How To Structure Emails That Sell
The art of writing a sales letter is something that’s been written about in 500+ books.
There are checklists, formulas, structures, etc…
All of them promising the easiest, most user-friendly method of writing a sales letter.
Ultimately, I believe it comes down to individual writing style, and what works best for you.
However, the one rule that holds across all modes of persuasive writing is knowing your market. If you don’t know their pains, frustrations, fears, challenges, hopes, and dreams, then you’ll never be able to write persuasively. Persuasion is nothing more than being able to show your prospect that your product is a solution to their problem.
With that in mind, let’s talk about the simple 4-step “formula” for writing emails that sell.
The formula:
Attention-grabbing subject line
+
Entertaining/informational story
+
Seamless segue
+
“Right now” CTA (call to action)
=
Emails that sell!
The Attention-Grabbing Subject Line
The first thing your prospect will see is your subject line. That’s why it’s so important to catch their attention!
If the subject line doesn’t hook them immediately, then you’re email will end up in the trash.
So how do you create a subject line that catches the prospect’s attention?
One method of doing this is playing on the pains, fears, hopes, and dreams I mentioned earlier. As I said earlier, it is critical you know you’re prospect inside and out. Once you understand them, you can effectively catch their attention.
For example, if your prospect is an overweight male in his 40’s, currently married, and looking to lose weight, then a subject line that has a great chance of catching his attention is something like:
“I’m smothering my wife while having sex…”
Will this make some people mad? Sure. But, to the guy that has this concern and insecurity, there’s no way he won’t open that email.
The Entertaining/Informational Story
Ben Settle (my personal hero when it comes to email copywriting) talks about, what he calls, “infotainment”. This basically means when he’s writing an email, he wants it to be entertaining, but also a little bit informational. He wants people to enjoy reading his email, but also get (a little bit of) value out of it.
A great way to use this methodology is to find stories of people that would be your prospects (on forums, in-person, or from books) and use them in your email.
Let’s take the prospect that I created in the “subject line” section. He is an overweight 40-something year old, married, and looking to lose weight.
The subject line from above was a line from an actual story that I read on a health forum. Now, in the email, I can simply retell (not copy/paste) his sad story.
Do you think anybody that relates to his problem will not pay attention to his story? Absolutely not! They’ll eat it up. Mainly because it’s exactly where the “conversation in their head” already is.
It’s entertainment because it’s something their interested in. It’s informational because later, you’ll offer a solution to the problem.
Which brings us to…
The Seamless Segue
This is a very short part of the email.
All it is, is a way to transition from the story to the offer.
It can be something as painfully simple as:
“Anyways, here’s the point:”
Or…
“Enter (insert your product)”
Don’t overthink this part. Just move the email forward by ending the story and getting to the CTA.
The “Right Now” CTA
Now that you’ve caught the reader’s attention, told an entertaining story, and set up your pitch with the segue…
You’re ready to make the “pitch”.
Here’s why I quoted the word “pitch”:
You don’t actually want to hard sell anything in the email. And that’s what most people think of when they see the word “pitch”.
Instead, you simply want to offer the reader a chance to buy your product.
For example:
“My wife now drools over my new body. She literally can’t stop touching my abs. Best of all, she’s the one to initiate sex!
So, if you want to see how I dropped from 40% body fat, to a lean and toned 9% body fat — and got back the lust from my wife — just click on this link:
(Insert Link)”
The reason this works so well against the tactic of trying to force your prospect to buy, is that it immediately shuts off the “sales” receptor in your prospect’s brain. Nobody likes to be sold… But everybody likes to find a solution to their problems.
You’re simply offering them a solution. You’re showing them you have the mindset of, “If you’re interested, great! If not, that’s fine too.”
Nothing is more powerful to a buyer than that mindset.
