Every morning I’m bored to death, and I hate it.
I’m signed up to a ton of email lists, some of them friends and others gurus or mentors in various fields. With some writers, I expect the content to be terrible because I follow them to learn what not to do in my own writing. But by and large I see a ton of mistakes happening even in emails from people who should know better.
Writing doesn’t have to be this bad. I just took Joshua Lisec’s persuasive writing course, so I know there are resources out there to help people write better marketing pieces. But so many business owners bang on about how they pump out an email every single day without stopping to make sure they’re doing a good job on those emails, or that customers will even want to read them.
It’s great that you know how to write an email, but how do you plan to sell your product if readers aren’t sticking around long enough to reach the link? If your business lives and dies by your email, your copy, or your blog posts, you owe it to your business to spend time learning how to do all of those things with more skill and fewer mistakes.
Just a few tips:
An opening line is killer. Your opener should hook attention and make people wonder what the heck is going on. Shakespeare focused on 3 things: Violence, sex, and the supernatural. These are the easiest way to hook instant attention, but it really just has to be a punchy statement of some kind. Make sure your opening line makes people want to know more.
Use more evocative language. Instead of adverbs and weak phrases like “very loud,” learn to use words like shrill, piercing, thundering, echoing, etc. to give your writing a lot more punch.
Solve a problem with your text. Present the problem, and explain how the product you’re showcasing on that email/blog post is the best answer to the problem. Customers aren’t as likely to snag luxury items off an email. They’re more likely to buy if you convince them they need your product.
If you can illustrate your point with a short story instead of a long explanation, you’ll be ten steps ahead of the competition. People despise being lectured but adore stories. Notice how this post opened with a story about me being bored? Stories give the reader a chance to see your point in action, and chances are incredibly good they’ve experienced the same exact circumstance, building an instant connection between you.
Stop writing your emails like a business proposal or a sixth grade essay. Tell a good story the way you would to your friends, and act as if your audience is too busy for the crap. Cut to the chase, tell a good story, and drop a link to your product. Your audience will thank you.
Keep in mind when and where this stuff is getting read. Odds are exceptionally good your potential customer has 5 or 10 minutes while on break, lunch, on the toilet, or picking kids up from school. Give them short content they can read fast, get the message, and decide if they want to click your link and save your product page for later. Bonus points if your product page is short enough for them to read the email and the product page and make a purchase within that 5 minute window of time.
Your job with marketing is to hook, tell a story that illustrates the point, and give them a product that solves the problem presented by the story.
Put in the time to improve your writing and watch your sales go through the roof.
If you’re a business owner looking to improve your writing game for marketing, social media, blogs, and emails, I personally recommend Joshua Lisec’s persuasive writing course. He’s a professional ghostwriter with a mountain of experience, the course breaks down his methods, and then he shows you actual footage of him transforming weak writing into glorious marketing.
