can you do when you say it's our 1-month anniversary or maybe it's our 1-year anniversary? These are moments. These are things in relationship. You know this as people. but we don't communicate this way in emails and we can. Birthdays are incredible. If you can ask somebody their birthday, there's a moment in a relationship, like if I just ask you, "What's your birthday?" That's weird. I'm not gonna do that. But if there's an opportunity, we get to know each other and then I ask your birthday, it's like, "Oh, you wanna know my birthday? That's awesome. Like these are the things I have on my Amazon list. Go ahead and, you know, purchase." But it's like, "Hey, this is an intimate moment." What happens then when you let somebody know it's your half birthday? It's exactly in the middle of the year. We just thought you should know. We're kind of happy. Thank you for being a part of this. There's a moment of intimacy. You drive loyalty. You move from transaction to relationship. If you don't know enough about them right now, just ask. People care about vulnerability. Say, we don't know as much about you as we want to know so that we can provide value to you. If you have been acting like the stranger in the white van, that's going to be creepy. So don't be that way. Instead, be honest. Hey, we haven't been getting to know you in the way we should. We'd like to get to know you better for these reasons. What I learned in being on the executive team in design on several products is you never ask for anything from a customer without offering them something better in return. And that ethic can really drive you. Ask for their opinions. Let your customers know that they are smarter than you and you would like to know something from them. This is an opportunity. So if I say, "Please fill out our survey. It would make us really happy. Give us 20 minutes of your day," and that's it, that is absurd. Would you stop and— like somebody on the side of the street saying, "Can you stand here and push something annoying for 20 minutes? And the UX will be really bad. But just keep doing it. Just because I asked you to." That's absurd. No one would do that. So why do we ask that in our emails and in our products? Like, we shouldn't be doing that. We should be saying to a small segment of people, "Listen, Lucy." We've gathered together 35 people who we think use our product in this very specific way. Your time is incredibly valuable. Would you be willing to answer 30 questions? It'll probably take 10 minutes. We have a $100 gift certificate to Amazon for you. I hope that's worth it. Would you be willing to do that? You've just earned a lifetime loyal customer. That's the kind of things that you can do. Don't default. Wow, I am taking forever on these slides. So don't default. Don't use the stuff in your preheader, in your subject line that's just like the first line of the email. You'll ruin it. I'm gonna let you read these things on my deck so I can keep moving through. Your from name is important. You might show up for a date wearing a banana hammock. This is inappropriate, just so you know. Take notes. This kind of thing for a from name is what we get though, a lot. We get from names that don't, they don't connect to the brand. You have so much opportunity in your brand to have a from name that really matters. Like Freddie. People love Freddie. They have an emotional connection with Freddie. People have an emotional connection with Smiles Davis, our logo, our icon. This is Clark Valberg. In for years at Envision. He has been the from name in their emails. You can write him back. Now, my guess is that he has some other secret email address he doesn't give out, but it sure feels like he's communicating with me and I have the opportunity to get in touch with the CEO and that feels good. Lead-in. You have made a promise in your subject line and in your brand The question is, oop, let's go back. The question is, can you keep your promise? Okay. The lead-in has this opportunity for you to say, hey, you opened, here's what we promised we would give you. Again, like you're offering them something. Don't fuck that relationship up. This is a really good opportunity to follow through. You're developing literally synaptically this conditioning. You're helping them pattern match toward trust. Help them do that. The fold is real. I'm a designer. For me to say this is like anathema, but it's real. Just make sure that in above the fold you are actually providing information that helps them scroll. Scrolling is real, but your design, your email should be responsive so that the appropriate information is above the fold so they will drive down toward more content. Is it working? If you have a 2-megabyte image, no, it is not working. It is failing. This is happening. Do not do that. If you have text that is tiny that I cannot read— I'm 39. I have awesome glasses, but they're glasses, and I can't read tiny text. Please improve your readability in your email. Headings. Headings are something that your customers will use to be able to move through the email. So you must obey the context. The context is this. At least 70% of email is being received in a mobile context. This is a utility context. OK? So if I want to go into the grocery store, I'm sitting in line. Is it appropriate for me to have an intimate, long conversation with the clerk with 3 people behind me? No. I've had to learn this. I like to talk. So the context for email is utility. So make sure that your headings are such that people can scan the content. You guys, I hope you know this movie. It's