Email Marketing

This Story Can Put Money In Your Pocket

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“Did you seriously tip that waiter 37 percent?”

Wifey is clearly irritated with me… mainly because we’ve had this conversation before.

“Did I? I didn’t do the math. I just gave a flat $50.” Which is true, but we both knew that I knew I overtipped for our anniversary dinner.

I promised my queen I’d stop “showing off”…

Which explains why she was annoyed when the credit card company sent a message asking if the charge was legit.

But I did it anyway.

So why the heck did I do it?

I was manipulated by the waiter!

And it was so smooth I didn’t even realize what happened until 4 days later.

(It’s possible the manipulation wasn’t intentional, but I doubt it. I’m bet he uses this routine all the time to put more cash in his pocket.)

Here’s the short version of what happened:

We ate at a nice steakhouse in downtown Chicago. Food was amazing and the service was top notch. The guy was attentive, funny, even charming. Very likeable.

As we’re getting close to finishing the meal, the waiter points out a group of men hanging out at the bar… and he starts to tell me a story.

This is so doggone smooth…

He says the group remind him of another group of guys who didn’t want to leave the bar when the restaurant was closing one night.

The ringleader was a high roller. He’d spent about $8 grand on drinks that night. Tipped the bartender $1,000 and the waiter (the guy taking care of us) a couple hundred. Everyone loved the guy. But they didn’t want to keep the bar open all night for him.

Conveniently, the exterminator arrived for their monthly inspection, and our waiter concocted a ruse to convince Mr. Money Bags everyone had to leave.

And everyone lived happily ever after.

See the trick?

The story felt very natural. I couldn’t detect any ulterior motive. It was just another way our waiter was entertaining us during dinner.

But through the story, he introduced a couple insidious ideas:

  • Patrons of this restaurant are big tippers.
  • Waiters recognize your status by now much you tip… and you don’t want to be a man with lower status, do you?
  • Big spenders are admired — and have stories told about them.

He said all that without explicitly saying any of it. And there was zero pressure.

Masterful manipulation for maximum tip.

Let’s call it “maTIPulation.”

Long story short…

Stories can be the powerful persuasive tools.

Use them wisely.

P.S. Want help writing story-based emails that put money in your pocket? Inbox X-Factor is a good place to start.

Subject Lines Are Overrated – Here’s Proof

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Subject lines are the sexy part of email marketing.

Everyone wants to know the secret… the specific sequence of words that works every time.

Such secrets do exist.

But in reality, word choice is just one part of the magic of great emails.

Let me illustrate with a real-world example from this week.

Check out this screengrab. It’s showing the performance of a promotional email we sent out Wednesday.

The stats are ridiculous.

If you can’t read the pic, it’s showing an 84.5% open rate and 45% click rate. That means more than half of the openers also clicked through to the order form.

(More importantly, nearly half of the people who saw the order form also made a purchase.)

When someone sees those numbers, you already know what the first question will be 9 times out of 10:

“When did you learn to use Photoshop, Donnie?”

The next question is, “What’s the subject line?“

And yes, the subject line was perfect… and the preheader text was brilliant (I’ll reveal them in a minute)…

But we had a lot more going for us than just that:

  • You may have noticed this email went to 197 people. This is a very targeted segment of the much bigger list.
  • The “guru” has built great rapport and a ton of trust with subscribers. Becoming known as THE expert your subscribers look forward to hearing from is probably the greatest secret to email success.
  • There’s been a bunch of engagement with this segment recently to drum up anticipation.

Those factors will help you get opens. And they’ll definitely impact clicks.

But how did we get clickthrough rate so high?

(By the way, the last time this same offer was made to this same segment – before I started working with the client – the best CTR was less than 13%. As you recall, we got 45% this time.)

  • Focus on exclusivity
  • Social proof
  • Emphasis on emotional benefits over product features
  • Subtle validation of the reader’s self-worth

Obviously these results are specific to this effort. The point is… subject lines ARE important, but you need more than just tight subject lines to maximize the impact of and revenue from your emails.

Alright, I’ll finally reveal what the subject line and preheader text were.

Subject line: [First Name], here’s your private invitation

Preheader text: Congratulations! (shhh… it’s a secret)

The combination of personalization, an anticipated invitation, “congratulations” and a secret helped this achieve a spectacular open rate. 

Again, the biggest win here is the insanely high clickthrough rate and the conversion rate on the sales page.

In a way, open rates have always been overrated. Just because someone appears to have opened your message doesn’t mean they actually read it. And if they didn’t take any action, how good was the email, really?

Clickthrough rate is a much better measure of engagement. And sales is the ultimate metric, of course.

Speaking of open rates, have you heard about how the coming update to iOS 15 will make it basically impossible to track open rates for Apple users?

Some marketers are worried this will cause a disaster.

I believe it’s an opportunity.

Find out how in the video below.

