“Preach” email

Score… 🥁 9/10

Think back to the last time someone told you you’re living your life wrong. Too much this. Too little that. Judgey eyebrows all the way.

How did that conversation play out for you?

Yep, getting moralistic, sharing an opinion that people should change their behaviour… it’s a risky business. There are huge rewards at stake too (= having an impact), but you really have to know who you’re talking to.

Otherwise, at best your audience will stick their fingers in their ears and go “LA LA LA POTATO”. At worst? Well… at the level of politics or religion? Need I say more.

So it’s no shock that companies often shy away from having a point of view, despite spending £1000s on brand guidelines emblazoned with words like BOLD. (And to be fair, a lot of companies don’t need to get moralistic to help their customers, and if they do it smacks of opportunism.)

A point of view requires you to understand what drives the people you seek to serve. Their immermost-est emotions, past experiences, hopes dreams fears. Not to mention the level of discomfort they can stomach if they’re going to be able to digest what you have to say.

It requires you to understand who you’re right for, who you’re wrong for, and that you have the courage to even want to draw a line between those two groups in the first place.

Last week an email with a point of view landed in my inbox. I rushed to open it. These days I only open around 1 in every 30 emails, compared to 10 in every 30 before April this year, so it must’ve touched a nerve.

The backstory:

I’ve been on this person’s email list for a couple of years. They’re an author who uses their emails to share their ideas and promote their books. I haven’t bought a book (yet) but I’m becoming more and more interested in the subject matter, i.e. philosophy illustrated by stories of news and people. Life with a capital L.

I’m cringing, but to hell with it. Here we go.

(Sender anonymised to “Xxxx” out of courtesy. Think you know who? Guess away!)

— — — — — Forwarded message — — — — —

Subject line: “It’s Always the Time to Act Bravely”

<Wince>!! OK, let’s put this subject line under the microscope.

It’s the opinion I needed to hear, bang-on when I needed to hear it. Looking behind the curtain of the messaging, I can see that the author understands a ton about what drives the people on his email list.

He understands that they:

Have some inner demons they’d quite like to conquer…
…but they find acting bravely hard at the best of times…
…and they would agree that it’s extra important to act bravely when it feels extra hard…
…and that now, this period of history, is an extra important time to act bravely…
…but that it’s extra hard to act bravely when it feels extra important…
…and frankly they’re tearing their hair out because of all of this.

I would bet my last loo roll that there are people of all ages and walks of life in his audience. Sure, some demographic factors might correlate, but the causal characteristics are their attitudes, their beliefs. That’s the common ground.

“In light of everything that’s going on in the world, I wanted to revisit one of the most important (to me) chapters in Xxxx.”

“To see people who will notice a need in the world and do something about it… Those are my heroes. — Fred Rogers”

Aha! A top tactic if you’re going to offer a moralistic opinion. Prove you’re not the only one who has it.

The rest of the email goes on to give examples of people who did and didn’t act bravely and then describe how their futures played out for them as a result. APPLAUSE.

— — — — — End — — — — —

Conclusion:

Email Teardown Club score = 9/10

So bittersweet. I’m a wallflower by nature and I’ll happily admit that the email gave me stomach ache on the day (hence a point knocked off, ha). Still, in the week that followed, I faced up to challenges I’ve run away from in the past. I can’t directly credit that outcome to the email but it can’t have hurt.

At this point you’re probably wondering, yeah fine Corissa but isn’t having a strong point of view exponentially harder for a company than for an individual? And isn’t it it pretty bad taste to pull moral levers for commercial gain?

Yes and YES. I’m not saying it’s easy, and I’m definitely not saying it’s always the right thing to do. What I am saying though is that your audience wants to feel seen, heard and understood, and if that happens to mean you both share a point of view… all the better.

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*Side note* These teardowns are just my gut reactions as a real life customer, mashed together with my copywriter background, to explore what good and bad messaging looks like outside the sender’s ivory tower. I’m only one person, and I might not be representative. Agree or disagree? Tell me in the comments!

Cheerio,

Corissa

P.S. If you need a hand with your messaging strategy, I can help. I also have a few slots of 121 writing coaching up for grabs. Find out more 👉 corissanunn.com