Email Copy Breakdown: This Chocolate Delicacy Burns Fat 1800% Faster

Why Clarity is King When You Want to Sell

I’ve been writing and producing a lot of content about copywriting. I’ve shared powerful strategies to help you maximize sales and revenue, how to amplify emotional impact in any story, even sharing techniques you should avoid. Unfortunately, all of that doesn’t matter if you’re lacking one thing — clarity.

If this seems pretty obvious to you, I understand. But I’m still amazed at how many times I’ve seen people make this huge mistake in their sales copy. Not having clarity and not knowing your customer is a surefire way to kill sales.

What is Clarity?

I’ve seen tons of businesses make this mistake. They release a great product but when asked who it’s for, they start to pause. Maybe they’ll stutter. Or if they’re being honest, they’ll say “I’m not sure… I think a lot of people can benefit from this product!”

That is a recipe for losing a lot of money in paid advertising.

Before you even bring your offer to market, before you start paying for ads, you need to do your market research.

You Need to Know Who You’re Speaking to

Conducting your market research means you’re finding out who it is you’re speaking to. Gaining clarity on this is a must before you start to write any copy for your sales letter. You need to understand their pain, struggle, and how they’re looking to fix the problem they have.

If you don’t know how to speak directly to them, they’ll leave your sales page or VSL in a matter of seconds.You’ll kill your chance of ever making a sale if you don’t take the time to gain clarity on who it is this message is intended for.

Take the time to do proper market research before you try to sell.

No Time to do the Research? Hire a Professional!

As a copywriter, market research is a part of my job. I was working on some copy for a new information product in an entirely new market. Because I didn’t have the time to do the research myself, I hired a professional to get the job done.

He put together a great research document and highlighted the different pain points, what they struggled with, captured the language they use, and all the things you need to write effective sales copy.

This Goes Without Saying…

Before doing anything and spending any money on marketing, you need to get clear about who you or your product is serving. Clarity is king when it comes to selling your product and knowing who your ideal customer is.

And if you ever need a cheesy reminder, remember this sentence: Clarity is king when you want to sell your thing.

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How to Turn Your New Product Announcement into a Powerful Sales Email

So you have a new product you’d like to announce to your email subscribers. I hate to break it to you but generally, people aren’t that interested. Unless they’re sitting around, patiently waiting for that specific new product, the man of your subscribers just don’t care unless there’s something in it for them.

What should you do if you have a new product to announce and you want to capture the interest and intrigue of your readers?

Let’s take a look at Dr. Gundry’s new ProPlant Complete Shake flavor announcement as a great example of how you can turn an announcement into a powerful sales email.

The Intro

The intro starts off strong by emphasizing the benefits of their product. Phrases like “first (and only) weight management shake,” and the description of each serving delivering a boost of energy, management of cravings, and hitting weight loss goals builds interest in the reader.

Additionally, they’ve used urgency and scarcity as an incentive to strengthen the close.

Had this been a simple announcement, the email could’ve ended right here. But they took the opportunity to turn this into a sales email to help improve conversion rates.

Confronting the Common Enemy

In this section, the copy dives into the specifics of a popular protein source — red meat. It starts off by throwing stones at the common enemy, discussing how consuming too much red meat isn’t healthy.

It is pretty common knowledge that red meat contains the highest amount of protein. The copy throws out some frightening (but common) assumptions about red meat consumption with terms such as “heart disease, diabetes, and even death…”.

To drive the point further, they use a strong proof element — a study from Harvard. This establishes great credibility and trust with readers.

The transition in this section is great as it enters the on-going conversation in the reader’s mind.

“Ok Dr. G — so where SHOULD I get my protein from?”

To which they reply â€œcertain plants and their seeds.” This is a somewhat controversial statement, as many consumers don’t think of plants as a rich protein source. This sentence keeps the reader’s attention and sets up the next section of the email nicely.

Not What You Think It Is…

To those in the know, it’s no great secret that certain plants and seeds are packed with proteins. If this wasn’t the case, there wouldn’t be vegans or vegetarians. Generally, when we think of plant-based proteins and food in general, we thi nk it’s good for us!

On the contrary… Dr. Gundry says, “Sadly, most plant protein powders and shakes are loaded with health-destroying lectins,” leaving readers at a loss for where to turn next.

Introducing the Unique Mechanism!

Dr. Gundry’s answer (or unique mechanism) are his 3 “power hitter” proteins. Not only do they get the job done of delivering healthy protein and avoiding lectins, but they bring additional benefits such as fighting aging, fatigue, and aiding in comfortable bowel movements as well.

The first sentence of t he 3rd slightly controversial protein “power hitter” — hemp, quickly dismisses objections and puts readers at ease. Since many people still associate hemp with feeling a high, the copy addresses the objection before stating the benefits, which keeps the reader around longer.

The Close

After introducing the “power hitters” or the unique mechanism, the close is strengthened by reinstating a sense of urgency, while reminding readers of the benefits that crush cravings.

Announcement Turned Powerful Sales Email

All in all, it’s a strong sales email. The copywriter took the opportunity to turn this ordinary announcement into a compelling piece of persuasive copy. They dug into the benefits and unique mechanisms while instilling a sense of urgency in their readers, making the email more interesting and ultimately — more persuasive.

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How to Use Numbers in Your Health Supplement Copy to Engage With Your Audience

Let’s talk numbers.

Every health supplement copy needs them, a lot of them. Numbers show up in health supplement copy for a variety of great reasons, from clinical study results, statistics, to facts and figures that support the argument your copy is making.

The Thing About Numbers…

Numbers tend to overwhelm, confuse, and bore people. When your prospect feels any of those emotions, they’re more than likely to bail.

But these numbers are crucial for any health supplement copy. They demonstrate how effective your product is and can be. The problem with adding them to your copy is that you run the risk of boring your reader. And when your reader is bored, they’ll likely exit out of your page, which means you just lost a sale.

An Easy Solution

A simple way to liven up these numbers is by using an analogy or real-life comparison that the average person can identify with.

For example:

I wrote a promotion for where I mentioned how a certain nutrient deficiency contributes up to 96,000 deaths per year. We all know that 96,000 is a lot people. It’s a big number that is hard for us to imagine and grasp.

I immediately followed that statistic up with this: “96,000 — that’s equivalent to filling up Madison Square Garden nearly 5 times.”

That instantly reframes this intangible number in a much more powerful and engaging way.

The reader is now going to think back to the last time they were in a sports arena or stadium. They’re going to picture themselves sitting in their seat, looking around the entire arena, seeing every seat filled with a person. They’re going to start imagining multiples of that entire stadium filled with people being gone.

If You Need More Help Breathing Life Into Your Health Supplement Copy

I wrote another article that discusses how a simple trick can help breathe new life into science-heavy health supplement copy.

If you need a little more help writing Red Hot Health and Supplement sales copy, feel free to download the PILL FRAMEWORK by heading to www.writinginfire.com

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Email Hacks #2: Simple Recipe for Writing Winning Subject Lines

Getting your subscribers to open your emails is half the battle. Ain’t nobody gonna read your email or buy anything from you if they don’t open your email. This is why your subject line is so important. It has one job, and one job only: Get people to open your emails. There are plenty of resources online filled with tested and proven (hopefully?) subject lines you can swipe. I will not be giving you a list of email subjects here. Instead, the purpose of this post is to share a simple recipe for writing a winning email subject line every time. Put these to use in your own email marketing, and you’ll find the results especially delicious.

Stimulate Curiosity

As humans, we’re curious by nature…whether we want to admit it or not. Think about your email’s hook or storyline. What’s the most interesting piece of this story? Once you’ve identified the most interesting part of your email content, think about how you can use that one piece to create a curiosity-infused subject line. I’ll take an example from my previous blog post about using Authenticity in your emails. 

You might recall I wrote a true story about my social anxiety for a supplement client I worked with. This story for this email ended with me vomiting profusely in front of my ex-girlfriend’s parents. I decided to take one of the most interesting (and embarrassing) parts of this story (the vomiting), and I used it to craft my subject line. This was the exact subject line I used for that email:

So nervous he “tossed his cookies”…

Most people know “tossed his cookies” is a euphemism for throwing up. When someone on my client’s list who also suffers from social anxiety reads a subject line like this…do you think it will pique their interest? Absolutely! They’re curiosity gets the best of them. They have to see what I’m talking about. This is how you got about using curiosity in your email subjects.

Amplify Fear

Fear is an extremely powerful motivator. Especially the fear of loss. People can’t stand the thought of missing out on or losing something valuable. This drives them bonkers. You can use this psychological trick to your advantage when writing subject lines. This works like magic if you’re offering a discount or special promotion. Example:

Your discount is expiring.

Rich, poor, or somewhere in between…everyone enjoys a good deal and keeping more money in their pocket. With a subject like the one above, chances are they’ll open your email to see what they’re losing if they don’t act now.

Leverage Trending Topics and Pop Culture

Hot topics in the news or pop culture can make for buzz worthy subject lines. Just be careful with using topics that might be too polarizing. Take good ole’ Trump for example. He may still help you pull open rates, but you’ll piss a lot of people off in the process. Unless of course your audience is strictly staunch conservatives.

An example I used recently played off the movie 50 Shades Darker. The actual subject line was:

50 Shades of Harassment

I started off the email by sharing the story of going to see this wonderful movie with my wife. Then I transitioned into how debt collectors love to harass struggling consumers who can’t afford to pay their bills. This email was promoting a credit repair product, btw.

Keep in mind if you deploy this strategy, your subject lines may fade in effectiveness as these hot topics become less relevant. This strategy would be ideal for broadcast emails.

That does it for Email Hacks #2. Implement one of these strategies in your email marketing and let me know how it goes. I’d love to have you post a comment below sharing your experience. Or you can always drop me an email if you want to keep things private. Remember, these are just a few strategies you have at your disposal. There are so many ways to write compelling email subjects it can make your brain hurt. My advice: pick just 1 or 2 to focus on at first. Keep things simple, and you’ll be more likely to take action.

Email Hacks #1: Sell Yourself with Authenticity

But….I don’t know what to write…

I don’t have any interesting stories…

Making up entertaining stories is hard…

These are a few (of the many) excuses I hear from biz owners and entrepreneurs who DRAG their feet when it comes to email marketing. Done right, building an email list is the most profitable business asset you can ever create. When you stop and think about it…it’s the only true form of “push button” or “autopilot” income in existence.

Why then are so many of us frozen in bewilderment when it comes to typing up a simple email and clicking send?

You Don’t Need to Live the 007 Life

It’s amazing to me how many people think they need to live a high-profile life of mystery and intrigue to be worthy of sharing personal stories with their subscribers. I can tell you firsthand you don’t need to race across frozen tundras in tricked out Aston Martins chasing super villains to connect with your audience. In fact, one of the biggest mistakes I see marketers make is trying too hard to be funny or clever in their emails…

Always assume your subscribers are savvier than you think. Their BS meters work well, and if you’re being fake they’ll sniff it out in a heartbeat. That’s why when I work with my copywriting clients, I always strive to use real, authentic stories whenever possible.

Sell Yourself First

Marketing and Sales 101: People love to buy, but hate being sold.

Yeah yeah…you’ve heard this a million times, right?

But how often do you follow this advice in your email marketing?

This is why hard selling subscribers (who haven’t purchased yet) is one of the quickest ways to destroy trust and trigger a whopping unsubscribe rate. The trick is developing a connection of respect and mutual trust with your audience…and the best way to do this via email is with a carefully-crafted nurture sequence.

Key word here being nurture.

And what’s hands down the best way to quickly nurture this relationship?

Through AUTHENTIC story-telling!

Authenticity is a rare commodity in the online business space today. That’s why baring your soul and being honest with your audience is one of the easiest ways to build a tribe of loyal fans…

And stand out in an overcrowded marketplace…

People appreciate you taking the time to share mundane details from your daily life. It reminds them your a REAL person…not just a faceless, money-hungry business.

Celebrate Failure and Weakness

Wait…what?

It may seem counterintuitive, but the truth is people love reading stories of failure and mistakes. Especially if you can tie in a lesson you learned from this experience to make it relevant to what you offer. This is a great way to deliver tremendous value to your tribe. And here’s another thing to remember:

EVERYONE identifies with instances of failure or embarrassment. We all make mistakes and we all have weaknesses. Owning these experiences and openly sharing them forges an unbreakable bond of trust and intimacy. Get this right, and you won’t have to worry about selling your product or service…it’ll happen as a natural byproduct.

Example:

Towards the end of last year, I wrote a nurture email sequence for a client who sells a health supplement. This particular supplement has demonstrated benefit for a variety of medical conditions, including anxiety.

