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What amazon, groupon taught the world about email marketing

Dec 2, 2022

Years back when Groupon burst into the marketing scene, I really believe they revolutionised multiple aspects of it. The woprld was fascinated with the innovation in email marketing and saw how they build a multi-billion dollar business using mainly email.

One of the clever things they did was get users to accept the possibility of a daily email by, well, naming it "Daily Email".

Not only that, every email was full of character, entertaining and brought out the personality of Groupon in the user's heads.

In fact, at that time, Groupon had hired 400 writers, unheard of in silicon valley.

They even innovated on the hiring of writers...

Here is one of the it asked prospective hires:

Q. Which is the most interesting way to describe a 4,700-pound chandelier?

A. Blinged out

B. More brilliant than a studious Christmas tree

C. A death trap

D. Really big and shiny

The correct answer, apparently, is B


They came up with a strategy to combine 400 voices into a single "Groupon Voice".

There was a document which detailed it.

Here is how it sounded...

For a yoga and massage service:

“Today’s modern world, with its plethora of countries, panoply of waterways, and constantly changing laws about what is and what isn’t mail fraud, is as confusing as it is stressful. Get a clear definition of relaxation with today’s Groupon.”

For a dentist:

“The Tooth Fairy is a burglarizing fetishist specializing in black-market ivory trade, and she must be stopped. Today’s Groupon helps keep teeth in mouths and out of the hands of maniacal, winged phantasms.”

This sort of email SHOULD make a come back. Even though things went sideways for Groupon from there, it was this great innovation that took to almost being bought out by Google for USD 8 Billion (which they refused!)

I will attach the whole "Groupon Voice" editorial manual at rthe end of this article.

Another company that relies heavily on email marketing is Amazon. And they had a leak recently that taught us a thing or 2 about writing non-boring emails.

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