Marketing Masterclass Two: The Manta Sleep Mask

How do you convince someone to invest in a $30 version of something otherwise available in a pound store? Here's what I learned from my purchase experience of a manta sleep mask.

How do you convince someone to invest in a $30 version of something otherwise available in a pound store?

As a self-confessed, self-development nut, I’m always looking out for things that can make me just a little but better. To that end I’ve paid more attention to my sleep since reading ‘Why We Sleep‘ by Matthew Walker. Better quality sleep = better quality life.

Here’s what I learned from my purchase experience of a manta sleep mask.

By Guy Kingsley-Smith 

The self-development crowd hang out on Twitter, and it was there where I first discovered @MantaSleep.

As a fan of sleep masks, I was already intrigued, but the price point felt a little steep. So, how did they convince me?

The Product Page

As I’m arriving @Mantasleep via a recommendation, I’m already more likely to like it because of the primacy effect there’s the first bit of clever marketing. You simply can’t overdo the Social Proof these days and Manta Sleep know it!

So, I arrive onto the product page, already appreciating that I’ll like this thing. For good measure, I’ve seen their homepage banner on the way.

The teachers at my copywriting school would be VERY happy with this.

Few words, incredibly clear communication of the BENEFITS (not the features) of this thing, and a call to action which takes me straight to their headline product. 

My initial thoughts on the product page? GREAT. More marketing points for Manta Sleep.

I would’ve checked out immediately, but $30 is definitely in the premium range for an eye mask, more than I’m used to paying, and Mr Bezos has almost got me expecting free, immediate delivery. Waiting 3 weeks for international shipping? No thanks.

So although the product-market fit in my case is absolutely spot on – I’m emotionally bought in – my logical brain overrides and says, “Woah Guy, you don’t need to buy this yet, hold your horses.”

More product page juice before I move on:

  • Hotjar, and similar software, tells us that folks focus mostly on the product picture and the price – so these need the best positioning on the page. Tick for Manta.
  • SUPERB use of social proof. The headline from Glenn R, USA, has me IN! And 2568 5-star reviews apparently…
  • “The worlds comfiest 100% blackout sleep mask. Guaranteed.” That’s quite the promise, but now I want to see if they can deliver.
  • They use scannable bullet points for the features, like “zero pressure on eyelids” which also objection handles up front.
  • Smaller text showing me what else I get “earplugs, case and washbag”… nice added extras.

And I haven’t even gone below the fold yet.

I land on a product page, and I can take in all of this information in 5-10 seconds, subconsciously. This product page is so good, I automatically feel like I’m looking at one of the best sleep masks in the world here.

After my first visit, I know I’m probably going to try it, but just wanted to hold off for now. 

As we scroll down the product page, we see some more glorious examples of good copywriting and seamless user experience. This is a seriously outstanding product page for eCommerce. Click on this, read the page with keep your marketing hat on, and take extensive notes. 

In particular, I loved this section:

“Sleep is too important to leave to chance, so dont”. 

Induces a subtle shift from “yeah, I want to try this thing”, to “my god, I’m stupid if I don’t“. 

It’s great copywriting and the video is excellent too.

From Discovery to Checkout

As great as the product page is, I didn’t checkout straight away. 

That’s an important lesson in itself. You can have the best products and pages in the world, NOT EVERYBODY IS GOING TO BUY IT. Some people are tighter with their cash, some people just aren’t trying to improve their sleep… 

Why do you think we’re overjoyed with conversion rates of 3-4%? It’s because you just can’t be for everyone. Most people are not going to buy from you, it’s a fact. Deal with it.

But how do you increase your percentage of buyers?

Remarketing. 

Manta Sleep are going for the absolutely overwhelming, totally relentless yet incredibly well executed YouTube remarketing approach.

I was being served a clever video ad, with the Google shopping placement underneath. If this article has already taken you to the product page, this is your warning, be prepared!

If you get the same video as me, I imagine you will, the video is loaded with user-generated content – or UGC – basically customers talking into their phones about how great the product is.

Makes for a superb advert; and moreover, it looks phenomenal on YouTube, would probably look silly on TV…

Again, the video is heavy on Social Proof, it leads with the line: “join 100,000 people who love Manta Sleep”. (One Hundred Thousand people can’t be wrong, can they?!)

Manta then just followed me around YouTube until I gave up. Above is Manta Sleep appearing under a Russell Brand video (There are some mad things happening right now!).

YouTube, done well, is like TV but better, and I’ll give manta sleep props here.

As a consumer, I’ve been on the website already, I’ve spent a lot of time on the product page, so I’m obviously interested in the product… Using user generated video ad, heavy on social proof, is a superb formula and a recipe for success. How could you make that work for your business?

As a  marketing nerd, I’m more likely to buy your stuff if I think you’re marketing well, so Manta have got me here, it’s now just a matter of time. Without the remarketing, there’s a chance I would forget.

In similar fashion, I’m going to by a Son of A Tailor T-shirt because of Joe’s great write up… but I’m not getting any remarketing from SoAT!

Days pass, which turns into a week, Manta are now fully a feature of my YouTube browsing. Only on mobile (I’ve got ad blocker on my desktop browser, I’m not a monster). While I am a fully converted manta sleep fanboy now, I have to admit –

If this level of advertising was for a product I’m NOT interested in, it would’ve been REALLY annoying…

I’m fully bought into Manta Sleep, slap bang in the middle of their audience I reckon, but undoubtedly this approach will piss off some people who are on the periphery.

For me, they get away with the relentless frequency because the creative itself was GREAT. The ads became a simple nudge that I need to buy this thing, not just an irritating scruffy salesman that I can’t get rid of. 

The lesson is this:

If you target your audience well enough, and you’re genuinely trying to make their life better, do not apologise for talking to them. Get in front of them, often!!! More frequency = stronger brand = better sales.

I still didn’t buy though! 

Great product page, great remarketing contextual to the price range, but I still didn’t buy.

If eCommerce is an ecosystem, Amazon might as well be The Sun, giving life to EVERYTHING else. There was just something about the USA Shipping and the expense I didn’t like… 

So when did I pull the trigger?

When I couldn’t get to sleep one night!

In a tired grump, about 2AM, I went straight to the site directly and placed an order.

The powerful branding and storytelling had made a lasting impression in my mind, I knew – even in the early hours – where I had to go to solve my problem. I could barely remember making the actual order, so the confirmation email the next day was a nice surprise… 

Good job to manta for having an easy to use website with easy checkout too, if I was any sleepier, I probably wouldn’t have made it and they might not have got my order. Is your store ready for when people who arrive and actively want to spend their money with you? You wanna make sure it is!

Post Purchase

Naturally, I’m now on manta sleep’s email list.

I’ve been very impressed with their Monday newsletter, dedicated to sharing content around how to sleep better. The Monday newsletter also ties into “the manta sleep mission”, so I’m now beginning to associate good sleep with this company. It’s excellent branding. The below also features as a section on the Sleep Mask Product page (seriously, one of the best product pages I’ve seen for a while)….

Whoever is marketing Manta sleep, you’ve got your act together, hats off.

No doubt your email newsletter is harvesting my data (where are my clicks going?!) and you’ll to cross sell me at some point. Whoever you are, if you are reading this, my next two purchases are for blue light glasses and the weighted blanket, I haven’t decided in what order yet…

What about a post purchase email flow?

This is where I think Manta could up their game.

I got a nice order confirmation email, and this email below for when the order was on its way:

Both useful links I guess, but hey, I’m a millennial, I’m lazy, even clicking a link is hard work sometimes.

If this was my post purchase flow, I would’ve done this as two separate emails.

For the FAQ email, give me the content WITHIN THE EMAIL, I don’t wanna click away. And for the design story email, maybe I’m nit picking, but the thumbnail is a bit boring, and the copy isn’t enticing… It’s no where near as good as that outstanding product page.

Maybe try “This is how we designed the best nights sleep you’ll ever have”? 🤷‍♂️

“Ben shares the process”? Too plain…. Sorry Ben.