I have personally struggled with social anxiety my entire life. So for one of these emails, I shared an embarrassing story of meeting my ex-girlfriend’s parents for the first time. I won’t relive the whole story here but here’s the gist:  Her mom baked me chocolate chip cookies. I was so nervous I couldn’t choke down these tasty treats…and as a result I had to sprint into the bathroom and yakked all over. Oh…and the bathroom was like 10 feet from the kitchen. My Ex and her parents heard everything.

Yep…pretty much the definition of embarrassing. And here’s the funny thing: I never shared this story with anyone…not my best friend, not even my parents. For whatever reason, I decided to finally unload this cringeworthy experience in my client’s email, and it was very well-received.

His subscribers who also suffered from anxiety could actually identify with my struggle. Powerful stuff. Start thinking about how you can use experiences from your own life to connect with your subscribers on a deeper level. Let yourself be vulnerable. I guarantee you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the response you receive.

Article Lander vs. Squeeze Page: Which Generated More Email Subscribers? (My Niche Case Study)

If you’re reading this right now, I’m assuming you already understand the importance of building an email list….regardless of what type of business you operate.

Email List + Value Delivered = Paying Customers (I hate Math…but I LOVE that equation, and so should you!)

If you’re still not building an email list, you should be ashamed of yourself. But your ignorance is forgiven, since you were nice enough stop by and read my post….which will definitely be worth your while. There are many ways you can get people to sign up to your email list, but I’m only going to focus on two of the biggies today, the article lander and the traditional “squeeze” page.

The article lander is an “informational or educational article” about your topic. The goal is to share solid information that provides value to your prospects. Then at the end of the article, you include a CTA. This can be to purchase your product or sign up to your email list, among other things.

The traditional “squeeze” page is much simpler. You have a catchy headline, a few bullets of compelling copy about your free offer, and a sign up form. That’s pretty much it. When I see squeeze pages like this, I always think of the hype-filled, blind-copy internet marketing style squeeze pages.

You know the ones I’m talking about….

Outrageous claims like “Free eBook reveals how 92 year old Granny with a bionic hip makes $12,947/Month working just 20 minutes a day crocheting mittens.”

A little over the top? Well, you get my point then, lol.

Obviously not all squeeze pages need to be like this…and if done correctly, they can still be very effective.

I recently started a blog sharing our journey so far with our sweet furry kid Jax who we adopted in December last year. I share some stories and advice for other rescue dog owners who might be going through some of the same problems.

Since I know how important it is to build in email list in any niche, I set up a small funnel and some Facebook ads to start sending traffic. During the course of my testing, I compared an article lander vs a traditional “squeeze” page to see which would result in a higher email sign up rate.

Image snapshots from my article lander:

 

 

I had about 750-800 words of content, sharing our own crate training experience and providing some value before moving in for the kill. When a prospect clicked on that purple button to continue reading our 4 crate training tips, it would prompt them to enter their email address.

 

Image Snapshot from my “Squeeze” Page

 

Simple…not much to explain here.

Now for the $1 Million Question…

Which page performed better in generating email subscribers?

The winner was the traditional “Squeeze” page. Not only was the opt in rate higher, but the average time spent on page was higher too. This was really unexpected because there’s hardly anything to read on the squeeze page versus 800 words of content for the article lander. It was clear due to the lower time on page that people were not reading much past my headline and first couple sentences for my article lander.

Here’s my takeaway from this case study and something you should always remember for YOUR own business…

Don’t Assume Shit….Test, Test, and Test some More!

I had been reading a lot lately about how traditional squeeze pages and lead magnets were “dead”, and the way of the future for building email lists online was article landers or advertorials. FYI, in case you don’t know what an advertorial is, it’s basically the same thing as an article lander, only written in more of a news-storyish tone.

If I only followed what I had been reading from other experts, I may have never attempted the traditional style squeeze page for my dog blog. I may never have seen my opt in rate nearly triple with a few simple tweaks.

Don’t fall into this trap. Even if advice is coming from a respected authority, don’t always take it as gospel. Keep an open mind and be willing to test things for yourself. When it comes to PPC advertising, if you think you can just throw up 1 ad, 1 landing page/squeeze page, 1 funnel and set it and forget it, then you are sorely mistaken.

I’ll leave you with this gem of a quote from the advertising man himself, David Ogilvy:

Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving.