There is this pernicious myth in online business that you need to live somewhere exotic (and do “bucket list” things) to write interesting emails.
Emails that don’t get deleted because they look like everyone else’s…
Emails that get read and bought from...
Even professional copywriters seem to believe this lie.
For example, one of the students in my Email Prodigy programme writes sales copy for some VERY big names.
When he joined Email Prodigy, I asked him what he struggles with most when it comes to email marketing. He said it was “having a voice that stands out in readers’ inboxes”.
I dug deeper and asked what was so hard about it.
He confessed:
“I always feel like I don’t have a ton of exotic stories to draw from to make an interesting email.”
This is especially problematic, apparently, when you are writing for yourself or for a client with a boring life.
An exotic life is all well and good - that and a penny will buy you a peanut, if nothing else.
But you don’t need to have interesting life experiences to write interesting emails and make lots of sales.
In fact, I’ll be the first to admit I lead a pretty boring life.
For example, my day to day activities are all rather normal. It’s not like I wrestle crocodiles in the Nile after skydiving from an helicopter. If you have trouble sleeping, just pick up a camera and follow me around all day. You’ll be cured of your chronic insomnia by noon.
The thing is… I don’t need to have an interesting life.
Why?
Because in my experience, what’s much more important is the ability to pivot - to take any story and spin it into a riveting sales argument for your product.
If you can do that, then your life can be as boring as bad documentary** and you’ll still have people hanging to your every word.
You’ll still have people wanting to open your emails so bad they almost crack their phone screens (they push so hard on the glass)...
You’ll still have them scrambling to grab their credit card and tripping over their feet in excitement…
It’s a technique I’ve used to consistently bring home the bacon without migrating to the Amazonian jungle or starting a bucket list.
It’s also how I helped one Email Prodigy student go from:
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“I get a few comments from people that they love my emails but not as much as I'd like. (...) I also think I don't get people to take action from my emails.” (10 August 2017)
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To:
“I just spent more than 2 hours on a call with an email fan girl. She loved my emails so much that she printed out 9 of them and filled them with detailed notes to let me know what she liked most.
Her favorite was of course the one with the Turkish Pivot:
Why I sleep on top of a shoe box - where you had rewritten the entire pivot and sales argument. You'll probably be getting a new student sooner or later :-)” (10 October 2017)
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Imagine what it would be like to live Hilde’s life for a day:
You wake up in the morning, not to refund requests or “lost password” emails but to fan mail and Paypal notifications.
Your subscribers don’t just read your emails... they *print* them, and highlight them, and buy from them.
… and scribble love notes in the margins.
Who wouldn’t want that?
Luckily, it’s quite possible for anyone who runs an online business to write emails like that.
The key is this:
Train your mind to see everything as a potential email.
What that means is: you can spin any story into a compelling sales argument for your product, if you understand the art of the pivot.
You can take anything your eye alights on and link it back to what you sell.
The trick isn’t becoming a larger-than-life personality with an exotic lifestyle, which not everyone can learn.
It’s becoming great at pivoting, and training your mind to notice connections, which anyone can learn.
And guess what?
In the next run of Email Prodigy, I’m including a bonus that explains how to pivot and spin your everyday stories into captivating sales pitches for your product… with no bucket-list lifestyle or diva-personality necessary.
(**PS: As for that bad documentary, I’m voting for: Behind the Scenes of a Sloth’s Life. Discovery Channel should pick it up next.)
