A tale of two long emails:
A few days ago, I recorded a breakdown of a Ben Settle email that got me to subscribe to Ben’s $97/month Email Players newsletter.
That email is long, very long, almost 1,700 words.
I use that email as a reminder to myself whenever I worry my own emails are getting too long. The fact is, if you have the right message-to-prospect fit, you get your reader in a hypnotic trance, and length becomes an asset, not a liability.
Then this morning, I did a copy critique of an email that’s also long, and clocks in at almost 1,100 words.
This second email is interesting and insightful. It makes a bunch of convincing sales arguments. At the end of it, I want to actually take up the offer the email is making.
And yet, part of my critique was that this email is probably too long. Even though it’s interesting. Even though all its parts are necessary. Even though it is actually shorter than Ben Settle’s email.
Still, this second email just feels too long.
Why? What’s the difference?
It’s not the writing, the formatting, or even the design.
The difference is that Ben Settle wrote his very long email for his own list and his own business.
On the other hand, the quite long email I critiqued this morning was from a freelance copywriter, working for a client.
That’s the real litmus test for whether your emails are too long. If you like, I will explain.
The reality is you have two sales to make as a freelance copywriter. One is to your client’s market or audience — the sale you probably think you’re getting paid for.
But you have another sale to make. And that’s to the client himself.
If the client doesn’t like your copy, he will nag you to change it. Or he will neuter it himself. Or he just won’t run it.
But wait, it gets worse.
You might count on your powers of persuasion to make your client see the light. To convince him to try out your long email as-is, without changing a word.
And you might succeed. But there’s a good chance that your long email will get less response, not more, compared to a shorter email.
For example, the email I critiqued is trying to get people to sign up to a free webinar. There’s a fair chance that a much shorter email, which just hypes up the urgency and scarcity and repeats the phrase “hot new opportunity” a few dozen times will actually pull more webinar signups.
So why would you ever want to send longer emails, with three pages of story and argument and proof?
Well, I told you already. Because those are the emails that select the right people. That get those people not just to click or opt in, but to buy from you. That get those people not just to buy from you, once and at $37, but to spend thousands of dollars with you over a period of years. The way that Ben Settle email did with me.
Unless you have a very, very sophisticated client, those are not things that your email copy will ever be judged on.
Instead, you’re much more likely to be judged on the client’s gut feeling or some shortsighted metric. “I don’t know, it’s kind of long, isn’t it? The other email we tried is much shorter. And it got more clicks to the optin page.”
I’m telling you all this because today is the last day I’ll be promoting my coaching program for a while.
Over the past seven days promoting this coaching program, I realized there are two categories of people who make a good fit:
1. People with their own quality list and their own quality offers, whether products or services
2. Copywriters who have near total control of a client’s email list, and who also have some sort of rev-share deal on the money coming in from that list
If you fit either of those categories, and if you want my help and guidance in making more money from the lists under your command, then as a first step, get on my email list. After that, we can talk in more detail.
And if you’re a freelance copywriter, but you don’t fit either category above, then my advice is to work towards getting into one or the other or both of those categories.
And not only because it would make you a good candidate for my coaching program.
But also, because those two categories are the only place where you will be truly be judged on your results and your copywriting abilities, rather than on how well you can divine and cater to your client’s whims.
Plus, the two categories above are where the real money is. Or where there’s the potential for real money. At least in my experience — and I’ve been in both categories.