If you’ve been on any email marketing gurus’ list, you’ve probably experienced the testimonial machine gun.
~ “What’s it like to work with me 1-on-1”
~ “200 billion, trillion, gazillion case study”
~ “The 2M promo”
One new testimonial every day of the week.
Sounds familiar?
Because they need to justify why they are charging you thousands for a few simple video recordings. The easiest (maybe also the laziest) way is to hammer you with social proof.
(even when most of these testimonials weren’t even provided for the course they want to sell)
Here’s the thing:
While I have no doubt social proof works…
But, for e-commerce, it’s never the needle mover for me.
Last week, I reviewed the campaigns I wrote for a client in the past 3 months, and I realized all the best-performing emails follow one of three structures:
1) Lead with a little-known story that entertains the reader (the segue and CTA can be super simple)
2) A mechanism email that meets the reader where they are… exposing their limiting beliefs and providing a new solution with a mechanism
3) A super casual 1-on-1 conversation with the reader… with an “exaggerated” version of show, don’t tell… plus a hint of humor
That’s it.
(things like testimonials, images, and discounts rarely make a difference)
Talk soon,
– WYH