How to Write An Email Campaign Using Simple Concepts
Whether you’re working as a mercenary copywriter for hire or building your own business, you should be creating an email list full of dedicated subscribers that are eagerly anticipating the next email you send. They should look forward to your next email like a kid looks forward to Christmas.
They should open all the emails you send and be happy when you give them the opportunity to spend money having read them.
Luckily, this comes down to observing some very basic principles. An email is probably only a couple of hundred words long, and so you don’t have much space to get your message across. In one way, this is bad; you don’t have time for the long-con. On the other hand, it’s good because you don’t have time to mess anything up.
Or so you’d think.
Well, check out this guy:
Courtesy of another guy on Reddit, we’ve got our topic for the day: How to write some emails and have them sell stuff without getting it all wrong.
What Is This Guy Doing Wrong?
The guy I quoted above is stuck. He’s presumably been paid to write a sequence of ten follow up emails for people who’ve downloaded an app.
An app is a lead magnet – check out this article about creating a set of lead magnets if you’re following along.
Now, presumably this app is something to do with a service; and the offer the guy has been tasked with selling is available for subscribers at a 60% discount for a new customer.
Fair enough.
Without knowing the details, we can’t be sure whether this offer is a great deal or a terrible one. We also can’t be overly specific in our diagnosis. But there’s one thing we can be sure of.
“How many times can you write 60% off your first session?”
SIREN WAILING AND RED LIGHTS FLASHING
This guy has committed a grievous copywriting sin.
The deal is not the offer. The offer is not what you’re selling. Ever.
Repeat after me:
You NEVER Sell The Offer
The product is never what you sell. If you’re ever sat wondering, “How do I sell this product” you’re in the wrong brain-space. Products are boring and we never sell a product.
We sell a solution.
I guarantee that if you switch your thinking from “How do I sell this product?” to “How do I sell this solution?” your writer’s block will magically disappear.
Everyone on that mailing list has downloaded an app. That means that every one of those people has a problem that needs solving. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a yoga app for their bad back/spiritual emptiness or Angry Birds Replica 67 to cure their existential boredom.
Hopefully, the service he’s selling at 60% off is related to that issue. But the fact is that the service is incidental and the fact it’s currently 60% off is totally just a happy coincidence.
That’s how this copywriter needs to think about it.
Now let’s talk about email marketing specifically.
The Basic Concepts That Ensure Your Email List Loves You
Emailing is simple and complex at the same time. Like I said above, you don’t have time to do much right or wrong in an email. You can’t be throwing out 1,000+ word emails regularly, because nobody has time for that.
Now, the length of your emails will depend; but 300 to 500 words is something you should aim for.
That’s great because here’s a structure that you can use and tweak.
Simple Email Structure
5 x 100 word paragraphs.
Paragraph One: “Hey, here’s an interesting story that’s in no way contrived and conveniently fits with my brand and is relevant to the story I’m about to tell you.”
Paragraph Two: “You might be having trouble with some aspect of your life… I know a lot of other guys like you do.”
Part Three: “Well, here’s a funny little fact and something you might want to try out.”
Paragraph Four: “The solution is to stand on your head with a pencil in each hand.”
Paragraph Five: “Let’s wrap it up. Let me know how you get on, and open next week’s email because I’m going to cure world hunger in that one.”
How Not To Mess Up
So with that basic structure in mind, there’s not really much that can go wrong. Because some people will prove me wrong, I’ll give you five tips for what to avoid in a minute. Before that though, let’s address the elephant in the room.
Some clients are going to hate the above approach. They’re going to say, “BUT WHAT ABOUT MY SALES?!?”
You can direct them to this article, that’ll show ‘em.
The fact is you can drop a sales thing at any point in any part of any of those emails. You just soft sell it. If you really wanted, you could do four of those emails and a fifth harder sell. If you’re writing a list of ten emails and you write ten hard-sales emails though, you’re going to get a miserable open-rate past the first and a hell of a lot of unsubscribers though.
Do These Things
The above talks about what not to do, and here are some best practice ideas for your email list.
Firstly, you’re their best buddy and a wizard that solves their problems. Say it with me once more: we’re selling solutions. If you do that, you’ll ensure that your reader stays a reader. Nothing else comes close.
Secondly, you are building a lasting relationship with your reader. There’s no point in pump-and-dump marketing with a mailing list. It’s literally one of the longest-term plays you can make. That means it doesn’t matter if they buy now or later. Which brings me on to the next point.
Thirdly, soft-selling is the name of the game. Selling through a direct sales letter is short, sharp and quick. Email is a different beast. Selling to your list is incidental. It’s a “Hey, I was just checking how you were doing but by-golly isn’t this a coincidence that my buddy is running a sale.”
Fourthly, say no to no-reply. Your email list will email you. They will ask you questions. You must answer them. If you aren’t willing to do that, then you shouldn’t have an open mailing list. This is all long-term cultivation of a market and a necessary step.
Fifthly, it’s not all about selling. Readers aren’t just buy buttons waiting to happen. They’re human beings. Whilst this is some feel-good stuff, human beings are also adept at doing things other than buying. Like giving you testimonials, feedback, social shares and other good things. Why waste that?
Those are five tips and with the structure, they’ll answer most issues.
Final Thoughts
We’ve covered quite a lot in this article already, which is great. To summarise:
- Solve the problem, not the product
- Email is a great medium if you get it right… just don’t mess up
- Use a template that makes selling an incidental by-product, not the main event
- Cultivate email over the long term.
With all email stuff, another thing to bear in mind is that you need to split-test. If you’re freelancing, this is out of your control, but you should test everything against other options. For the ideas discussed here:
- How often should you “hard sell” as opposed to “soft sell?”
- Which problems lead to more opens?
- Where are the best places to stick a sales link? (At the end, intro or during the problem?)
- Where in the autoresponder (if anywhere) do people drop off and unsubscribe?
That should give you enough to experiment with for a long time.