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Legion Athletics makes a fatal email blunder

Writer's picture: John BrandtJohn Brandt

I got a bone to pick with Legion Athletics today. But to be fair, they didn't waste a great subject line on a sh*tty offer. 


No, they did something much, much worse. 


They wasted a great subject line on an email with NO offer. 


(Even a sh*tty offer is right twice a day… Wait, wrong idiom. Or is it?) 


I have no idea which bozoguru told them the best way to run an email marketing strategy, but I suspect it was the likes of Gary V or his annoying-as-sin fanboys who kneel at the altar of mUh vAlUe!i!


Here’s what happened:


Yesterday Legion, well, technically Mike Matthews himself—more on that in a bit—sent an email. Only his 17th email of the year, so it appears as if they’re following the played-out “weekly email” schtick that’s playing the email game to not lose instead of to win. 


I haven’t opened an email from Mike or Legion in about 9 months. Partly because, besides talking to him once, I don’t know who tf Mike Matthews is. And the other part is because Legion proper—again, more on this in a bit—only sends discount-style emails that are almost never worth opening. 


Anyway, let’s dive into the email I received yesterday: 


As I alluded to… The subject line was so great and relevant that it made me open an email for the first time in 9 months. 


The subject line? 


Beware the cults of “scientism” and “credentialism”


Ooof, what an incredible subject line.


But that’s where my praise stops. 


Because when I opened and read the email, I quickly realized that this isn’t an email. It’s the opening to a blog. 


As I scroll down more, I see a link to the blog. 


Since I’m interested in what Mike had to say here, I clicked the link, and received another sh*itty experience. The email and the article had the same. exact. opening. 


How lazy do you have to be? 


Or how unconvinced about email do you have to be?


Very, it seems. 


So, I had to refind my place in the article because instead of teeing up the article in the email, he just copied and pasted from the article. 


This is what I mean when I riff on the “general experience” … and I haven’t even mentioned all the “steps” I had to take to read the article. If you’re gonna use your emails to promote blogs, you can still offer a link to the blog, but you should also copy and paste the whole thing in the email. 


Anyway, I read the article. 


But the article made a fatal flaw too. 


Since Legion is a supplement company, I figured their email would lead to a product I could buy to “stick it” to the cults of “scientism” and “credentialism.” 


But all I got was an article link. 


I then thought the article would lead to a product I could buy to “stick it” to the cults of “scientism” and “credentialism.” 

 

Nope. 


It was just an article. A cool concept, yes. 


But did it lead to sales?


I doubt it. 


A better, more profitable—albeit, more time-consuming—approach would be to mix the contents of the article with actual copywriting. Mixing content and promotion is the secret to not only skyrocketing your email revenue, but also building a loyal following who will open (almost) every single email you send. 


And yet… 


After doing a bit more research this morning, Legion’s overall marketing strategy is down worse than I thought. And I say this as someone who has opened one email from them in the past year. 


Why?


* They don’t send nearly enough emails - if they did, I would know who tf Mike Matthews is. 


* They “split” their emails and send them from two entities.” Nothing inherently wrong with this, but I doubt it was intentional and planned by a professional email marketer. It smells like an intern putting his “stamp” on their strategy. Half the emails come from Mike, and these appear to just be articles cut off as I described above. And the other half come from “Legion” and offer higher and higher discount percentages. 


The Legion entity sends even more sporadically than Mike does. And I don’t think I’ve ever* opened one of their emails. 


Anywho: 


Lots to chew on in this here email, unlike Mike’s and Legion’s. 


I won’t pretend to know how much moolah they’re leaving on the table each and every month with such a broken email strategy as they have… But methinks it would be a big, fat amount that more than justifies the little bit more time it takes to mix content with promotion than sending content and promotion separately. 


If you’re making a similar mistake in your email strategy, ol’ el John-O can help:


Hit reply, and let’s set up a quick call. 


John 

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