This morning, reader Jesús Silva Marcano wrote to say:
Hey John!
Today when I saw that I didn’t have an email from you….
And after waiting a few hours…
I must admit a part of me was a little saddened.
Besides Ben Settle’s emails, yours are the ones I usually look forward to.
They never disappoint.
I hope all is well.
It’s true. I didn’t send out email last night.
I broke a chain going back to July 2020, when I skipped a few days because I was on vacation at the seaside, drinking quite actively, and generally celebrating and feeling high from having made a ton of money the previous few months, my first really big copywriting months.
But nothing exciting like that happened yesterday.
I had an email scheduled. I checked my inbox before I went to bed. But the email still hadn’t arrived.
I checked ActiveCampaign. It said my email was “Pending Review.”
I tried to stop the campaign so I could recreate it and send it again. It wouldn’t allow me. I tried again. No soap.
I contacted ActiveCampaign to ask what’s up.
No response.
I went to bed, figuring it would solve itself.
It didn’t.
This morning, my email from yesterday is still “Pending Review.” I can’t imagine why, because I wasn’t writing about any controversial or flaggable topics. (I do have an email about a certain kind of “gross body enhancement” coming up, but last night’s email waddn’t it.)
Oh well. The world doesn’t end if I don’t send out an email.
But it does spin a little faster. So it’s a shame I don’t have something to sell you right now.
In my experience, people today are starved for something — anything — real.
And when your readers witness you making a mistake, in real time, or getting involved in conflict, in real time, or failing to deliver on a public promise like a daily email, that’s more powerful and engaging than even the most personal stories you share.
And if I had, say, a training on writing faster, that would be perfect. I could end this email right here by saying something like:
“But you know what? Let’s talk copywriting. According to my extremely neat timekeeping, 72% of so-called “writing” really goes to editing. And things often don’t get delivered on time, or ever, because they are “Pending Review” by that finnicky, editing part of your brain. So if you don’t want to be at the whim and mercy of your own inner editing demon, if you want to meet all deadlines, if you wanna get projects done more quickly and make more money, then join me for the Faster Writing (and Editing) Workshop here blah blah…”
Well, maybe a little less ham-handed than that, but you get the idea.
If only I had the faster writing offer for sale right now, then the fact that ActiveCampaign is behaving like a lazy consular office processing my visa application… rather than as a for-profit business that has been taking my money for the better part of a decade… well, that would’ve all worked in my favor.
So keep this in mind if you have your own email list. Anything really real in your life, particularly that readers can experience and verify for themselves, makes for the pinnacle of engagement.
As for me, I got nothing. No gain from this event. Except to tell you that indeed I am ok, in case you were worried. And now that I’ve told you the background of all this, to maybe make a slightly stronger bond with you, so you get excited about getting my next email tomorrow, and decide to sign up for my email newsletter.