I’m on so many email newsletters. It’s frankly ridiculous. But somehow, I can never find it in my heart to scroll to the bottom of the message and hit unsubscribe. Nay, I will spend years multi-selecting gazillions of pointless pieces of spam and archiving them (not even deleting them, what is wrong with me?!).
I’ve been rethinking this strategy (if you can call it that) lately, in the name of decluttering and minimalism, etc.
One positive side effect of reflecting on this: it’s brought to the forefront what email marketing I actually enjoy and would miss if it were gone. One of my favorites, hands down, is CB Insights.
What I love about CB Insights
To be honest, I have no idea how I even got on their email newsletter. CB Insights is a:
“Market intelligence platform analyzes millions of data points on venture capital, startups, patents, partnerships and news mentions to help you see tomorrow’s opportunities, today.”
So basically, their newsletter is for people that are interested in the startup world & M&A. They have a paid service, but their newsletter is free and is sent almost every day from their CEO & founder, Anand Sanwal.
There are many reasons why I love their email marketing, but to boil down to a top 5, it’s because:
1. Their subject lines are witty AF
A few of their recent ones:
- what to feed millennials
- map: international unicorn club
- ugly dog map
I open these emails even on the busiest of days, because I just have to find out what these are referring to. It rarely disappoints. (And Anand, obviously, you feed millennials avocado toast… #dudeplease.)
2. Their graphics are beyond
The business of CB Insights is market analytics. But in the course of business as usual, they seem to possess a healthy appreciation for Rule No. 6, often expressed with tongue in cheek “data visualizations” they create or graphs they found elsewhere that you WISH were jokes.
Like this:
Or this:
Face, meet palm.
3. It sounds like it’s written by someone you’d want to crack open a cold one with
Their copywriting cracks me up. Hilarity on so many levels.
Even though they’re in a serious, competitive B2B space — they have a fun and irreverent tone that I can’t get enough of. In two seconds, they can shift gears from an in-depth analysis of Apple’s product strategy to copy like this:
Is it okay for adults to drink milk in a work meeting? Click to vote.
Yes, it’s okay, but I don’t do this
Yes, only if it’s chocolate milk
For the record, the only correct answer to this question is A.
4. They said they love me!
“I love you.”
These three little words are how they wrap up most emails.
“It was to see if people were reading or paying attention,” Sanwal told Fast Company when asked from where this unsolicited affection flowed.
It’s definitely worked on me. (And I love you too, Anand.)
5. It actually generates revenue
CB Insights says that about $1M of annual revenue is attributable to the reach of the email newsletter. If this isn’t proof positive that a) email works, and b) that B2B doesn’t have to boring, I don’t know what is.
Who makes YOUR heart throb?
What email marketing are you in love with? Any business content creators or bloggers you couldn’t live without?
Share in the comments — I want to check them out!
The Hustle are pretty witty too, the copywriting always makes me scroll right the way through to the sponsored products, which aren’t spammy either. I’ll check out CB Insights!
Thanks Aman, I’ll check it out!
I love CB Insights too.