What I learned after writing 1,000+ emails for clients

A few months ago, I got to a point in my writing career where I had a lot of my preconceived notions about writing emails challenged.

For the past few years, I’d written email copy in over 50 different markets. Hundreds and hundreds of emails. I had gotten some pretty good result for my clients. And I made them a lot of money.

Then, I had this epiphany.

I realized that when you first start learning any new skill you know nothing.

Then you start learning more and you think you have everything figured out.

Then you get some experience and you KNOW you have everything figured out.

And then you get even more experience and you realize you don’t know shit.

Your understanding is just the tip of the iceberg. And there is a world of understanding you haven’t even begun to see yet.

That’s where I’m at right now.

I’m at the point where I’ve learned a lot of things I once thought were true… simply aren’t.

And that’s because for the longest time I listened to people who talk about copywriting, who don’t actually write for clients.

So once I stopped listening to everyone else and set out to discover the truth, I arrived at my own conclusions.

I looked back on the 1,000+ emails I had written for my clients, and I identified a few universal laws that have always held true for me — no matter the list, market or product.

And now I’d like to share these lessons with you. Here are some of the universal laws of email copy I’ve discovered:

Email is very much alive and always will be

And anyone who tells you otherwise is a jackass.

Is deliverability an issue?

Sure. Always has been. Always will.

Are people more distracted than ever?

Of course.

Are open rates declining while spam complaints are skyrocketing?

Yes. In some industries, for some people. But there are other people who have the opposite of this problem.

I always laugh when people say that email is dead. Email isn’t dead. It’s stronger than ever. And I’d say it’s actually growing in importance.

Take a look at how many autoresponder companies there are. Take a look at how many funnels you see asking for an email address. Take a look at your goddamn inbox.

If email is dead, then why is email everywhere?

Writing is mechanical, not romantic

I love when writers talk about the romance of writing.

It amuses me.

And the reason why it amuses me so much is because most of the successful writers in the world view writing as a mechanical process.

When guys like Stephen King or James Patterson sit down to write their 3,000–5,000 words every single day, they don’t light a candle… pour themselves a cocktail… and wait for the muse to find them.

They put their ass in the seat and assemble greatness.

As I’ve gotten better, this process has become less and less about trying to channel inspiration… and more and more about assembling compelling sales messages based on tested & proven formulas for persuasion.

When you get past a certain level of experience, writer’s block should happen less and less. And that’s because you’ve internalized the formulas and structures you need to produce a compelling sales message.

Every email follows the same formula

Here it is:

Subject line

Story/hook/lead

Segue

Call to action

This is a proven formula for persuasion when selling with email.

And when you start looking at every email in these four parts, it makes things a lot easier for you to ‘fill-in-the-blanks.’

Your subject line is infinitely more important than the body

For a long time I focused 90% of my writing time on the body of my emails and only about 10% of the time worrying about the subject line

But then one day, the head of marketing at a company I worked for brought up the idea of flipping that ratio.

Spending 90% of the time on my subject lines and only 10% of the body.

Now, is it necessary to stick hard and fast to this ratio? I don’t think so. But the idea behind this advice was important.

Nothing happens until your email gets opened. Just like a regular advertisement — nothing happens until the headline is read. Why would email be any different?

Opens might not be the most important metric to track… but they are what starts the conversation with your prospect…

Short subject lines usually work better

A while back, I started counting the number of words in my subject lines.

(Guess I should find a hobby, right?)

I noticed that almost every subject line clocked in at usually 10 or 11 words.

Now, this isn’t bad. But oftentimes, entire subject lines can’t be displayed on mobile unless there ~8 words or less.

I’ve tested this out a on a number of lists, and shorter subject lines usually do a bit better than longer ones.

What’s also important: the human brain processes information in chunks.

So the less words you use, the easier it is to process. If you can get across your idea in five words instead of twelve, your message will be better received.

