Yesterday, I wrote an email with the subject line, “Only open this if you play Wordle.” I guess that drew in some people who rarely read my emails, such as the following reader, who wrote:
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You sold… dog seat belts?
I didn’t know that was an actual product until I saw you mention it.
I’m a dog-owner – should I be concerned? 😧
Anyway, hi, I’m Anastasia.
I’m an e-com email copywriter, and I’m trying to learn how to write (hopefully great) advertorials.
So I came across your video with Chase Dimond where you discussed this concept of ‘horror advertorials.’ Do you have a swipe file with successful examples you wouldn’t mind sharing?
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“OH YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME,” I said.
An ongoing frustration in the running of this newsletter is that, in spite of writing a fairly in-depth email each day, many of which end up repeating stuff about me, most people on my list still known very little about who I am or what I do.
It’s a frustration that only gets more common the longer I’ve been writing this newsletter and the bigger my list gets.
The fact is, I do have a swipe of “horror advertorials.”
I’ve sold it in the past for $100, and just last month, I included it as one of the bonuses to my $997 Copy Riddles program during the “White Tuesday” promo, which also included a “$2k Advertorial Consult” as another bonus.
And yet, I still get questions like the one above. What to do? After my initial childish rush of frustration, I reminded myself this is inevitable, and just a part of how the world works, particularly online.
Some people got on my list only recently. Some miss my emails in their overflowing inboxes. Some don’t get drawn into my emails because I didn’t deliver on the copy front.
Other readers skim because they’re busy or distracted… and still others open, and read diligently, and then forget — because my newsletter, immensely important though it is to me, is really only 2-3 minutes in the day of even my most devoted readers.
In all these cases, the responsibility really lies with me to do something and improve the situation. So:
Regarding my “horror advertorial” swipe file, it’s not something I’m selling at the moment, and it’s certainly not something I’m sharing, if that means giving it away for free — because I’ve had lots of good customers who have paid me good money for the same info.
At the moment, I am selling and promoting my Daily Email Habit service.
You may wonder if you really need DAILY emails. After all, you may already have a website… or ads on Facebook… or you may even send a weekly email. Surely that’s enough???
I’d like to propose to you that your prospects know much less about you than you could ever believe. Shockingly less.
Daily emails can help with that, so you make more sales today, and so you get lodged more deeply in your prospects’ minds, so you make more sales tomorrow.
And if daily emails fail to deliver? If you end up writing daily emails, and most people in your audience still don’t know who you are and what you do?
Well, that just becomes a topic of a new email.
And if you’d like to see how I and a group of other smart folks are transmuting such everyday frustrations, or reader questions, or personal insights into daily emails that both entertain and sell, you can find that inside my Daily Email Habit service. For more info on that: