Bidet Brand Tushy Takes a Witty Approach to Email Marketing

While many brands have had to adapt their email marketing messaging to quarantine life, Tushy didn’t have to make any drastic pivots. In fact, the DTC bidet company was primed for it. Before the Covid-19 pandemic brought on toilet paper hysteria and shortages in the U.S. this spring, Tushy was already sending emails to new subscribers encouraging them to ditch toilet paper in favor of its bidet attachments. Miki Agrawal, founder and chief creative officer at Tushy, said the brand didn’t have to stop with its pre-pandemic messaging—it positioned it to market an even more relevant product. “For the last six years, we’ve always said that Tushy is better than toilet paper,” Agrawal said. “This time it was no different, but people had one less thing to worry about. We didn’t change our language that much, except to say that we’d always suggested washing your butt instead of wiping with dry paper.” As a brand that sells products that promote a better pooping experience, and offers unabashed content marketing about butt and gut health, Tushy is already positioned for attention-grabbing marketing. Through its cheeky emails—no pun intended—the brand continuously informs new and repeat customers about its products, tying them to personal health and a better environment. For new subscribers, the brand sends emails that welcome them to the “clean butt club." First-time purchasers get how-to install videos, while everyone can subscribe to the brand’s weekly newsletter called The Posterior, offering educational content about the butt. While Agrawal declined to offer specific metrics, she said year-over-year open rates and click rates have increased; she said successful performance correlates with offering authentic, funny emails that aren’t making the sale a priority. “People hate sales-y emails that feel inauthentic. If you’re going to sell something, have fun with it. Be funny, be silly, be goofy, but be self-aware,” she said. “What can you do that will surprise and delight your people through email in a way that makes them laugh and feel more gooey with your brand? Certainly [every brand has] a system, but it still has to come from a really authentic place.” Agrawal also noted the brand’s emails perform better when sent directly from content manager Corin Wells, rather than Tushy as a company. One of the brands latest emails from Wells had a subject line that read “Watch from the comfort of your own toilet” to promote Tushy’s second annual Butt-Con. Naturally, the email begins with the image of wet peach. The two-hour, free virtual event offered panels and content featuring health experts, comedians, fitness instructors and musical performers to discuss health, sex and culture surrounding the butt. Tushy's latest email promoted its second annual Butt-Con While Tushy mainly creates funny and unsubtle email marketing, Agrawal said the brand can also be earnest when necessary—and plans to increase this for the last half of 2020. She said the brand has started to inform customers about its charitable and environmental efforts. These include using a portion of each Tushy sold for efforts that include providing underserved communities access to clean toilets, saving trees and contributing to carbon offsets as it commits to being a carbon neutral company. “We’re ready to share some heartfelt stories, which are meant to inspire our customers and other brands to do the same,” she said. “Post-pandemic, people will care more about essential things, such as the planet and basic human rights.” However, Agrawal said the brand will continue to rely on what it knows best to keep customers engaged and informed. “We have an advantage because we’re talking about poop and butt and gut health a lot, and people are obsessed about that these days,” she said. “We have a philosophy of just giving great content, and people feel good about the brand because we’ve given so much. We’re not just asking them to buy all the time.”

Customer Experience

Tushy’s Butt Health and Anti-Toilet Paper Emails Were Well Positioned for Quarantine

Bidet attachment brand informs about the body without taking itself too seriously

Ian Zelaya

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Ian Zelaya