I am fortunate to have friends and mentors who care enough about me to call me out if I’m ever performing at a level that is not congruent with my potential.
Do you have people like that in your life?
If not, I’d like to be that friend today, and share a story, plus a great a tip, that can help you improve your sales copy, without any extra work.
Sound good?
Okay, here’s the story.
I had lunch today with a business mentor of mine, here in LA.
We talked about a project we are currently doing together, and I told him I would email him some research I had done, as soon as I got home.
Now remember, this is one of the people I was telling you about earlier. The guy’s like a caring drill sergeant.
He’s nice enough when we hang out in non business settings, but he can be downright militant when it comes to teaching me about marketing, copywriting, and self improvement.
And I am always grateful for his input.
Some people may take constructive criticism personally. I just choose to remember that “If he didn’t care, he wouldn’t bother telling me”.
Plus, it’s up to you to distinguish between those people who are giving you honest and reliable feedback, or just criticizing you for the sake of cutting you down.
Big difference.
This guy is the former.
When I finished researching the topic he needed, I pasted the information into the body of the email, and hit “Send.”
The research was sound. But as for the email message itself, I definitely didn’t put much thought into it.
And when I got his reply, I was shocked by what he wrote.
I usually end my emails with something like, “hope this helps,” and then sign off.
Here was his reply:
“James,
No, this doesn’t help at all.
Yes, your research was excellent, but that’s not what I’m talking about.
If you were a non-marketer this email would be perfectly acceptable. But from YOU, this email sucks.
Do you know why?
Because it didn’t have ME in mind when you wrote it.
Not only is it confusing, it makes me, your reader, do work.
And what do most people do when they realize that something requires work?
THEY PUT IT OFF.
And delay equals the death of a sale.
So here’s my challenge to you:
Write each email — whether it’s a first reply or the 30th email in a thread — as if it were a NEW email, and the person receiving it has NO idea what you’re talking about.
I don’t care if you’ve been talking about the same topic over an 87 part email exchange.
Go the extra mile to make each email a WHOLE AND INEPENDENT correspondence so that the person reading it doesn’t have to scroll back to email #3 or “remember what you said about creating a highly converting squeeze page that one time?”
Because they WON’T remember. Or they might THINK they remember, or they might KIND of remember. It’s a lose/lose situation though, because either way you create a disconnect from your reader.
You break state.
If you refer to something in a previous email, CUT AND PASTE the remark you’re talking about and put it in quotes so the person reading won’t have to “remember” or do any work. They’ll know what they wrote because you’ll put it RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM.
Make your points crisp and clear. Create calls to action if necessary. Don’t beat around the bush or generalize.
In short, make all your emails… COPYWRITING.
James, people have a tendency to rattle off emails without thinking, without spell checking, and without even making grammatical sense.
It’s just the nature of the medium. There’s just not that much thought put into an email. Especially when you’re familiar with the person you’re sending the email to.
But as a copywriter you can use everyday emails as an opportunity to exercise your EMPATHY muscle, and get used to putting your readers first, all the time.
If you are writing good, empathetic copy all day, then you break off to write stupid, mindless emails, you’re just regressing back into a non-empathetic state.
Stop taking a step forward and two steps back. Take this to heart.
And…
Hope THAT helps.
PS - This isn’t an attempt to make you do extra work because I’m lazy! This will HELP you…”
Wow! Killer huh?
Your everyday emails are copywriting exercises!
Do you know what this means?
* All of your email subject lines are now Attention Grabbing Headlines.
* Your main points can be broken down into enticing bullet points and short sentences –instead of long, chunky paragraphs
* Include an offer and call to action if necessary, even if it’s as trivial as, “So let’s go to the 7:30pm movie. I’ll drive if you buy the popcorn.”
* Utilize a “PS” if you want to share an extra, tantalizing piece of information
* And always, ALWAYS write for the benefit and ease of your reader. Try not to make them do any work, connect any dots, or have to think too hard.
And make a game of it. Be aware that you’re applying these techniques, but don’t spend a lot of time poring over your emails.
I’ll bet that the people receiving your emails will immediately notice a positive difference in your writing.
In fact, I applied this strategy immediately, and I’ve already gotten feedback from a friend and 2 colleagues, thanking me for the clarity of my emails.
And it hasn’t even been 24 hours yet!
So there you go.
The email tip that subconsciously improves your copywriting skills.
Hope this helps.
-James D. Lee
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