Email Swipes | Email marketing teardowns for SaaS brands
How do you sell a $20,000 product to a busy school principal who’s never heard of your brand? How do you win back public favor when the NY Times slams your company? How do you build community when your huge Earth Day initiative is shut down by a global pandemic?
You send an email of course.
These are real challenges that real brands faced – and solved – with email.
Listen in on email experiments that worked – and didn’t – to inform and inspire your own email strategies.
Every other week, an email expert will share an email story – and the following week, I’ll walk you through the concrete takeaways you can apply to your work.
- Update frequency
- every 5 days
- Average duration
- 16 minutes
- Episodes
- 78
- Years Active
- 2024 - 2025
Don't write emails in a silo | Takeaways from Template Teamwork
Let’s dive into the strategies and methods used in the Semrush case study email, featured in Episode 36.
Ideas you don’t want to miss
(02:58) Takeaway #1: Use 1-off communications as a testing playgrou…
How Semrush moshed their two best emails into a single template that wins across price points and products (with Taylor Raffa) | Template Teamwork
What happens when you’re reviewing email performance and a team member suggests combining your two best emails? If you’re Taylor Raffa of Semrush, you agree – and develop a home run email that wins a…
It's your contractual right to promote yourself to your email subscribers | Takeaways from Content Contract
Let’s dive into the strategies and methods used in the Ness Labs book reveal email, featured in Episode 34.
Ideas you don’t want to miss
(08:24) Takeaway #1: Use storytelling for these 2 reasons
(09:13)…
How Ness Labs grew to 100,000 email subscribers in 5 years, all founded on one simple relationship perspective (with Anne-Laure Le Cunff) | The Content Contract
When you’re sitting down to write the most important newsletter of your life, where do you even start? If you’re Anne-Laure Le Cunff, you go back to your foundational perspective – then mix your trie…
Your customers don't have to love your emails | Takeaways from Reply To
Let’s dive into the strategies and methods used in the Doodle welcome email, featured in Episode 32.
Ideas you don’t want to miss
(03:47) Takeaway 1: Know your audience and tailor your strategy to thei…
How Doodle played with email to push pain point buttons and increase paid upgrade conversions by 64% | Reply To
When your market is challenged by a huge pain point but doesn’t have much experience with paid software plans – how do you gain trust and credibility to win upgrades? If you’re me, writing emails for…
Plain text emails might be exactly what your email marketing strategy is missing| Takeaways from Winning Winback
Let’s dive into the strategies and methods used in the SparkToro feedback-slash-winback email, featured in Episode 30.
Ideas you don’t want to miss
(03:54) Takeaway 1: 1:1-style personal emails don’t h…
How SparkToro prioritizes feature requests, builds relationships, and shares killer pasta recipes with a combo feedback-retention-winback email (with Rand Fishkin) | Winning Winback
When your audience only needs your software inconsistently, how do you distinguish between disappointment or product misalignment – and natural lifecycle usage? If you’re Rand Fishkin, you send an al…
Email best practices are meant to be broken | Takeaways from Cold Connections
Let’s dive into the strategies and methods used in the PodMatch cold pitch, featured in Episode 28.
Ideas you don’t want to miss
(04:50) Takeaway 1: Look at cold pitching as a sprint, not as a project
(…
How PodMatch overhauled their cold email strategy to better build relationships and help more podcasters succeed (with Alex Sanfilippo) | Cold Connections
When you’ve built your business on a serve-first mindset – how can you rethink cold email to reflect that mentality? How can you show perfect strangers that you’re here to guide and support – whether…
Personalization in email marketing isn't as simple as you think | Takeaways from Personalized Problems
Let’s dive into the strategies and methods used in the Powtoon webinar registration email featured in Episode 26.
Ideas you don’t want to miss
(04:54) Takeaway 1: Use data to personalize for relevance,…
How Powtoon swiped a hack from their sales rep to increase email opens – and webinar attendance (with Anna Levitin) | Personalized Problems
When you have robust data on your leads’ pain points – how do you best use it? If you’re Anna Levitin and the Powtoon team, you use your leads’ language to craft highly relevant subject lines – and i…
Why you shouldn't run email split tests | Takeaways from Doughnut Diversification
Let’s dive into the strategies and methods used in the Harvie free gift email, featured in Episode 24
Ideas you don’t want to miss
(02:47) Takeaway #1: Judge carefully
(04:11) Takeaway #2: Segment your …
How we varied Harvie's email offers, thanks to a cult favorite doughnut shop | Doughnut Diversification
When you’ve slashed your membership price for four big, back-to-back sales, how do you go back to simpler offers – especially when you know your best customers aren’t even coming for the discounts? L…
The RIGHT emotions to layer into your email copywriting | Takeaways from Choral Closing
Let’s dive into the strategies and methods used in the Copyhackers cart close email, featured in Episode 22.
Ideas you don’t want to miss
(04:39) Takeaway 1: Use your resources the way that works best …
How Copyhackers used their cart close email to serenade (yes! serenade) their decision-making stragglers – and empower confident decision making (with Ry Schwartz) | Choral Closing
When you know your best prospects are feeling the pressure of cart close – how do you shift the tone to empower decision-making from a confident place? If you’re Ry Schwartz of Copy School, you seren…
Your UX is killing your email performance | Takeaways from Coding Quizzes
Let’s dive into the strategies and methods used in the Sinch April Fool’s Day email, featured in Episode 20.
Ideas you don’t want to miss
(02:26) Takeaway 1: Block the big things into your content cale…
How Sinch for Email leveraged interactivity (and April Fools) to get a handle on their multi-segment audience (with Megan Boshuyzen) | Coding Quizzes
When your audience is a bunch of email developers, designers, and marketers – split across three different products – how do you wow them… and segment them… at the same time? If you’re Megan Boshuyze…
Brand forward emails vs. performance marketing | Takeaways from Absurdist Adieu
Let’s dive into the strategies and methods used in the Drizly goodbye emails, featured in Episode 18.
Ideas you don’t want to miss
(06:11) Takeaway #1: Build your brand’s human side with safety nets
(06…
How Drizly said goodbye in style – despite the brief requiring an absurd amount of emails (ith Jared Jones) | Absurdist Adieu
How do you bid farewell to your subscribers after building a fan base who consistently posts your emails to social? Oh, and you’re not tasked with sending one or two goodbyes – your brief includes 19…