It’s hard to do this, but it’s a great skill to develop. And better word economy will not only capture interest, it’ll help move people through your writing faster.

Say more, with less.

Curiosity is king

The best subject line formulas I have ever used is a combination of curiosity + benefit. Got that one from my buddy Ian Stanley.

I use that 1–2 punch for almost every subject line I write.

It’s incredibly powerful.

And I don’t know why this is… but people just seem to click on shit with subject lines that make them curious. Even more so than a straight benefit or shock effect subject line.

Look at all the clickbait headlines on Facebook and Buzzfeed and all the native ads you see around the internet.

Those curiosity titles, headlines and subject lines straight up work.

I don’t know enough about the brain to understand why humans click on things they’re curious about… but all I know is that approach has always worked for me.

Stories sell and they’re easy to write in email form

Every time I write a story in an email it crushes.

That’s not because I’m a good story teller. It’s because humans like hearing stories.

It’s how we’ve always communicated with each other. Human nature hasn’t changed. And it never will.

Stories sell. And they sell more than other approaches.

Anytime you can illustrate your sales message with a story, it helps your prospect envision themselves following a similar path. And if you can do that — you’re golden.

And that’s a hell of a lot more powerful than just throwing ‘reasons why’ at them all day.

The more personal your tone, the better

The closer you can get your tone of voice to a one-on-one conversation via email… the better.

It’s not always easy to do this.

Especially when you’re sitting down writing an email that’s going to go out to over 700,000 people.

But if you can get into the state of mind that you’re having a one-on-one conversation with a prospect… the mood and flow of the email will read better in your prospects mind.

Your big idea is more important than your writing skills

I’m not an exceptional writer.

But I come up with big ideas and I put them on paper. And that’s why I get big motha fuckin wins for my clients.

I don’t always hit it out of the park, and you probably won’t either. No one bats 1.000.

The one thing you always have to remember when you’re writing emails is that the big idea will carry the sale.

You’re trying to get them to click the link in the email and then buy something.

You don’t have to be an award winning novelist or New York Times best seller to get this done.

You just need to have an idea that’s powerful enough to inspire action.

Don’t worry if you’re writing is perfect. You might even have a typo or two. Whatever.

It doesn’t matter.

People aren’t going to buy from you because your writing skills, they’re going to buy from you because of the idea you implanted in their mind.

Your job is to get them to click

That’s it.

That’s all the email is supposed to do.

I struggle with this for a while… because I thought my email copy was sooo important.

Then… I stopped giving a shit about impressing prospects and I changed my strategy so that everything I write inspires someone to click the link in the email and get to the next step.

Get them to the next step. That’s all you gotta do.

Don’t worry about making the sale in the email. Are there times when you SHOULD focus on pre-selling them inside the email? Or course. But only if it’s going to get more people to click through.

Just move more people through. Let your conversion piece (sales page, VSL) do the rest of the heavy lifting.

The more links the better

I used to think that if my copy was good enough, people would read all the way through. So I got in the habit of only putting my link at the end of the email, right before the signature.

Then, I realized this was stupid.

So I started embedding links all throughout the copy.

I didn’t just plaster a “click here to blah blah blah” hyperlink.

Instead, I took specific benefit laden phrases and hyperlinked them.

Like this:

“And all she wanted to do was shed ten pounds in the next two weeks.”

Once I started doing this, click through rates went way up.

Our eyes are attracted to the links in the email. So much so that sometimes they block out the other text that’s not hyperlinked.

By embedding links into my copy like this, I’m essentially making a claim that seeps into their subconscious. And if they want that specific benefit that is described in the hyperlinked text, they can’t help but click on it.

What’s Next

If you write email copy either for yourself or others you can’t go wrong if you follow these rules.

And you might even have a few of your own. If so, I’d love to hear them.

One last thing:

If you enjoyed this article and found it useful, I’d appreciate if you liked and shared it. Thanks.

Now… go forth and write.