Kayla Itsines Email Review: Is this nurturing email in good shape?

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Kayla Email Grade: [C+]

Email grades are based on a 5-point scale: A = 5, B = 4, C = 3, D = 2, F = 1

November 3, 2015 –

Organization Overview

Kayla Itsines is a certified fitness trainer and health coach from Adelaide, Australia. At 23 years of age, she founded The Bikini Body Company in January 2014. Thanks in large part to the popularity of her Bikini Body Guides — which include a 12-week exercise and diet regimen featuring 28-minute workouts — Itsines has become an Internet and social media sensation. Itsines has more than 2.9 million Facebook fans and more than 3.8 million followers on Instagram, where she shares before and after photographs of women who have achieved success with her programs.

Powerful Subject Line Likely Drives Audience to Open the Email

This email was sent to someone who had signed up to receive Kayla Itsines’ newsletter and fitness information. The email subject line — “FREE ‘Flat Abs in 20 Minutes’ Workout ?” — is a strong one and likely drives opens with Kayla Itsines’ target audience. It contains a fantastic incentive (a free workout that promises flat abs in 20 minutes) and indicates to recipients that the email contains the exact type of information they have signed up to receive.

Representing working out and strength, the flexed biceps emoji in the subject line is fitting for this email message. Plus, the emoji helps the subject line stand out among other emails in the inbox. The sender in the From line is listed as Kayla Itsines herself. If the email was not from a trusted sender, however, this subject line may be perceived as a bit spammy.

Strong Preview Pane and Simple, Straightforward Eye Path

The preview pane without images is also strong. Alternative text is used effectively to entice recipients to download the images. In addition, the calls to action are all clickable.

The eye path is simple, straightforward, and does just what it’s supposed to do — lead the recipient’s attention to the call to action. The prominent headline is also congruent with the subject line, repeating part of it. And the primary call to action — “Click Here For Your Free Workout” — is centered right below the headline.

Fabulous Free Workout Offer Could Be Even Stronger and More Compelling

Because this email is heavily image-based and difficult to scan, the main message of the email is unclear. The only information presented is the copy in the calls to action.

On the surface, the offer is fabulous and intriguing — a free 20-minute workout to get flat abs. Plus, there’s a photograph of a young woman with great abs, who gives the impression that she must be doing this workout. But there’s no information provided about the workout. Is it a sample workout from Kayla Itsines’ renowned Bikini Body Guides? Including a descriptive detail or two would make the offer even stronger and more compelling. Plus, adding a sense of urgency by limiting the amount of time the workout is available would likely drive more downloads at Kayla Itsines’ website.

The offer in the primary call to action also competes with the second call to action for the Bikini Body Guides. These two calls to action are not visually separated, due to their close proximity and clashing red and pink colors.

There’s also a third call to action for a bonus breakfast smoothie recipe. But recipients must read the entire call to action — “Banana Choc Nut Breakfast Smoothie Recipe” — to see that it’s a recipe. This is a good example of where adding a heading to the picture of the smoothie, banana, and nuts (such as “Favorite Recipe of the Week”) would make it easier for recipients to quickly figure out the content and value of the email

Highly Credible Sender Combined with Valuable Freebies Likely Piques Target Audience’s Interest

Kayla Itsines is considered a highly credible and trusted fitness trainer among her followers, including the recipient of this email. Testimonials from customers, a satisfaction guaranteed statement about her fitness program products, or some information about Kayla Itsines personal training background, however, would help add even more credibility to this email.

Overall, this email likely piques the interest of Kayla Itsines’ typical fans and followers — women striving to achieve an ideal bikini body and who are familiar with her products, styles, and offers. By continuing to provide such valued freebies as workouts and healthful recipes, Kayla Itsines subscribers will likely stay interested in opening her emails.

In this email review, we identified some points of potential improvement. Would the improvements help drive better performance results? It’s well worth testing!

Disclaimer: FulcrumTech does not have access to the performance data relating to this promotional email, so any tests performed on this email can’t be reflected in FulcrumTech’s commentary.