How To Write Emails That Sell Like Gatorade On An Ultramarathon.
DISCLAIMER.
I’ve been writing emails and crafting marketing campaigns for business owners for years. I never planned to go public with any of this.
However, George Bernard Shaw said it better than me…
Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.
— George Bernard Shaw
And it’s stopped being funny anymore.
There’s a huge gap between the business owners who turn their email lists into a consistent income channel, and the business owners who wave the white flag and proclaim “Email is dead.”
You see, billions of marketing emails hit inboxes every day, yet just 1% make the cash register ring.
It’s time you learned how to be a part of that 1%. It’s time you heard the truth from an inside man.
In April, I wrote an email sequence that generated a quarter of a million dollars in 14 days.
I’ve worked with multiple 6 & 7-figure companies built on email marketing. And I’ve been invited to work with 8-figure companies that use email as their primary sales driver.
(I feel icky after that but there’s a point I’m trying to make...)
See, when I hear “Email is dead”... I cringe harder than a comedian bombing a bad joke.
Don’t believe these blabbers.
Because no matter how many rocks you throw at the old guy, email marketing still brings 4400% ROI…
...even in today’s hyper-crowded inbox. That means that every dollar you spend on email marketing has the potential to bring you a $44 return.
Kinda worth it, I suppose?
Plus, while the “titans” of social media huff and puff to bring in a measly 0,6% engagement rate...
… “dinosaur” email’s average open rate is 22% and a click-through rate of 3.71%.
Bottom line: A bad workman blames his tools.
But you’re not like that at all.
You’re a smart business owner who wants to sell more with email.
So you’ll keep reading below to find out 37 rules that will show you how to sell more with email…
…without getting chased from your subscribers wielding torches and pitchforks.
Let’s begin:
Email rule #1 — Positioning.
Like an expert sniper picking his spot on the battlefield, you have to choose the right positioning for your offering.
As the master adman once said...
“The results of your campaign depend less on how we write your advertising than on how your product is positioned.” -- David Ogilvy
Is your lead generation course a struggling agency’s owner best friend?
Or is it a lever you pull to scale to 7-figures?
Is your backpack a mountain climber’s loyal ally?
Or a gym freak’s never-left-behind accessory?
You have to make that decision before you lay a finger on your keyword.
Research is key. Ask before you talk before you write a single word.
Email rule #2 — A riveting promise.
What are you promising the customer?
What burning fire are you putting out for your audience?
The more specific you are, the more you’ll sell.
All of us have a specific currency, whether it’s butt-naked sprints on the beach or wads of cash inside our safes.
Find the one that speaks to your audience, and never forget to repeat it.
Email rule #3 — Tell a story.
Stories make the world go round, make the nuns pray in the evenings, make customers take out their wallets.
It’s what humans use to pass on wisdom from one to another.
They inspire.
And they invoke action.
Instead of telling people how good your products are, show them…
...using a concrete story from the heart.
Humans love hearing about humans, so tell them -- and squeeze your product in there.
Email rule #4 — Don’t talk like a brand. Talk like a human.
Nowadays, smaller boutique brands make a killing and enjoy explosive growth by talking to their customers human to human… not brand to human.
Dollar Shave Club, Basecamp, Ramit Sethi and Sumo are all great examples of this.
When you read their emails you feel like you’re having a barside conversation with a friend.
You get to know, like and trust them.
Selling becomes superfluous.
That’s the wonderful world of this style of email marketing.
Email rule #5 — Send more emails.
Upon reading the line above, the uninitiated will screech like Dracula would if you showered him with garlic oil.
That’s why their bank account will stay stagnant.
If you want to sell more, you’ve got to send more.
Make your emails fun and entertaining, and you’ll be welcomed inside the inbox.
Yes, some people will unsubscribe.
But those wouldn’t have bought your products anyway.
Think of it as a one-two punch -- you’re making more sales every day and you’re ridding your list off tire-kickers.
How’s that for win-win?
The biggest mistake you can do is shoving email to the side because you don’t want to make subscribers “angry”.
Guess what?
They’re not reading every single email you send.
The more emails you send, the more they’ll see, the more they’ll read.
When you’re not sending emails?
They’re buying from your competition.
