Last Monday, Josh Spector’s assistant Emily sent me an email with an alarmist subject line:
“TIMELY: For The Interested Classified Ad Copy Needed”
I was annoyed Emily was pushing me for the ad copy, since there was still a week to go. But I wrote it up and sent it over, along with the link I wanted the ad to go to.
A message immediately shot back. Emily again:
“Thanks for sending your copy and link over. Unfortunately, I’m getting an error message when I click on your link:” — and then a screenshot of an error page on my site.
I rolled my eyes at Emily’s pickiness. Of course it takes you to an error page — I’m still working on it, it’s in draft status!
I took a deep breath and collected myself. I politely replied to Emily and explained the situation. The landing page was still under development. “I will have it ready by the time the ad runs,” I said at the end.
(Cue ominous music. Clouds gather on the horizon, and a sudden gust of cold wind blows the window open in my office, scattering papers everywhere.)
Fast forward to yesterday.
In the eleventh hour before my ad in Josh Spector’s newsletter, I finished all the stuff I needed for it, including that landing page.
I could finally take a break. I decided to set work aside completely for the rest of the day.
I was in the mountains with friends yesterday, so we went for a walk. We had lunch. I packed, and got ready for five-hour ride from the Pyrenees back to Barcelona.
(The dark clouds on the horizon have fully built up now, and they flash with lightning every few seconds. Ominous music swells to unbearably tense levels.)
It was almost time to get in the car and drive home. But even though I’d decided to ignore any work-related stuff for the rest of the day, my resolve broke down.
I impulsively checked my email.
It had been about a half hour since the ad in Josh’s newsletter went out — plenty of time for a bunch of new people to get on my list.
I opened my inbox. But instead of dozens or hundreds of “new subscriber” notifications, I saw…
“Aww dude, clicked that FTI link and it leads to an error page 😳“
“John, I took your offer on Josh’s newsletter but the link is throwing an error.”
“Just tried to get the course. It says that I dont have access to the page”
… plus a dozen or more such messages from existing subscribers, who I’d routed to Josh’s newsletter to get a free copy of my new course via the classified ad.
There’s no knowing how many potential new subscribers, who weren’t yet on my list, clicked on the ad and were taken to the wrong page, with no chance to opt in.
In my daily email yesterday, I jokingly predicted crippling electrical storms or perhaps a meteorite strike to sink my ad in Josh’s newsletter.
But I didn’t account for the real danger:
My own mule-like ability to run a $350 classified ad and genuinely include a wrong link inside of it, which is indeed what happened.
Emily tried to warn me. But I wouldn’t listen.
I double-checked my own link when I submitted the ad.
​​I checked it again when Emily told me it was taking her to the wrong page.
The link was wrong both times, and yet I hypnotized myself into believing it wasn’t.
What’s more, when I clicked on the link myself to test it, it took me to the wrong page. I saw that, but I told myself it was was a website caching issue. “No problem here. It will be ready in time!”
Conclusion:
Too blind… too self-assured… too ready to rationalize away any conflicting evidence.
(Finally, violent storm over, the clouds break. A single ray of sunlight shines through to the soaked and ravaged countryside.)
Almost miraculously, my colossal mistake turned out to be salvageable.
It took me all of two seconds to create a website redirect from the wrong page to the right page. Anybody who clicked on the ad after that would now be taken to the right landing page.
Sure enough, people immediately started signing up for the free course I am giving away via the ad.
And some also signed up for the paid upsell I am offering, 9 Deadly Email Sins. One person who signed up was Shawn Cartwright, the owner of TCCII, an online martial arts academy. Shawn wrote to say:
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Killer subject line and nice flex on the Pyrenees…
Also, killer offer… and something of real value to the business owners like me who love the idea of being copywriting experts but would rather create their products than perfect a sales page or email.
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Here’s why this 9 Deadly Sins training could be of real value to business owners like Shawn:​​​​
It’s the email equivalent of Emily writing to me and saying, “Uhhh, your link doesn’t work. Do you want to double check that?”
Over the past year, I’ve coached, taught, and consulted a few dozen business owners, course creators, coaches, marketers, and copywriters on their email marketing and email copy.
I’ve found that my feedback keeps coming back to 9 persistent mistakes. All 9 of these mistakes are easy and quick to fix. And yet they are widespread, costing people sales day after day.
Perhaps you’re sure that you could never write emails which blatantly violate the laws of good sense and effective salesmanship.
You’re probably right. You are probably not as ready to hypnotize yourself as I am… to dismiss conflicting evidence like I did… or to be over-confident that what you’re doing right now is just perfect, with zero chance of being improved.
​​But isn’t it worth finding out what these most common 9 Deadly Email Sins are, to be 100% sure you yourself are not falling prey to them?
In case that’s got you wondering, here are the full details of this training, which will happen live, next Monday, August 7:
https://bejakovic.com/sme-classified-ty/