Using humor in emails = not treated seriously & not viewed as an authority?
Not true.
I use humor in (almost) every email.
And I make sales with them.
On the contrary… if I don’t use humor, less folks engage & buy from me.
Here are 7 ideas to sprinkle humor in your emails.
Table of Contents
🟡 Say something people THINK they know the answer to, but present something unexpected as the answer
See this email subject line:
—
gordon ramsay vs my wife
—
What’s the 1st thing that comes to mind?
How about:
This email is about my wife’s cooking skills?
But then I lead the email with this opening line:
Folks already expect the email is about cooking skills.
Then they see the opening line:
“Since my wife, Yanita, is no Gordon Ramsay…”
This further makes them think it really is about cooking skills.
But then I switch to another thing with an obvious answer.
Another thing = gender
Obvious answer = gordon is male, my wife is female
Because the answer is unexpected (gender instead of cooking skills), humor is triggered & readers are entertained.
.
🟡 Ask a rhetorical question, then answer it in a way that puts you in a disadvantageous spot
.
🟡 Purposely misspell some words (sparingly)
– Whaattttttt (to signify total surprise)
– Mahhhney (my way of saying $)
– Butt (added an extra “t” to mean another thing when I’m trying to say “but”)
.
🟡 Tell personal stories, especially embarrassing ones
Most folks are afraid to put themselves in a bad light for fear of being laughed at.
Butt if you share embarrassing moments, you stand out & become more relatable.
(see what I did there with the “butt”)
E.g. 1
E.g. 2
After I got my bachelor’s degree…
I couldn’t get a freakin job for more than a year.
Utterly ashamed of myself. Felt like a total failure.
After 6-figure in tuition fees, no one wanted to hire me? Ouchh!
E.g. 3
I suck at business.
BirdSend (my current business) is my 5th. The previous 4 failed.
But I still want to be an entrepreneur.
Because I truly desire time & financial freedom.
.
🟡 Write casually (with slang)
Casually = informal tone like how you’d chat/talk to a friend 1-1.
No complex words.
No long sentences.
No sophisticated vocab.
Some slang I use:
– lemme
– gotta
– outta
– coulda
– gonna
.
🟡 Come up with something funny
(bonus points if it’s something popular currently/recently)
E.g. 1 — The Will Smith Slap
Gonna slap you too if you say people are consciously searching for things to buy in the “Promo Tab”.
E.g. 2
.
🟡 Use memes
.
🟡 Use sarcasm (sparingly)
E.g. 1
E.g. 2
E.g. 3
.
TLDR
7 ideas to inject humor into your emails:
🟡 Say something people THINK they know the answer to, but present something unexpected as the answer
🟡 Ask a rhetorical question, then answer it in a way that puts you in a disadvantageous spot
🟡 Purposely misspell some words (sparingly)
🟡 Tell personal stories, especially embarrassing ones
🟡 Write casually (with slang)
🟡 Come up with something funny
🟡 Use sarcasm (sparingly)
IMPORTANT
Make sure not to inject humor just for humor’s sake.
Hey, we’re not clowns right?
… Right?
So ensure to tie the humor to our takeaway — the main point we’re trying to convey.
