Latest / The Email Marketing Podcast with Fexingo: Newsletters, Open Rates, and Subscriber Growth / Why Your Email List Should Match Your Brand Voice
Transcript
- Lucas: There's this moment when you open an email from a brand you follow—and it just feels... off. Like the voice doesn't match the person you thought you signed up for. Luna: Yeah, I've had that. You follow a brand on Twitter that's funny and irreverent, and then their email reads like a legal disclaimer. Lucas: Exactly. And that gap costs them. If today's episode sparks something useful for you, we'll talk about how to fix that. But one thing that keeps this show ad-free—and lets us go deep on these topics—is listener support. If you found value here, buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo is where you can help keep this going. No pressure, just a way to say thanks. Luna: Yeah, we appreciate anyone who chips in. Now, back to that voice mismatch—what's the practical harm? Lucas: The practical harm is lower engagement, plain and simple. If a subscriber feels like they're getting email from a different company every time, they stop opening. I've seen brands with 40% open rates on their website pop-ups drop to 15% in the inbox, and the number one reason is a tone disconnect. Luna: So you're saying it's not just about design consistency—it's about personality consistency. Lucas: Exactly. Think about it: your website might be polished and professional, your Instagram might be playful, your support chat might be casual. That's fine—different channels, different contexts. But the email list is where people opt in because they want a direct relationship. If that email voice doesn't match the brand they chose, they feel tricked. Luna: I've seen a B2B SaaS company that had a very buttoned-up brand—dark blue, lots of charts—but their emails were written in a super casual, emoji-heavy tone. It felt like two different companies. Lucas: Right, and that's a common mistake. A lot of marketers think email should be 'friendlier' than the rest of the brand. But the research shows that consistency in tone across touchpoints increases trust—and trust drives clicks. Luna: So what's the fix? A tone audit? Lucas: Yeah, a simple tone audit. Take your last five emails—whether transactional, newsletter, or promotional—and compare them to your website homepage, your product pages, and your most recent social post. Ask: could this email have come from the same person? Luna: And if the answer is no, then what? Lucas: Then you need to pick one voice as your brand's core, and apply it across email. Usually it's easier to bring the email voice closer to the website voice, because that's where the strongest brand equity lives. But sometimes the email voice is actually better—and you should adjust the website. Luna: Interesting. Let's talk about a concrete example. A DTC retailer I worked with had a very whimsical, story-driven brand on social media—lots of narrative posts. But their emails were very transactional: 'Your order has shipped. Click here to track.' No personality at all. Lucas: That's a classic miss. The transactional email is actually the highest-touch moment—someone just gave you money. That's the perfect place to reinforce brand personality. One brand I know rewrites their order confirmation with a short story about the product's origin, and they saw a 12% increase in repeat purchases from that email alone. Luna: So it's not just about the newsletter—it's every email that goes out under your brand name. Lucas: Every single one. And that includes automated sequences. I see brands where the welcome series feels like a friendly human, but then the abandoned cart email is robotic and generic. The subscriber thinks, 'Who is this?' and they bounce. Luna: How do you even measure the impact of voice mismatch? Open rate is too noisy. Lucas: I look at two things: reply rate and list churn rate. If people are replying to your emails—even with complaints—they're engaged. If your reply rate is near zero, your voice might be too impersonal. And if your churn rate spikes after a certain email, you can bet the tone hit a wrong note. Luna: So you'd want to A/B test tone, not just subject lines. Lucas: Exactly. Run a split test where one version uses your standard email voice and the other uses a tone that mirrors your website or social voice. Measure click to open rate and conversion, not just opens. I've seen lifts of 20% or more when the tone aligns. Luna: What about segmentation by brand persona? Like, if you have a formal product line and a casual line, should you segment emails accordingly? Lucas: That's a smart approach. If your brand has multiple sub-brands or product lines with distinct personalities, you can segment your list by which persona the subscriber signed up for. But only if you're collecting that preference. Otherwise, default to the most consistent brand voice across the whole company. Luna: So the golden rule is: know your brand's core personality, and make sure every email sounds like it's from that same person. Lucas: Right. And that person should be someone your subscriber would want to grab coffee with—or at least read an email from. Luna: I like that. So next time I get an email that feels off, I'll send it to you for a voice audit. Lucas: Please do. And I'll send you the ones that make me cringe—they're a goldmine for learning what not to do.