I Just Received the Smartest $1.5 Million Email (Case Study)
By: David Majister
Tags: Case Study, Marketing, Email Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Writing

The Six Principles of Influence

The six principles of influence are:

Reciprocity

Commitment and consistency

Social proof

Authority

Liking

Scarcity

Let’s look at how the email follows each of these principles:

Reciprocity — the $5 credit

The principle of reciprocity was first outlined by the social anthropologist Marcel Mauss in his 1925 essay The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies. Mauss’s key point was that a gift comes with an assumption of reciprocity. In other words, when you receive a gift from someone, you’ll likely feel obligated to give back.

In the email above, I’m given a $5 credit in reciprocity for the fact that I already took an interest in the business (I backed one of their previous campaigns). Now the ball’s in my court: Will I return the favor by backing the new campaign?

It’s a nice touch that encourages me to be loyal to their products.

Commitment and consistency — the subject line

Research shows that clickbait subject lines reduce open rates. The subject line of this email at first glance seems pretty ordinary, even bureaucratic:

Yet it immediately arouses curiosity. I can see it’s from a gaming company, and I love games. So I wonder, “what credits have I been given towards a new game?” and I open the email. I’ve made a small commitment to finding out more.

A small yes from a prospective buyer makes it easier to get a bigger yes. People act consistently with their previous commitments. I’ve made a commitment to open the email, which makes me more likely to read the email, then click the “claim your credits” call to action at the end of the email.

This accumulation of small commitments means I’m more likely to take the final action the email senders want: back the project.

Social proof — ‘every user’

The phrase “this is a gift to every user” adds social proof to the email, showing that I’m alongside a crowd of similarly minded people.

When I click through to the campaign page, I see even more social proof in how much the campaign has raised:

Screenshot provided by the author.

Seeing how many backers are already on board with the campaign — and how much they’ve pledged — encourages me to open my wallet and back too. That’s the power of social proof.

Authority — the branding and colors

This is where it gets super smart. Awaken Realms are a highly successful board games publisher, who rose to success through raising funds for their games on Kickstarter.

In total their games have raised tens of millions of dollars. So Kickstarter’s 8% fees would have hit them hard, to the tune of millions of dollars. That’s likely why Awaken Realms switched to Gamefound, a relatively new crowdfunding platform with lower fees, for this project.

The downside of setting up on a new platform? Establishing trust. If you’re not careful, you’re starting from scratch with building a relationship with your customers.

That’s covered in the email. The light grey and green colors in the email echo the branding colors of Kickstarter, while not being exactly the same color. That’s an easy way to create an immediate sense of familiarity and trust.

What’s more, the whole tone of the email is one of quiet confidence, which adds authority. They’re not pleading “please give us money for our project” or shouting about “special offer.” They just state what’s on the table, in a straightforward way.

Liking — mixing familiarity and novelty

When you like someone, you’re more likely to be influenced by their requests.

As I’ve backed campaigns previously from Awaken Realms, I’m familiar with their games, and neuroscience research shows that familiarity causes high levels of brain activation. Likewise, novelty activates the reward centers in the brain. This email invites me to celebrate the launch of a new project, so it hits the novelty button, too.

An email that combines both familiarity and novelty is a heady mixture that gives me positive feelings towards the brand.

Scarcity — the project deadline

People are inclined to put off decisions until the last minute. That’s why scarcity can be helpful in selling products. If there’s a limited number of products available or a deadline for buying, customers take action because they don’t want to miss out.

Crowdfunding campaigns have built-in scarcity since there’s a date by which backers need to make their pledge to be part of the campaign. Otherwise, they risk missing out on the new product.

The email doubles down on this scarcity, by putting a time limit on the $5 credit: “This credit can only be used during the ISS Vanguard campaign.”