one of the best movies ever made. So make it scannable. What this means is that use your headings to be things that get people's attention and communicate clearly as they can quickly scan down the email and then go back to the top and read the whole thing again, right? Is it doing its job? Every heading has to do a very specific job. Every part of the email is being hired by your customer with their time to do a job. Maybe it needs to be funny. Maybe it needs to be intriguing. Maybe it needs to be clear and useful. You know that based on your audience because you got to know the suck. All right. Body content. So— thank you. Thank you. Content is Jedi. You've heard content is king. Kings would have their ass whooped by the Jedi, OK? Content is Jedi. Content, as we would talk about here a lot, is imperative to being able to really communicate with your customers. So couple of questions here. One, how many of you send out email newsletters and then that content just lives in an inbox and doesn't go anywhere on the web where it can be used again? I'm in that camp. Right. So we've got to figure out ways to get that content and get it out there. It's valuable, so use it. Keep in mind that your content is what people are hiring your email to do for them. And so let's take care of it. If you don't have something valuable to say, then write an email and say, "We didn't have anything valuable to say, and so we'd like to give you a joke today 'cause maybe we should all laugh a little more." Like, there's opportunity for that. If you just hire somebody who doesn't understand your customer and doesn't understand your product, to run your emails, you are failing. Stop it. Why are you screaming? So, why are you screaming? This is just a beautiful little image. Thank you, internet. Seth Godin, at a conference called Brooklyn Beta, said to me, why would you scream at the people who are just constantly trying to block out the noise when you could just whisper to the people that are dying to hear what you have to say? It's just always stuck with me. It's a paraphrase, but it's just really powerful. So figure out what it is that your customers are waiting to hear and say that directly to them. And the people who are on the fringes, let them unsubscribe. Let them fall away and keep going after that strong organic traffic. Curate. Your content doesn't have to be original. People value your ability to know good information when you see it, gather it, and give it to them. That's a huge opportunity. That's what Really Good Emails is based on. Promote others. You know, there's just incredible ability just to say, "Hey, these other guys are doing great." You know, next week we're gonna promote some really cool things that are happening at AppSumo. Why? Because it's cool to be cool. Like, that's it. Like, just— there's opportunities to do that. You don't need to always tie everything to business, you know? Write what's missing. So I said this before, but this is the thing. Like, maybe in a legal— in a legal context, like if you're a lawyer firm, law firm, you have the opportunity to speak with a voice that's compassionate. Maybe if you are a nonprofit, You have the opportunity to speak with comedy. That doesn't happen very much when you're talking about orphans, you know? Like there's real opportunity to change things up, to be fresh, to speak to what's missing. Links. Links are gifts. They're little opportunities. I like to think about them as passports to travel. They give you an opportunity to go somewhere, either to your site from this email, an open door, or to find somewhere new. So let's look at this little GIF. I actually don't remember why I put this GIF in other than that this is the most amazing GIF on the internet. Man, can we just— can we watch that one more time? No. Yes. OK, watch carefully. This is incredible. Skadoosh. I just think that's amazing. OK. So but links are gifts. Maybe that's a gift to me. Here's something that happens a lot. Click here means nothing. It is a door that says open the door. Don't do this, please. Make your links intentional, reasonable, and effective. And help people understand clearly, this is where I'm going. CTA. I would like to propose that we rethink the whole way that these things work. This is something that especially marketing teams drive toward without reservation. They just constantly, we've got to have more CTA. We've got to drive this CTA. CTAs should serve your audience. And if they don't, they're fucking it up. Like, get to your customers and start earning loyalty and trust, and you will watch that CTA percentage rise. But if we are only worried about the number, we're really missing the point. We've seen this over and over again at Really Good Emails. For us, the CTA is exciting when it drives curiosity and it makes people laugh and they're like, "What's behind door number 3?" That's how we do it for our audience. For Walmart, who— one of our clients, not so much. They've got to be extremely direct about what they do, and they've got to tell the customer in the CTA, "This is what's happening now." And that's really helpful. That's a service to the customer. 25 CTAs, not a service. This is going to incite decision paralysis. Choose 1 or 2 CTAs, make it really clear, change up the wording on your CTA so that you have variation that you can test and know more about. If all else fails, be really good. Just be a good human being. This is not hard. There's probably only 3 assholes in this room. I don't know who you are, but most of us are cool. I fucking love you people. Thank you.
