Today’s post is on the subject of email marketing, a rather milquetoast topic. The hook, though, is jarring — rape.
I didn’t think of that hook. Instead, it comes from William Goldman, somebody I’ve mentioned often in these emails.
Goldman was first a successful novelist and later a successful Hollywood screenwriter and then again a novelist.
Along the way, he also wrote a non-fiction book called Adventures in the Screen Trade. I read it a couple years ago. It’s a combination of memoir and an insider’s look into Hollywood as it was in the 60s and 70s of the last century.
Somewhere in the Adventures book, Goldman talks about the most important part of a screenplay — the beginning. And it’s here that he writes the following:
“In narrative writing of any sort, you must eventually seduce your audience. But seduce doesn’t mean rape.”
Goldman is contrasting movie writing to TV writing. At the beginning of a movie, Goldman says, you have some time. You can seduce. Things are different in TV land — you gotta be aggressive, right in the first few seconds. Otherwise the viewer will simply change the channel.
I had never thought about this difference. But it makes sense. And it makes me think of…
Sales copy, which is definitely on the TV end of the seduction/rape spectrum. Just think of some famous opening lines of blockbuster VSLs:
“Talk dirty to me”
“We’re going to have to amputate your leg”
What about email copy? Much of it also opens up in the same aggressive way. Here are a few opening lines I just dug up from recent sales emails in my inbox:
“MaryAnne couldn’t take it anymore:”
“In 1981, a dirty magazine published an article that had the potential to make its readers filthy rich.”
I always assumed this is just the way good copy is — VSLs or emails or whatever. Of course, that’s not true.
When I actually look at some of my favorite newsletters (and even some successful sales letters), they don’t have an immediate and aggressive grabber. Instead, they build up and work their way into their point — without rambling, but without aggression either.
The difference comes down to the relationship you have with your list. Some businesses, including some businesses I’ve worked for, have little to no relationship with their list. Each email they send out is like a random infomercial popping up on TV — if it doesn’t capture attention right away, it never will.
But some businesses have a great relationship with their list. They can afford to take the time to light the candles and pour the wine and stare seductively at their reader across the table. In fact, if they didn’t, things would seem off.
Is it possible to go from one style of email marketing to the other?
I believe so. In my experience, people tend to mirror your own emotions and behavior. That means you’ll have to take the first step if you want things to change. Rather than waiting for your list to have a better relationship with you… start seducing, and stop trying to rape.
Now that we’ve warmed up the conversation:
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