“We’re under attack, send help!” is probably what Captain William L. McGonagle yelled over the radio.
McGonagle commanded the Navy spy ship USS Liberty, stationed in the Mediterranean sea, in international waters off the coast of Egypt.
Four Israeli jets had just fired rockets and dropped napalm bombs on the Liberty.
In that initial attack, nine US navy men died. 60 were wounded, McGonagle among them.
Then Israel dispatched a second attack, made up of high-speed torpedo boats.
These boats fired torpedoes on the Liberty, and strafed the lifeboats that the Liberty had launched.
McGonagle succeeded in evading all but one of the torpedoes, which damaged the Liberty heavily. He also finally made contact with the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga.
The Saratoga dispatched 12 US jets to defend the Liberty. But when word of this reached Washington, US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara ordered the jets to retreat. It was never made clear why.
All in all, in the combined air and torpedo-boat Israeli attacks, which lasted for two hours, 34 Americans servicemen died and 171 were wounded.
Shocking, right? I’d never heard about this incident until today. I found it surprising and new. I thought you might find it surprising and new as well.
The truth is, today I had no ideas for a story to open up this email with.
I also had no valuable takeaway to give you.
I didn’t even know what offer to make.
So really I had nothing, zero, in all three main dimensions of your standard copywriter’s daily email.
The good news is I figured out a takeaway eventually.
Takeaway: You gotta have an occasion for your copy. In other words, your sales copy has to answer the question, why now?
I first heard this idea from A-list copywriter Dan Ferrari. An occasion is standard in financial copy. But it’s a very powerful idea that works in other markets just as well.
For example, Dan once wrote a sales letter in the health space that tripled response over the control. In large part, he did it by using an occasion to frame the promotion.
So that’s the valuable takeaway today, have an occasion.
What about the offer? I also figured that out:
My 10 Commandments of A-list Copywriters Book.
I just told you Commandment IV.
And really, if you comb through my emails over the past few years, you will also find all the other nine commandments, in more or less disguised form.
But if you would like to read them all, undisguised, in a quick and fun package, for just a few dollars, you can get a copy of the entire 10 Commandments book here:
https://bejakovic.com/10commandments
So that takes care of the marketing takeaway and the offer.
And clearly, I also figured out a surprising story to open up with.
I did that by reading a bit about what happened on today’s date in history. Because the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty happened on today’s date, June 8th, exactly 55 years ago. That’s why I’m telling you this story today.
This “on today’s date” is not something that will work as an occasion for a long-running sales letter. But it’s a good fallback for daily emails like this one.
So let me wrap up this email and the story of the Liberty:
Israel apologized later, paid a $6.5 million restitution, and said it had mistaken the Liberty for an Egyptian warship.
But many American officials and military personnel, including those who served on the Liberty, believe the Israeli attack was intentional.
One theory is that the Liberty was attacked because it was a spy ship. It would have intercepted and discovered Israel’s secret plans for the controversial invasion of the Golan Heights, which happened the next day, on June 9th.
I might use the occasion of that Golan Heights invasion to write another email tomorrow.
But for today, I gotta make you my offer. I won’t even make you scroll up for it. In case haven’t yet got a copy of my 10 Commandments book, you can do so here: