04 february 2022, 13:14
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Funny emails may boost your click-through rates and bring more sales. Check out this UniOne Blog article and learn to use humor, jokes, and memes effectively.
Ulta Beauty
Whatever mood you may be in at the moment, Ulta Beauty always finds a way to make you feel better. Phrases like “Hey girl, I’m on your side, it’s cool, here’s some makeup you can use” are dotted throughout their newsletter. The overall tone is warm and friendly and lessens the distance between the customer and the company.
One of the most common words used in Ulta Beauty’s emails is “bestie”, and this alone speaks for itself. This particular example is not even trying to make you buy anything — it offers a solution to an unfortunate event that often occurs on Holiday seasons. One little phrase makes the recipient feel connected, and so, more trusting. Try to come up with some moments like these that can happen in your sphere of business.
Function of Beauty
To launch a personalized hair care line, Function of Beauty, the leader in this segment, had to organize its own production line to fill bottles with individual shampoo and conditioner, based on the online assessment of each buyer. And just like the product itself, their newsletter is no less personalized.
With a simple gif they show various types of hair in one frame. And as for the jokes, Function of Beauty loves puns! They add them in roughly every fifth email that is not directly connected to discounts.
Phrasee
An example of funny email greetings from Phrasee
This one is the best in the field of funny emails and email marketing as a whole. The most bizzare thing about Phrasee’s newsletter is that it’s not even written by humans.
Phrasee was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in London. Among the company's clients are Domino's, Virgin, Superdry and hundreds of others. According to co-founder and CEO Parry Malm, their system can write texts that are nearly indistinguishable from those written by humans, and can also predict whether they will be effective.
The Phrasee robot creates thousands of header options in various emotional shades to connect emotionally with each recipient. It’s worth subscribing to it if you are a marketer, cause it’s never too late to learn from the almighty AI.
The Phrasee tools allow them to increase their open rates, the number of clicks and conversions, as well as the company's profits. It creates headlines, headers and effective calls to action. Also, in each letter it sends you different versions of its own logo and adds memes or gifs.
Huckberry
This apparel and accessories brand shows that even tough men may have a chuckle. Little jokes here and there are proof of that. Just take a look at this sender’s name, it could easily be another email meme.
It’s quite interesting how they lessen the distance by talking about themselves rather than the receiver, just take a look:
The last example here shows that it’s often better not to push for sales and just use a friendly chatty tone:
BarkBox
If your niche business has its own popular holiday date, then it makes perfect sense to focus on it. This is exactly what the BarkBox dog products service does by sending special letters on National Dog Day (or any other day really).
There, they stress the fact that your dog probably deserves a gift box with goodies for five dollars on its holiday. You can also come up with something similar within a segment of your target audience. Here’s how they promote their weed toys with some funny email to send:
Another example of using puns is here, this time, for a beer brand collab:
Also, if it matches your product and business model, you can even get a little crazy sometimes and write a letter like this:
Whatever makes a customer say “awww” would work here.
Poo~Pourri
The Poo-Pourri company produces toilet air fresheners; their entire marketing strategy is built on the idea that there are no taboo subjects. In their “Asstrology” series, words like sh*t, poop and stink are all over the place — this is pretty much the look of their newsletter.
The founder of the company Suzy Batiz wanted to fight the odors that her boyfriend used to leave in the bathroom. Realizing that men will never become their main target audience, the brand reasonably tried to attract the attention of young women.
The problem is that unpleasant toilet odors are not a topic that you’d want to discuss openly. Instead, all Poo-Pourri communications are uniquely eccentric, and ironic jokes make the reader fall in love with this brand!
Reading these emails, you forget that the main function of the product is to hide poop smells. Moreover, the style of presentation makes you want to tell everyone about your belonging to the popular and fun "Poo-Pourri club"!
Recently the company has launched a collaboration with the Super Coffee beverage brand (the slogan of the launch was the phrase "The most obvious collab").