3 Email Secrets from My $17 Million Year

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Despite all the craziness, 2020 has been a phenomenal year for my clients.

Or maybe more accurately, 2020 has been a screaming success because of all the craziness.

Last week, I revealed 3 simple “secrets” behind that success in my first room on Clubhouse.

Specifically, how we’ve generated $17 million from email year-to-date.

You may not have been part of that Clubhouse conversation (it was a small audience)… and those conversations aren’t recorded…

So I’ll quickly tell you what I shared.

“Secret” #1: Be consistent and persistent

My clients email daily. And they make offers in every single email.

You can probably send more emails than you do. (That goes for me, too.)

One of the main points I made was that unsubscribes go up when you email LESS.

You let people forget who you are and why they were excited to hear from you.

Depending on your business and your capabilities, I recommend no fewer than 1 email per week. Most businesses can send 3 or more — and the only difference you’ll see is more money in the bank.

“Secret” #2: Curiosity

Don’t give away the punchline in every email.

Tease a juicy benefit… tantalizing opportunity… or potentially imminent danger…

And make the reader click a link to find out exactly what you’re talking about.

Create emotional tension that can only be resolved by clicking… and give your sales pitch on the other side of the click.

There’s a right way and a wrong way to do this.

You can get more insight into how curiosity works — and the right and wrong ways to use it in your email — in this video.

“Secret” 3: Easy on the education

I’ve discovered that a lot of entrepreneurs believe they have to educate prospects into buying from them.

Education can be helpful. But the truth is, information isn’t what sells.

You know that people buy on emotion. In a way, they’re buying the emotion itself.

(That’s one of the reasons people don’t do anything with the stuff they buy. Making the purchase provided the emotional payoff.)

Your copy’s job is to stimulate the emotions — hope, desire, guilt, fear, etc. — that make your prospects take action.

There’s no shortage of information.

But your prospects are dying for emotional MOTIVATION.

So be careful how you educate.

Each fact you present should be designed to inflame desire… not to make the reader smarter.

That sounds cynical, I know.

But when you’re going for maximum profits, it’s an approach likely to serve you well.

Having read this far, you’ve figured out why I put “secrets” in quotations.

They’re not unknown concepts. They’re just underutilized.

If your email marketing efforts are coming up short, these 3 ideas could be helpful.

Put them to work!

Free Will vs. Email Marketing (No Contest)

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Has anyone ever told you how evil you are?

Oops.

I mean how evil they THINK you are?

As a marketer, it probably happens more than you think.

(Civilians don’t really understand what we do.)

I remember sitting in church with my family a few years ago… when the preacher — who happened to be my father-in-law — started railing on the vile schemes of marketers.

Free trials, for example.

Marketers know some people won’t cancel before the free trial is over, so why do we “trick” people into spending money that way?

That part of the sermon probably only lasted 2 or 3 minutes… but it seemed much longer.

I know marketing isn’t evil — I dealt with that false belief long ago.

But it was still uncomfortable.

Good thing the preacher didn’t call me out by name.

The church is full of civilians who don’t understand what I do, so I’m pretty sure no one knew he was talking about me.

He probably didn’t even know he was talking about me!

Has anything like that happened to you?

(If you have a good story, please reply to this email and share. I’d love to hear it.)

Let me clear up a few things.

Copywriting and marketing are NOT evil.

You probably already know that or you wouldn’t have signed up to hear from me.

Marketing is leadership… and I know you’re using it to improve people’s lives

Better marketing = more lives transformed for the better.

If you’re selling something that helps people, promoting it aggressively makes the world a better place.

Free will always wins.

We marketers can’t force anyone to act against their own best interests.

We can’t make them do what they don’t want to do.

All we can do is paint a clear picture of a specific outcome our should-be buyer already wants… and make it as easy as possible for him to say “yes”

Jonathan Edwards, an 18th century preacher (which makes him a little older than my father-in-law), wrote that people…

“…always act according to the strongest inclination they have at the moment of choice.“

You make the big bucks when you can create moments of choice where the reader’s strongest inclination is to buy your offer.

Email gives you the best opportunity to create moments strong inclination… over and over

I recorded a video describing a few of my best techniques for doing exactly that.

One of the strategies is what I call intense opportunity curiosity…

Which was the real secret behind the $218,337 5-email campaign I told you about last week.

This video training will be exclusively available to Inbox X-Factor members.

No big sales pitch. I still haven’t written the sales page.

But if you’d like to learn more about how I’ve been making MORE money with email instead of less (which so many people are complaining about these days)…

You’ll want to see the video I’m uploading tomorrow.

Plus, you get weekly email plans… winning subject line templates… and more.

$99 a month (no contracts) is a small investment to help you make your email list significantly more profitable — and to spend less time doing it.

Just one of the ways I’m striving to make the world a better place. 

This Weird Halloween Ritual Made Me Famous

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Every Halloween, my family freaks out trick-or-treaters with an unusual ritual.

