I got an email from a marketer not too long ago, and the subject line read:
“Frankly, I’m a little concerned about you…”
The body of the email was predictable — I’m concerned about you because you might miss out on this amazing offer.
I groaned.
Not just because I recognized this subject line as a yet another marketer abusing Paul Greystone’s “Frankly, I’m puzzled” hook.
But worse than that, I groaned because this came in a daily email from somebody I was curious to hear from, somebody who seemed promising and cool. And here he was, sounding needy, awkward, even a little passive aggressive.
I’ve committed my share of marketing sins, so I’m not here to lob tomatoes at this guy.
I just want to share something with you. Something it took me a while to accept, but which was really rather obvious once it clicked. It’s simply this:
Copy in email marketing is not the same as classic direct response copy.
Obvious, right? Right. But how many times a day, if you are in the marketing and copywriting space, do you get things which are blatantly lifted from old school sales letters and hooks?
Or how many times have you done it yourself, if you write emails for your own business or a client?
My accountant says I’m crazy…
I’m eating steak whether you buy this offer or not…
Our warehouse manager just called me to say we are overstocked!
I’m not saying not to study or use proven direct response classics.
I continue to read classic marketing and copywriting books, and study old sales letters, often for the fourth or fifth time.
I continue to find brilliant ideas in them.
And I continue to work them into my own daily emails, often with great success.
So the way I see it, you’ve got two choices right now. Choice one is to ignore everything I’ve just told you and continue to make profit-crippling email marketing mist—
No, we won’t go down either route of the crossroads close in this email.
But if you want a different, more subtle, more entertaining and less passive aggressive way to use classic direct response ideas in your email marketing… at least if you are a copywriter or marketer, selling yourself first and foremost… then you might like to hear a presentation I will put on next Wednesday at 7pm CET.
I’m calling this presentation the Most Valuable Email. Because that’s what it’s been for me.
If you are a marketer or copywriter, maybe it will be the same for you. But whether you sign up or not, I’m eating stea—
(Professional habits are hard to break.)
But seriously:
To register to watch my Most Valuable Email presentation live, sign up to my email newsletter by next Wednesday. This will give you an opportunity to sign up for the presentation — and who knows, maybe it will inspire you with a few classic direct response ideas as well.