Skip to main content

Do you dare test an "unhinged" subject line this holiday season? November ATX Meetup Recap

  • December 4, 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 21 views

ebusiness pros
Partner - Silver
Forum|alt.badge.img+26

Hey Klaviyo Community, and shoutout to the Austin locals who attended our November Klaviyo Meetup!

 

Our BFCM Work Party event featured Lianna Patch as a guest speaker. If you're not familiar with Lianna, she's well-known in the DTC space for helping marketers leverage comedy to enhance their brand voice. ​The founder of Punchline Conversion Copywriting, she's spoken on more stages than I can count, and I've had the pleasure of working with her to help a pet supplement brand get better results with Klaviyo.

 

Here’s the special sauce: Lianna shared tips for using humor to make your copywriting and marketing more effective.

 

Half the battle this time of year is breaking through the noise while everyone's inboxes are flooded with marketing messages. Our phones, too, now. Sometimes, you've got to try something different to hook people's attention.

 

This is where the language in your subject lines becomes especially powerful. 

 

Consider this post your nudge to test an "unhinged" subject line as we make the final marketing push this holiday season. Watch how it breaks through the noise of sameness while your customers' inboxes are flooded with sales.

 

Why?

 

It gets people's attention and when done right, wins their loyalty. That resonance with your best customers simultaneously boosts your revenue and retention.

 

Make people laugh with the ultimate IYKYK experience. The wink at the end of the line lets them know you understand them. That their loyalty to your brand is well deserved, and your products are something they'll feel proud to tell their friends about – or buy as gifts!

 

How deep you venture into “unhinged” territory should be determined by your brand. What's true to your voice?

 

I once sent a holiday gift guide email with the subject line "For your NAUGHTY list."

 

We then took it further, carrying the joke through to completion in the body content by recommending "lumps of coal" for those they didn't really want to buy for but felt obligated to.

 

That email yielded $0.47 per recipient – 4X more than the industry average of $0.11 revenue per recipient. Which, btw, is one of my favorite Klaviyo performance metrics! (check out more info in Klaviyo’s 2024 benchmark report linked above)

 

Let’s dive into why the language used in the subject lines became such a hot topic of discussion during the round table portion of our most recent Klaviyo Meetup.

 

Your subject line (and preview text) is one of the factors that can make or break promotional efforts during BFCM. Lianna showed examples from brands unafraid to be cheeky while comparing them with those who find gentle ways to infuse humor into clear reminders that when you say a sale is ending, that’s really the end and not just a marketing tease.

 

You can "play it safe" and still be effective.

 

See the "oh deer" example in the screenshot below – this simple play on words resonates with an outdoor recreation brand's audience far better than another "sale ends soon" subject line.

 

These are just a few of the juicy topics Klaviyo Meetup attendees discussed during our BFCM Work Party. A big thank you to each of you who joined me and Lianna.

 

Next time, we'll get a better photo of the whole group!

Attendees discussing marketing strategies and coworking as we prepped for BFCM

 

Our guest speaker Lianna with an attendee who drove 40 minutes to join our BFCM Work Party
More attendees discussing marketing strategies and coworking as we prepped for BFCM
A very on-brand Klaviyo example of using “IYKYK” language in copywriting from setting up the drinks + snacks
Myself (your Austin meetup host, Gabrielle Pitman) with a brand owner + the focus energy shots we sent attendees home with for BFCM

 

There’s one last thing I want to leave you with:

We did a quick survey of attendees when someone got curious and asked “how many Black Fridays have the people in this room done." You might be surprised to learn one person did their first ecommerce Black Friday promo in 1996.

 

5 people were doing their very first. 

 

That’s the power of a community. We each show up with various levels of expertise and learn from each other.

 

How many Black Friday weekends do you have under your belt? Share in the comments!

 

Share your subject line ideas for what you’re going to test this month too, if you dare. I’ll be announcing the Dec meetup event here soon, so keep your eyes peeled for that.

 

Your host and local Klaviyo Champion,

Gabrielle Pitman

Did this topic or the replies in the thread help you find an answer to your question?

2 replies

DavidV
Partner - Platinum
Forum|alt.badge.img+30
  • 2025 Champion
  • 207 replies
  • December 4, 2024

Looks like it was a great event! Very cool to see - hopefully one day we can launch something like this in New Zealand!


ebusiness pros
Partner - Silver
Forum|alt.badge.img+26
  • Author
  • 2025 Champion
  • 318 replies
  • December 4, 2024

Thanks David! I bet there’s something in the works for New Zealand soon. Anytime you find yourself in Austin, TX, let me know.