Want that to happen?
Email rule #6 — Don’t be a bore.
Don’t be dull, boring and timid.
Don’t get lost in a sea of goldfish.
Be like the great white shark, yanking attention like no other.
Nobody was ever bored into buying a product.
And nothing murders a sale faster than boredom and indifference.
Yet most emails in today’s inboxes are lifeless… zombies that occupy space.
You want fireworks, inspiring stories, and gut-wrenching cliffhangers.
It pays to entertain.
Combine it with education, and you have the ultimate cocktail to get your customers tipsy and happy to buy from you forever.
Email rule #7 — Learn to abhor praise.
If someone replies to your email with…
“Great email, thanks”...
...you should print that email and burn it.
We’re not sending emails to pursue applause, but to sell.
A successful email sells products like a deadly ninja -- it gets the job done with no care to impress.
It jolts the consumer’s desire to purchase.
Claps never filled stomachs.
Email rule #8 — Present pain
before future gain.
Any man will swallow two boxes of painkillers for his drilling headache way before he buys his bottle of vitamins.
On each email, focus on one symptom your prospect currently faces in their day-to-day.
It’s all sweet and dandy to promise rainbows, unicorns, and Sundays every day of the week…
...but solving a present pain will always trample the sugar-coated future.
It’s tested.
Email rule #9 — Before & after.
It doesn’t work just for weight loss.
Draw a powerful image of their current situation.
How does their painful problem impact their lives?
How worse can their life get if they don’t solve this now?
How does their life look like after they solve their problem?
Split a gap between their current self and their future self…
...and thou shalt carry a sack of gold like an Irish elf.
Email rule #10 — Keep sentences short.
Short, punchy sentences are the bee’s knees.
They build tension. They add impact. They’re the appetizer for the course to follow.
Don’t make every sentence short because you’ll sound like a rusty machine gun.
Use them strategically, and you’ll command attention, like no other.
Email rule #11 —Back your word.
Here’s a handy rule:
Every claim you make will be followed by equal or even stronger proof.
Prove your authority by mentioning your qualifications.
Customer testimonials, social proof, studies, expert/celebrity endorsements and a proven track record of authority can all be powerful weapons against skeptics.
If you can demonstrate visually that you can solve the problem, even better.
Let people know, and prepare for a cash avalanche.
Email rule #12 — Address objections.
Ever tried to sell your product one-on-one?
Try it sometime, and you’ll discover a myriad of questions and concerns holding people back from buying your stuff.
So why not tackle every possible objection before they rise, so their “hmm’s” will turn to “aha’s”?
Because objections are not our enemy.
They are our best friends, the ones who if we really get to know, will unlock a vault of wealth and all sorts of goodies.
So keep them in mind, and take good care of them.
Email rule #13 — Use scarcity.
But don’t be slimy, fake or silly about it.
Don’t say *10 copies left* on a downloadable e-book.
Limited editions and limited-time offers will increase your conversions.
The fear of missing out is real and will work for eternity.
You’re still reading, so you’re a smart cat, so be smart about this one too.
Email rule #14 — Bring metaphors in to play.
Use metaphors to break complex things down, and explain them in a way a 5-year old could write on a note for a friend in school.
Just like Bob Ross would turn a few strokes with a paintbrush into a wonderful painting…
...a simple metaphor can easily transform a hard concept into a tasty, digestible treat for your audience to devour.
Email rule #15 — Project mind-movies.
When writing an email, or copy in general, there are no verbs, adjectives, nouns or adverbs.
Categorizing words this way is useless when trying to sell.
Instead, it’s in your best interest to separate words into two categories.
Picture words, and abstract words.
Picture words like tree, push, and sunny create a vivid image in the brain and are easy to grasp.
Meanwhile, abstract words like advantage, utilize and hopeful are intangible and harder for the mind to chew on.
When you get ambiguous -- writing something that means different things on different occasions -- your audience gets bored and distrustful.
For optimal results, pass each sentence of your email with this filter:
“If I could see it in a movie, how would it look like?”
Email rule #16 — Don’t be pretentious.
Keep your prose for cocktail parties.
Emails should be colorful, but simple.
