Health Email of the Week #7: Visual Impact Fitness
I first learned of this list from Ian Stanley and I’ve read their emails for years now. I’m not sure if it’s actually just one guy, Rusty, who writes them or not so I’ll refer to this as a company for the purposes of this review.
Bottom line -- If you’re interested in learning how to sell fitness products or courses with email, you need to sign up for their list and read every email they send.
Honestly, it’s a masterclass in email copywriting and marketing.
I’m really excited to dive into this one so let’s get started…
Don’t forget -- if you have some great health email(s) that you want me to review, forward it to me! If it’s good, I’ll buy you a drink the next time we hang out. You can forward the email(s) to: nick@iamnickyates.com.
Make sure you review the selection criteria first though…
Here’s How I select the Emails to Review
1. They must focus on text-based emails. Sure, you can use the occasional image and GIF (bonus points for good GIF usage), but I’m not reviewing one of those walls of graphics with 25 buttons and 45 total words.
2. It needs to excite me deep in my loins. Sorry, was that too much? I’m an email nerd, I get excited about this stuff, give me a break… Long story short, I’m going to review emails that catch my attention. I’m not reviewing a crazy hypey email that sells a product that makes you shit oil slicks and “lose 61 lbs. in just 3 weeks!!!”
3. They need a bit of strategy (just a little, please!) I don’t plan on reviewing the soul-crushing companies that spam their list with neverending BUY MY SHIT types of offers. Those types of “churn and burn” lists cause me physical pain. At least put a little effort into your strategy and I’ll toss you a review, capiche?
Overview
When I get my emails from Rusty at Visual Impact Fitness, I get excited deep down in my loins.
They are always great.
Visual Impact Fitness sells a lot of different courses for a broad range of avatars (pretty much all of them in fitness really) and they do a great job of mixing up their email copy to keep it fresh and unique.
Here’s the full email for you to take a look at before we get into the breakdown:
Subject Lines
Now, let’s take a look at the subject line…
I love it.
It’s short, simple, and extremely direct.
And it contains my favorite little piece of copy psychology on the planet… CURIOSITY.
*cue bonus point dingy sound*
But you might be wondering, “Nick, obviously that would eliminate men reading this email!! Wtf u r an idiot Nick!!”
Calm down, peppy.
Here’s what happens when you aren’t the target market -- you still read it because we are naturally curious creatures.
As a man, I’d still read that Why? Because it sounds interesting. Maybe this would help my wife or my mom? Maybe this is something I could help someone with in the future? Who knows.
It will still get read.
Now, how could you repurpose this SL and strategy for your list? Here’s a simple template:
Should ________ do _________?
Or…
Should _______ ________?
Should men do cardio?
Should copywriters hand copy sales letters until their hand goes numb?
Should digital marketers worry about the new Apple update?
Should your toddler eat crayons for dinner?
There you go…
Note: I am not a medical professional, but I don’t believe your toddler should eat crayons. My left eye has never been the same since I tried it in 1993.
Body Copy and Overall Strategy
Let’s start out this section with the first line:
This is a bit of a snoozer to me.
There are some great lines further down that could have been pulled for this valuable real estate. The fact that he read an article and says it’s interesting isn’t really that interesting to me.
What if it read…
I used to believe in intermittent fasting, but then my body changed.
Or…
A lot of people think intermittent fasting is great for fat loss and I completely disagree.
See how that’s so much more interesting than the fact that he read an interesting article?
After a brief little intro following the first line, Rusty gets into his personal intermittent fasting experience and I really love this story:
It’s personal.
It poses a problem that a lot of people have (stubborn belly fat) when fasting.
And it says that this guy actually didn’t solve it with the usual intermittent fasting, it was something else. Great curiosity copy here -- what was the other thing he did to get rid of the stubborn belly fat?
This is a breath of fresh air for readers who have struggled with intermittent fasting. They’ve seen all these people online getting results but when they tried it they didn’t have that same experience…
Rusty to the rescue:
Rusty is giving them a modified routine that maybe they haven’t heard of before. The whole premise everyone else pushes is to skip breakfast. Not Rusty though, he still gets the benefits of intermittent fasting but he eats breakfast.
That’s a big curveball for a lot of failed fasters.
And it might just be exactly what they wanted to hear, so they click on his program “High Carb Fat Loss” and down the rabbit hole they go…
The remainder of the email doesn’t really have much of a close. It ends by giving them resources to further explore this idea of alternatives to the “normal” intermittent fasting schedule.
I think this leaves a bit on the table since he could have really hammered home the offer as the best option, but, maybe he was balancing the list’s “bank account” as I call it -- value vs. asking for money.
All in all, it’s a great email with great copy.
I love the positioning he uses and the personal story that backed it.
Conclusion
I think a lot of brands writing boring emails with constant sales could take notes from the way Visual Impact Fitness handles their list.
Every one of their emails is solid and I always find myself taking notes or adding them to my swipe file for future reference.
I highly recommend you do the same…
That’s a wrap for this Health Email of the Week.
I hope you enjoyed it…
If you have any health and fitness emails you’d like to submit for any upcoming Health Email of the Week posts, please forward them to my email: nick@iamnickyates.com
And if you found this valuable, please consider giving it a share.