Some other ideas for post purchase emails:

  • Another one of those great UGC customer videos, validating my brilliant decision to buy. This keeps consistency through from the ads, and because of the long shipping time, you need to keep me in the good books!
  • They seem to be a small company, ran by who chaps called Mark & Ben. We all like a background story. Get that in my face.
  • How about an unboxing video? So I know what to expect when it arrives?
  • A guide on how I can sleep better? So I’ve JUST bought an expensive sleep mask. Now is the EXACT time to tell me what temperature to set my room, what time to put my phone away and which earplugs go well. You might earn an upsell here if you do it very well…
  • How about some aspiration content? Anything with influencers maybe? Perhaps a case study of someone whos life has improved from sleeping better because of this mask. I’ve already bought the thing, just tell me how clever I am for buying it – that’s some of the easiest marketing you can do to get folks emotionally bought in. 

Manta’s email game is not as strong as their product pages and remarketing, but here’s an email strategy I absolutely loved, and the company are obviously using this to great effect. 👇

What does this achieve? 

More sales from me with my 20% off, and more importantly more sales from EVERYONE ELSE.

This is how manta are getting hold of all the social proof, which they are using in YouTube ads, but also across facebook too. An absolute 10/10 for this marketing play manta…. Hats off..

Overall, great buying journey, well done manta sleep.

I would’ve liked more email touch points while I was waiting 3 weeks for my order but that said, your messaging and branding was so strong, you’ve still like got a repeat customer here and someone that will tell all their friends, (hey I’ve wrote this blog, haven’t I?!) 

How can Manta Sleep Go Further? 

To sell more you’ve got two options:

Either sell more products to your existing market OR you sell your existing products to a new market.

Since there is still plenty of products left for me to buy, I’ll have to look at how Manta can position themselves into different markets:

All good marketers have a buyer persona or a customer avatar in their heads, right? It’s pretty hard for Manta Sleep to nail down a demographic. We all have to sleep, after all. Therefore, we’re more looking at a psychographics, groups of buyers based on how they think.

In that sense, you are definitely looking at an audience of highly ambitious folks, people who recognise poor quality sleep as a problem, so where do those people exist?

A quick foray into Instagram and you stumble across all the fitness influencers and bodybuilding types.

Manta Sleep, can you sprinkle some of that great copy writing and spin your sleep mask as VITAL for that audience? How about this for a headline:

Lifting heavy, but sleeping light? You’re leaving gains behind.

Then you can go into… 

Sleep is proven to aid hypertrophy,  and is vital for proper health and recovery. Sleep better, train better. 

The Manta Sleep Mask helps over 100,000 busy people to sleep soundly. 

Try the manta sleep mask now.

10% off if you send us a video of your bench press over 100kg.

I’m kidding with that last bit, that might be weird…

The challenge for Manta will be how do they emotionally connect with new audiences…

But these are lovely, lovely problems to have, if you’re at this stage, you’re doing really well.  🙂 

The Product

The product is phenomenal.

I’ve been using it for two weeks. I’ve definitely been sleeping more deeply and having more vivid dreams, just feel more rested when I get up. If you’re thinking about it, just try it. You’ve got nothing to lose. The only negative reviews I can see is that some folk think it’s too bulky for them to sleep on their side, not the case for me, it’s fine. 

A great company happens when great marketing promises a great product, and crucially, THEY DELIVER. Well done Manta Sleep, I’m a big, big fan.

Let me end with a summary of what we’ve learned: 

In eComm, product pages are key. 

They are your salesman, product pages should answer every possible question that your potential customers might have. They also need to sell both emotionally and logically.

Social Proof is a Winner.

I bought this, paying more than I had to (its only a bloody sleep mask!), mostly because the social proof convinced me that it was a good idea. I don’t think I would’ve purchased this without the Social Proof and UGC – think about that for second.

Good marketing is reliant on good product. 

If this product was crap, I would’ve been incredibly disappointed. Ask yourself if your product competes, first. Then do great marketing on top. I wrote about this topic a wee while ago.

About the author: 

If you missed Joe’s wonderful blog post last week – about his purchase from unique clothing retailer Son of a Tailor – you must catch up! Mr Glover’s foray into eComm really got my marketing juices flowing!

I’m Guy, by the way, hello. 👋 I’m one of The Marketing Meetup organisers in sunny Newcastle, and what a pleasure it is to make my debut on this blog! In my day job at Google Shopping Agency, Be Found Be Chosen, I live and breathe eCommerce. There’s little I love more consumer purchase journeys, product discovery campaigns and understanding the ‘why’ behind the brands…

Joe’s analysis had me compelled, I just had to contribute…