More Brands Need To Do This Style Of Marketing

Hey it’s Max from The Inbox Newsletter.

In 2025 & 2026, looking like a “professional” $10M corporation could actually be hurting your brand.

People are tired of faceless companies with polished templates and safe corporate speak.

People want to buy from people they know, like, and trust.

Alice Mushrooms does over $10M in revenue but their emails look like they were written by your best friend texting you life updates. They send memes, screenshots, and emails that are intentionally designed to sound like they were sent by mistake.

Let’s take a look at how Alice Mushrooms is crushing their email channels while sending emails that look like they were made by a part-time intern.

Key Takeaways:

• The "Rogue Employee" framework turns standard sales emails into exclusive insider deals

• The "Fake Mistake" sequence uses the Pratfall Effect to make your brand more likable

• Raw, meme-filled content outperforms polished HTML templates because it triggers "friendship" not "ad blindness"

• Habit stacking connects your product to daily rituals customers already love

• Text-based, human emails signal to Gmail you're not spam

The "Rogue Employee" Email

Here's an email from "Shira," Alice's web manager and self-proclaimed "sneakiest employee."

The email includes a photo of Shira actually wearing the branded gear.

Why this works:

1. It puts a real person’s face to the brand.

2. It feels organic, not like a scheduled Klaviyo blast.

3. It’s exclusive. It’s the opposite of “Hey [First Name], here's 20% off."

Don't just send emails from "The Brand." Send them from specific team members with specific titles.

The key is making it feel human and slightly chaotic instead of corporate and scheduled.

The "Fake Mistake" Sequence

This is one of the best examples I’ve seen of turning a sale into an engaging story for your entire list.

Email 1 (Day 1): "You are in our top 5% of customers." Offers a specific discount only to VIPs.

Email 2 (Day 2): "Oops, I messed up." The narrative is that they "accidentally" sent the VIP offer to the entire list.

The resolution: "Life is hard, let's take the wins. Everybody gets the discount."

Why this works:

It turns a standard sale into a story. Instead of "Here's 20% off," it's "I screwed up and now everyone benefits."

This uses the Pratfall Effect. Admitting a mistake makes the brand more likable and relatable. You're not a faceless corporation. You're a real person who makes mistakes.

People love feeling like they got a deal they weren't supposed to get. This framework gives them that feeling.

Habit Stacking & Meme Culture

Alice sent a newsletter featuring a custom Wordle screenshot with words like "Brain," "Storm," "Habit," "Stack."

The copy: "I use our product as a daily habit right before my Wordle."

The informal nature of this email is great because they’re educating their customer on how to use the produce while giving them a helpful tip. It really feels like there’s another person on the other end who sent this.

The email also includes:

• Cat memes ("what I mean by busier than usual")

• AI-generated images of "future humans"

• Random screenshots from Instagram

Why this works:

It's entertaining. People actually want to open these emails because they're not just sales pitches. They're fun.

It proves there's a human pulse behind the logo. Someone at Alice is scrolling Instagram, seeing cat memes, and putting them in the newsletter.

The "raw" content framework beats highly produced content every time.

Why "Raw" Beats "Polished"

The truth about email marketing that most founders don’t realize: You don’t always need hyper-polished, HTML-heavy designs to look trustworthy.

Sometimes, down-to-earth, meme-filled emails do more to build trust and goodwill than an email you spend 3 hours designing.

Alice's founder Charlotte shared a cartoon she saw on Instagram that "got her thinking." She screenshotted it and put it in an email with her raw thoughts.

That email probably performed better than any $5K designed template ever would.

Why?

Because it feels like a friend texting you, not a corporation marketing to you.

And in 2026, people buy from people they know. Not faceless logos.

Email Inspiration Of The Day

Brand:
HIRO

Email Design:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pFLJ9q8waGwBeZ0f2WjuaeUFgqBQqbZU/view?usp=sharing

Notes: Sticking with today’s theme, this is a great example of a simple, text-based email from the founder that does a lot right. It leads with the main point (the Black Friday Discount) and goes into a bit more detail without saying too much. The photo of the founder at the end was a nice touch.

Template of The Day

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Reply to this email if you have any questions or further content you want covered.

Cheers,

Max | Well Copy Email & SMS Marketing

PS - If you run a 7-9 figure ecommerce brand and you want to have a free email strategy consultation, book a call here » 

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