When you fancy up your writing, it reads like academia and in the best of cases it comes off pompous…
… in the worst of cases, it becomes a drag to read.
And in none of the cases will it sell.
Write like you talk.
If you want your emails to turn into show-stoppers, trade-in the 10-dollar word when a 5-cent word can say the same thing.
Email rule #17 — Unchain your personality.
When writing emails, hold nothing back.
Unless you aspire to a grand journalistic career, give a point of view to everything you write.
Be bold and unapologetic about it.
Your emails will be more personal, relatable and noteworthy.
Email rule #18 — Grant them the ideal identity.
Every person aspires to an ideal self, a future identity.
It’s much more power to bring up the future identity of your audience than pointing out their present actions.
For example:
Instead of thanking people for downloading your productivity app, congratulate them for their first step to becoming a high performing individual.
Instead of patting people on the back for buying your investment course, welcome them into the “financially independent” club.
And so on, and so forth.
Email rule #19 — Include a guarantee. Always.
Before you hiss like a rattlesnake, listen:
If your product is legitimately good, then you shouldn’t have a problem with a refund here and there.
If refunds are a recurring phenomenon, it means you should go back to the drawing board to craft a better customer satisfaction process.
Guarantees take the risk away for the customer, thus are a must.
This isn’t a tip to sprinkle on your emails, but for your business too.
What do you know –– you’ll write better emails and grow your biz, all from one post.
Pretty sweet deal, huh?
Email rule #20 — Justify the purchase.
Making claims about your product is not enough; Give them a reason why.
Your reason why message, in its essence, gives your offer a purpose.
Its purpose is the solution to their problem.
That’s why when you use the word “because” or any of its synonyms, you bolt on rocket boosters to your argument.
Email #21 — Unveil your flaws.
When you voluntarily reveal the drawbacks of your product, creating a two-sided argument inside the same email, you’ll earn trust.
Because you confirm the ability to fulfill your main promise, and only that.
Your prospects know you’re not perfect, so why not tell them?
It’s disarming, because you’re answering the question that’s lingering in their minds,
“What’s the catch?”
Plus, you can always spin drawbacks into a positive treat.
Email rule #22 — Segment your list.
Not every subscriber is going to have the same needs.
So don’t make them the same offer.
This is where surveys come in handy.
Figure out what exactly what segment desires, a.k.a their currency, and weave it inside your emails, custom made for each group.
Email rule #23 — Use visuals.
Nothing sells better than words, but visuals steal attention and reinforce the argument.
Use pictures, gifs and mini-videos inside your emails.
These will keep their eyeballs engaged, and they’ll keep reading your masterful sales copy.
Email rule #24 — Keep layouts simple.
While visuals will help, keep them at a minimum, and stay away from templated layouts.
Resist the urge to fill your emails with fancy palettes and shapes.
We need the readers engaged in the copy.
The more elements you include, the higher the chances for distraction.
Don’t play yourself.
Email rule #25 — Deploy curiosity.
Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
In many cases, curiosity will not only slide readers down a slippery slope to read your entire emails…
… but it will drag them all the way to clicking the buy button.
When it comes to info-products, thousands of sales can be attributed to a single powerful bullet that people couldn’t just pass up.
People just had to know the answer.
Use it to your advantage.
Email rule #26 — Embrace the weird.
I once wrote an email with the subject line, “Shrimp Visibility Secrets”.
It sold a podcasting course.
It was the best performing email of the series.
Weird, unusual stories draw attention, stand out in the inbox and make curiosity skyrocket.
Play around with unique, bizarre angles and connect them to your product.
They’ll never forget about it.
Email rule #27 — Talk about current news.
We’re hardwired to hear about the latest news.
Keeping up with the Joneses and all.
So feed that addiction.
A certain piece of news or turn of events can make buying your product super attractive to your audience.
Exploit the opportunity that fresh news provide with a timely, well-placed email piggybacking the momentum of the event.
Email rule #28 — Honor the subject line.
If people don’t open your emails, they won’t read them.
Place immense effort and thought behind your subject lines, as the right one will pull in ideal prospects like a magnet…
...while the wrong one could dump you inside the spam box.
Hint: The formula [Powerful benefit + curiosity] almost never fails.