Chubbies
Many of us are familiar with Chubbies and their emails. Some people like them for their peculiar style, while others find it strange and off-putting. But if you get to know this brand, it will certainly not leave you indifferent.
After each new Chubbies campaign, marketers discuss the features of their mailing list on forums and share their impressions. But this newsletter topped all possible expectations:
It’s so unusual... and even shocking! That’s what makes a person go on reading. It surprises you, then confuses you, until at some point it becomes funny. And you just can’t stop because you want to know what happens in the end. Chubbies are never afraid to try something new, to be weird. And this is what their uniqueness is all about.
This letter is much calmer but still has their style to it:
And this is what they say about their newsletter on the website:
And last but not least is one of the funny ways to sign off an email:
Shinesty
This brand goes far beyond what usual (and modest) companies tend to say in their newsletter. Given the nature of its product, Shinesty can be a bit cheeky. Shinesty uses over-the-top images and jokes which make their emails energetic and funny and make the client click and read more. This also gives them a little something to think about and makes them wonder what the brand can surprise them with in the next newsletter.
The Marketing Director and Co-founder of Shinesty Jens Nicolaisen says that their CTAs for email registration give them a 6% + conversion rate for email capture. A/B tests have improved the conversion rate by more than 60%, and they are constantly working on improving their newsletters.
This CTA works well because it challenges people’s expectations from marketing emails. It arouses curiosity and instantly distinguishes what Shinesty does differently from what everyone else does.
Visual humor and provocative context are the mix that always works for Shinesty:
Remember what Phrasee writes at the end of its emails? Okay, it says “Stay awesome”. Well, this brand is here for something more fun, so it says “Stay weird”.
They know exactly who their customer is, and are not afraid to take it to the extreme, and their email copywriting reflects that. For example, they provide a standard discount, like most e-commerce brands. However, they go further and actually publicly admit that this is an email about an abandoned basket. This can make a big difference to building trust.
“From the point of view of advertising, we focus firstly on entertainment, and secondly on sales," said Chris White, the co-founder and CEO of Shinesty. "We make fun of everything that is too serious. We take pictures so that they look like high fashion photos, but these are ridiculous products." By making people laugh, Shinesty is remembered by potential customers. I mean, just look at their footer! What other possible funny ways to end an email are there?
At the end it even shows how playful complying to the GDPR can be.
Quip
In 2018, Quip got about $10 million of investments from Pishevar's Sherpa Capital fund. A startup from New York that calls its product something more than just an electric brush. Pishevar supported this project because, in his opinion, the startup not only thinks about the sale of toothbrushes, but inspires everyone to take more care of their teeth.
The newsletter has a recurrent «Mouthoff» email series that employs little jokes about mouth care. People are not always able to keep up a good habit, so companies have to encourage them in every way possible:
Seriously, these funny emails are so addictive! They work perfectly with cool subject lines, like, Loud and powerful: the mouths of pride, or, Your teeth say a lot about you. It’s almost spooky.
Conclusion
Humor can serve as an effective marketing tool that will break down walls between the company and the client. The main advantage of jokes is that they are not tied to information guides. You can make jokes almost anytime with any product, whether it’s a beauty product or man’s apparel. Apart from what you’ve just seen, you are free to add things about your own business, like work email memes from your staff, email etiquette memes, or some inside jokes.
Humor increases the open rate of emails
Communication with the subscriber starts with the subject line of the email. Placing a joke here will effectively highlight the email in the mailbox, and cheer up the subscriber. Such a letter has a higher chance of being read.
After opening, the subscriber waits for the joke to continue. The content of the letter should match its subject.
Gets you closer to the subscriber
Humor distinguishes an email from the dozens of nondescript letters that are just trying to sell something. It is worth adding a joke to your letter, since people begin to react differently to it. The dialogue between the company and the user acquires a friendly tone. This relaxes the subscriber and relieves their fears.
Stuck in their heads
Humor increases the level of endorphins, hormones of happiness, and improves memory. Jokes and wordplay are easy to remember and to associate with the brand.
Surprise your customers from time to time so that your emails are unexpected and worth opening.
