Hostage Tape

Alex Garcia
April 17, 2024

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So, in 2021 I did something that changed my career. I went on 50+ coffee dates. Sometimes with a CMO. Another week with a head of content. Or creator.

Then I’d go home and jot every key learning or insight down. But I learned something powerful that year too.

There is magic in collaborating and connecting with people 1-2 years ahead of you. So this is why I’m launching the Content Cafe in mid-May.

An exclusive community for Content Marketers and creators to connect, collaborate, and create together. So, if you want to join the waitlist then tap here.

Now, back to the regularly scheduled programming…

And as always, thank you to our partners Yotpo and Minisocial.

Get your brand in front of 200,000+ marketers & founders.

In partnership with Yotpo

Want a God-like View Over All Customer Touchpoints?

So, tell me this isn’t true…

Building out email and SMS campaigns for different campaigns, segments, promotions, and timing is like trying to complete a Rubix cube with your eyes closed.

But what if you had a god-like view of every touchpoint?

Because then you’d avoid:

The repetitive process of campaign building
Sending irrelevant messages to customers
Needing to aggregate all the data (manually) into one place

Instead, you can create multi-step, multi-channel campaigns in a single set-up.

It’s 25% faster than building your flows as a standard campaign.

And brands like Chaser and Forloh are already experiencing 37x ROI from multichannel campaigns using multi-message.

Most email marketing content is not engaging.

Mid-funnel and bottom-funnel content need hooks too.

They need entertainment value for engagement.

They need storytelling to make the message stick.

They need something to stand out in an inbox that's competing with other brands AND other content they want to read (ex: newsletters) that are not screaming "Buy Now!" and "Last Chance!".

So let's look at Hostage tape.

Their secret weapon? Viral organic content.

They don't reinvent the wheel. They scour the internet. And different communities. And find content already driving conversations.

Then they build the story around it.

And that narrative always ties back to their product.

Like how they take this viral content and weave it into their email marketing.

"Oh, that's me" → "Oh, I need that in my life.”

Hostage Tape discovered a viral Reddit post titled “What I’ve learned from Taping my Mouth Shut”.

So, they took an excerpt from the user's story. And added it to an email campaign highlighting the transformative experience of mouth-taping and the results.

In another campaign, they shared about a YouTuber’s journey taping her mouth shut for 2 years.

So they took her relatable struggles and subsequent successes. And created a compelling narrative that resonated with their target audience on the backbone of her story.

The Formula: Find top-performing content within your communities that highlights success in your product category. Use these authentic experiences to build a relatable backstory that resonates with your audience, guiding them to your product as the ideal solution to their problems.

"LOL, that's funny" → "oh, I need that in my life.”

That’s great, but how do you get your audience to read your email? Use “clickbait”.

Hostage Tape leveraged a funny video clip to capture their audience's attention.

"Will it make my d*ck bigger? 🍆" That's the headline of the email.

The goal? Use humor to lure the reader to read the core message. "Mouthtaping cannot solve all your problems. but it will solve some of your worst problems, like awful sleep."

Then they continue to convey the key point - How users can sleep better in 30 days or get their money back.

The funny headline grabs attention and gets the click.

The core messaging accomplishes the goal.

The Formula: Find hooks already working in other people's content. Use them in your email campaigns to catch users' attention. Then leverage that attention to make them read the core message you want to convey.

"Huh, why is this video going viral" → "Oh, I need that in my life.”

Another way to hook users to read the email content? Share content that already resonates with your audience.

Hostage Tape shared their viral TikTok videos in their email campaigns.

They used stats like "4.9 Million views" and "2.5M likes" to pique their audience's curiosity.

Why is this video blowing up?

What's so special about it?

Then they built a short story around the content of the video and weaved in customer testimonials and product messaging to convert viewers into purchasers.

The video draws them in.

The story keeps them engaged.

The testimonials and product info convince them to buy.

The Formula: Repurpose organic content already resonating with your audience on other platforms. Then weave in messaging that converts.

So to help improve your nurture sequences:

Remember you’re trying to create the emotion: “Oh, I need that in my life.”
Find top-performing content within your communities and guide them to your product as the ideal solution to their problems.
Find hooks already working in other people's content.
Repurpose organic content that already resonates on other platforms - then weave in messaging that converts.