Email rule #29 — How long should the subject line be?
Keep it short, punchy and to the point.
Bonus points if you can engage them with a question.
Brevity is the soul of wit.
Remember: We live in a mobile age, where words get cut off by tiny screens, so every word counts.
Make every scribbling earn its place.
Email rule #30 — Personalize the subject line.
The person we love most is ourselves.
We can’t help it.
Upon hearing our names, brain regions like the middle frontal cortex, middle and superior temporal cortex dance around like frat boys after a vodka shot contest.
So when we see a subject line that speaks directly to us, first name and all, we cannot resist.
Use, but don’t abuse.
Email rule #31 — Show small regard to open rates.
Yes, you want your emails opened.
But clicks and opens won’t make your accountant happy.
So if you can surgically target a super-specific problem your customer list has, the right people will open, and buy your solution.
Instead of the whole list swarming to open a clickbaity email, only to press the trash button seconds later.
Your call.
Email rule #32 — People still read long emails.
Yes, readership falls off after fifty words, but it’s because of a lack of interest or boredom.
(This post contains 3337 words, and you are still reading it.)
But you know better now -- you’ll be entertaining, interesting and helpful.
People can talk all day about themselves, and they will read all day about themselves.
Talk about them and their problems and you have them hooked.
Email rule #33 — Sit on their side of the table.
Self-proclaimed gurus preach, and yell and shove prospects to buy now…
...or else!
“Take action today, or you don’t deserve success!”
“If you want to be ultra-rich, you should join today -- or leave my list for good!”
“Are you a winner or a tire-kicker?”
Silly flim-flam.
Seems like the bloated numbers of their lists made them forget they’re dealing with humans, not cash registers.
A better idea is to lead with empathy.
Of course, you have to sell…
...but instead of pointing fingers, and strong-arming them into a decision, show them you understand.
You know where they’re at, and that’s why you created your offer for them.
And if they don’t want it, or if they’re not ready yet, it’s perfectly fine.
They’ll appreciate it that way.
Email rule #34 — Use one Call to action.
Use one CTA, and be direct about it.
Keep it crystal clear and transparent as possible.
People will always look for a reason not to buy, so don’t confuse them with multiple CTAs.
Make it one, and make it good.
Email rule #35 — Repeat your winners.
Got an email that worked like gangbusters?
What’s stopping you from sending it again and again?
A rookie-friendly option:
Stack together your best performing emails in a welcome sequence.
That way, new subscribers will get to read your best stuff, following a proven formula.
Email rule #36 — You don’t need the best email to send an email.
Everything I said up to this point is useless unless you start sending.
Today.
Not tomorrow.
It doesn’t have to be flawless.
Pop up your email provider, put together an email with a CTA to your product and send it out.
That’s how you make sales.
Money is attracted to speed, so put the pedal to the metal and multiply your sales through your next best friend, the mighty email.
Perfectionism becomes a badge of honor for the suffering hero.
Don’t be like that.
Imperfect action yields progress.
Email rule #37 — The #1 most important part of an email.
It’s NOT your subject line.
It’s NOT your CTA.
It’s not the main benefit of your product.
It’s YOU.
Because the money is not on the list…
...it’s in the RELATIONSHIP with the list.
Most people reel subscribers in with some junk of a lead magnet, blast them with *last notice* emails and vanish into thin air till their next promotion.
It’s like having a friend from high school who calls you only when he needs money, or to pitch you on his latest MLM “business”.
That’s the prime reason behind declining open rates, poor engagement, and NO SALES.
You see, when you take the time to show up DAY IN, DAY OUT in front of your audience…
… and reveal your true personality, not just the “slimy salesman” version...
... people will trust you and invest in your offerings.
And instead of making $1- $10 per subscriber and looking for new prey to hunt for every launch...
... you’ll have customers ringing your doorbell, asking for your next product.
Because at the end of the day…
People don’t buy just WHAT you have, but also WHO you are.
I invite you to apply this rule lavishly.
Because it’s the most important of all.
Now, is that all?
No... but it will give you a solid foundation to build on.
By following these fundamental rules, you’ll be able to sell more and build rapport with your audience like never before.
Keep them by your side.
Oh and before I go...