Friday, October 14, 2022

The Anatomy of an Ecommerce Email

Alex In My Inbox #35
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Hey there, happy Friday!


I'm rushing out the door as I send this email so bare with me if there are any formatting issues.


Welcome to Edition 35 of Alex In My Inbox brought to you by How to Capture Higher LTVs to Help Navigate a Recession.


Alex In My Inbox is a weekly copywriting series where I share interesting, actionable, and hilarious copywriting tips from "Alex."


Alex is an anonymous copywriter who shares these tips with me so that way I can share them with you.


Today, Alex has an email to show us how to write an ecommerce email. He calls it email-ception. We both can't wait for you to check it out!

Dear Chase,


I'm about to blow everyone's mind. I have an email inside of an email. And when you send this out to everyone, it's going to be an email inside of an email inside of an email.


The reason I'm doing this is because there are simply not enough good e-com email writers in the world.


I can name like 5. And those people are rich, good-looking, and booked up for eternity.


You can't hire them. 


So, this is me trying to teach the world what a good email is. E-com founders are gonna love this one. 


It's broken down into 8 total sections. 


Subject Line

Preview Text

{above the fold}

Header

Subheader

CTA

{below the fold}

Subheader

Body

CTA


The words you use in each section are completely up to you, but we write it this way because this is how all e-com emails are structured. 


Designers need it written this way so they can place it properly. 


If the words are all over the place and you submit a page of text for them to make look pretty, you are an a-hole. Nobody will want to work with you. 


Now that you know what each part is, here's what each part means:


Subject Line:


1-8 words that get people excited to open the email. Or make them curious. Or make them mad. Just draw some type of emotion from them and make it related to the content of the email.


Preview Text:


The hype-man of the subject line. You know in those old movies where you have the big boss and a bunch of henchmen who just love everything the big boss says? The subject line is the big boss and the preview text is the henchman. 


If there are 2 important details, the most important detail is in the subject line, and the second most important detail is in the preview text. 


For example, SL: "30% off" PT: "24 hours only"


Header:


1-6 words that get people excited to READ the email. The subject line already got them to open it, so the hard part is over. The header can have the same message as the subject line, but you can just say it less aggressively. Make it pretty, or creative. Have fun with this one. 


If the email is about a 30% off flash sale, the header can be: "The 30% off sale quickest sale ever"


Subheader:


One or two (maaaybe 3 if it's really short) sentences to summarize the point of the email. Why are you here? What are you trying to communicate? 


Express this, but don't bore people. The subheader in this case could be "Nothing lasts forever. Especially this sale. Get 30% off before we change our minds."


CTA:


The call to action. Shop the sale. Shop 30% off. Shop now. Buy 30% off. Learn more. Explore now. Read more. Watch now.


You're smart. You don't need me for this one. 


Subheader:


I know what you're thinking. Not ANOTHER subheader. 


But we need it, because the email isn't done. You still have work to do. And we're now in the section of the email called "below the fold". This means that these are the details that aren't that important, but still deserve to be in the email. 


This is where you can introduce another detail that hasn't been mentioned yet. Just one or two sentences.


If you're doing a sale, you can talk more about best sellers. If it's a regular email, you can plug social proof. Or you can plug your Instagram. Or something else. 


In this case, we'll do a subheader like: "Get these fan faves while they're on sale for 24 hours."


Body:


Again, this is dependent on what the subheader says. If we're doing best sellers, we won't need much body text at all. It'll be mostly product blocks that the designer/implementor will add in later. 


There's no limit on the body text. It can be 2 sentences or 20 sentences. All bets are off. Go nuts. 


In this case, our body will be one-liner product descriptions for the "fav faves" that you wanna plug. 


CTA:


Again. We need this just to bookend the email and let them know it's over. 

It's also smart to have a CTA down at the very bottom just in case somebody read to the very end of the email. We don't want them to have to scroll all the way back up to click the button. 


Hopefully your subscribers use this knowledge to start delivering better emails to my inbox. 

I've been getting some absolute hot trash sent by some brands lately. 


Sick of it. 


All right. Hope you enjoyed my email-ception.


Yours truly,


Alex


Sent from the writing course everyone should take.

I wanted to let you know about a free webinar I'm hosting in 2 weeks on How to Capture Higher LTVs to Help Navigate a Recession.


We'll be sharing 3 easy ways to get more from your existing audience without spending a dime or hiring anybody new. 


We'll cover building all the flows, maximizing your email capture, and driving 3 to 5 times more abandoned cart revenue.


Register for free here.


Have a great weekend,


Chase

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