Your last email crossed a line.

Hey! Paperboy here 🗞️

Ever get an email saying you have $8.52 in store credit expiring tonight, from a brand you've never bought from?

Then you’re already familiar with email dark patterns.

Dark patterns are deceptive marketing tactics, designed to trick consumers. Ecommerce is full of these, and lately I keep seeing email gurus recommend them.

The hack making the rounds right now is moving the X on your popup from the top right to the top left. Right-handed thumbs can't reach it quickly, which forces most people to look at the popup messaging a second longer.

On the surface, opt-in rates might go up a bit. But so does the number of people you've annoyed within 30 seconds of getting to know your brand. Most brands aren't measuring popup impact on LTV, so a sketchy tactic like this gets rolled out on the back of a vanity metric.

I'll admit testing popup impact on LTV is hard. But if I'm picking what to test next, dark pattern UX tweaks are near the bottom of my list.

Let's be honest about the ecom industry.

Sketchy stuff that drives revenue gets rewarded. The ads algo rewards it, the P&L rewards it, and the person who created it screenshots the results and shares it all over social media.

Tempting as some of these hacks may be, think about the customer on the other end of them. And if you're going to run them, actually test whether they're incremental. My gut says most won't be.

But I don't want to spend a whole newsletter on ethics, or come off like I'm shaming anyone. There's a more interesting way to look at this.

We can actually view dark patterns as a positive. They show there are still places where we can be more creative without deceiving our customers.

Put another way: the problem is real, the solution just sucks.

So I'm coining a term: bright patterns. Marketing hacks that take what a dark pattern was going for and turn it into something your customers actually enjoy, and that still drives revenue.

Here are 5 common dark patterns and how I'd flip them into bright ones.

Moving the X on the popup

Dark pattern: Putting the X in the top left so it's harder to reach.

Bright patterns:

• A small discount callout right next to the X, so people closing on autopilot still catch the offer.

• A fun exit animation that fades into your teaser tab, so they know where to find the offer again

• Real urgency on the popup with limited-time offers, cycled daily.

Monthly subscription cancellations

Dark pattern: Forcing people to email you to cancel instead of giving them a portal.

Bright patterns:

• An instant offer or discount if they stay.

• A reminder of what they lose by cancelling, shown before the cancel button.

• Let them swap to a different subscription or cadence.

• Fix the post-purchase education flow so fewer of them get here in the first place.

Modern subscription apps provide most of the features I shared above. You just need to write the content.

Ignoring email unsubscribes

Dark pattern: Continuing to email people after they've opted out, either through deceptive list practices or by flat out ignoring the unsubscribe.

Bright patterns:

• A funny unsubscribe confirmation page so they leave on a good note.

• A preference step before they confirm: fewer emails, or only the types they want (e.g. "just send me promotions").

• A "snooze" or "send me fewer emails" link in your footer so they click that instead of “unsubscribe” (example below).

Fake credit campaigns

Dark pattern: Emails telling someone they have $8.52 in credit expiring tonight, sent to people who have never purchased. They think it's leftover money from an old order or a refund.

Bright patterns:

• A real "special credit" campaign tied to a date. $10.10 in credit on Oct 10th, today only. Nobody's confused about where it came from and the urgency is real.

• A new customer offer. "You've never ordered from us and we really want you to try this. Here's X off, this week only."

• Or just… a normal sale. I doubt fake credits outperform a regular promo. I've never seen anyone test it properly. If you have, reply and tell me.

Fake shipping notification flows

Dark pattern: A subject line like "Your order is ready to ship" on an abandoned browse email. People open it thinking they accidentally placed an order, or that it's confirming something else they bought.

Bright patterns:

• Flip it on its head with fun subject line copy: "This could be in your living room in 2 days" or "Our team really wants to send you this."

• Answer the FAQ or objection instead. Put the question they're most likely stuck on in the subject line, then answer it in the email.

• A cart reminder that's actually fun. "Can we come to your place?" or "Finish what you carted."

What dark patterns do to your brand

Gurus will tell you all of the hacks I just tore apart work. They might be right. At least in the short term.

The problem is you're not playing a short term game. You're a lifecycle marketer. Your job is growing LTV, word of mouth, AOV and profitability over time.

Stack enough of these on top of each other and you've accidentally built a terrible brand experience.

At every turn, your customer is being tricked or deceived. They just want the product you advertised to them, but slowly you grind them down until they feel it.

Two things happen from there:

1. LTV drops. The customer feels less attached to your brand, so when a competitor shows up with something similar, they jump.

2. Word of mouth dries up. They won't recommend you, because sending a friend to a brand that tricks people makes them look bad.

It's tricky, I know. As email marketers we're constantly juggling direct response and brand at the same time.

So do your best to take the high road with these dark patterns. And when your boss makes you ship one anyway, test it properly and prove them wrong. Even better, suggest a bright pattern alternative.

There’s too much slop, sketchy hacks and lazy marketing out there. Be the brand that does things differently and your customers will reward you.

Meme of the Week

That’s all for now,
Paperboy 🗞

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