Some people think we’re crazy.

Others love to play along.

Either way, it’s a tradition that’s made us semi-famous in each neighborhood we’ve lived in over the years.

(Actually, it goes back further. My wife’s been doing this since she was a child.)

On the morning of October 31st, we start putting up Christmas decorations.

As you can imagine, kiddies in their costumes are confused and delighted.

Teenagers and parents snap pics and stop for conversations.

We love it.

But we do get some pushback, though. A good percentage of people tell us…

“It’s too early to start thinking about Christmas.”

Which brings us to today’s marketing lesson.

How early is too early to ask for the sale?

This is a question that comes up a lot when I speak with entrepreneurs and budding marketers.

The answer is… probably sooner than you think.

So often, we’re conditioned to believe you have to get someone to “know, like and trust” you before you’ve earned the right to ask for the sale.

Or we’ve been told that we have to GIVE before we ASK.

Something about jabbing… jabbing… and more jabbing before anything else.

There is some truth to those concepts.

But people don’t buy just because they know, like, or trust you. Otherwise most of us would give all our money to our mothers.

No, people buy what they desire.

If you’re selling a product or service that:

  • relieves their fears and frustrations…
  • solves their pains and problems…
  • helps them reach their dreams and desires…

You don’t have to wait long to give them an opportunity to buy.

It can happen in the first email in a welcome sequence.

It can happen directly in a Facebook ad.

Don’t be fooled.

When you make the right offer to the right person, the right time is probably now.

Keep this in mind…

The classic AIDA formula still applies.

You have to get attention and interest before you can direct desire toward your offer. (That can happen faster than you may think, too.)

In the same way that you can start decorating for Christmas much earlier than many people think… You can start selling before you’re done throwing Gary Vee-style jabs.

After you’ve grabbed your should-be buyer’s attention and started generating interest in what you’re talking about, it’s safe to start moving toward the sale.

Let’s get it!

P.S. I just recorded a video diving deeper into this in the Inbox X-Factor membership.

I honestly believe it’s one of the most valuable trainings I can share right now. 

If you’re aggressively growing your email list, these insights could be worth millions of dollars for you.

You can check it out inside Inbox X-Factor.

Homeless Folks Need Netflix, Too

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That headline sounds like an exaggeration. Or an outright trick.

But it’s 100% inspired by real-life experience.

I have a relative that recently lost his job, fell behind on rent and got kicked out on the street. (Incidentally, this is the second time that’s happened in the past year.)

He started a new job and he asked me to lend him some money to get to work until payday.

To show his appreciation, he offered me access to his Netflix account.

Yep.

He has the premium plan that lets you watch HD programming on 4 screens… but he doesn’t have a place to live.

Get this: when he got his first paycheck, he couldn’t pay back the money I lent him because he had to pay the Netflix bill!

Now…

I understand. Entertainment is important to everyone, regardless of their living situation. But isn’t it interesting how much of a priority it has become?

First World Problems, right?

Here’s the email marketing lesson:

Entertainment is one of the easiest things to “sell” today.

Think about it. When have you ever seen a hard pitch for a Hollywood blockbuster?

The promise of a good time…a temporary escape from reality… is enough to make people part with their money — even when they can’t pay their other bills.

If your emails (and all your other marketing communication) don’t include some level of entertainment and fun, you’re making it that much easier for your readers to ignore you.

You’re undoubtedly leaving money on the table, too.

Emails That Make Sales (now defunct) can help you get out of that rut and add some personality and fun into your emails. And make some sales, too.

Remember, repaying loans isn’t fun…and neither is reading “just the facts, ma’am” emails.

Add a little Hollywood and see what happens!

Why Your Emails Sputter and Die

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Writing emails can be painful.

(If I’m honest, writing is always painful for me. Nobel Prize winner Thomas Mann noted that “A writer is someone for whom writing is harder than it is for other people.” That makes me feel a little better.)

It’s painful because it matters to me. Because YOU matter to me.

Sounds cheesy, but it’s the truth.

I can’t just throw some words together and send the email out. I want to give you something of worth, something you can use.

Very few of the emails I receive live up to that standard. They’re thinly-veiled sales pitches — if veiled at all — or totally fabricated stories told in an attempt to get me to take some course of action.

Excuses to stay in my face… and sorry excuses at that.

Don’t get me wrong. You should sell. When you write an email, you should have a profitable end result in mind.

But please… PLEASE… if you’re emailing your list or producing other content, say something valuable.

The profitable end result you have in mind should be mutually profitable.

Let me get to my point…

I can feel you drifting.

Last Tuesday, I gave a presentation at an entrepreneurship training program on Chicago’s west side.

During the Q&A segment, one gentleman asked me what he could do to get people to open his emails.

Good thing he asked that question because quite a few others in the room have the same difficulty.

Here’s what’s interesting. Every time Old Navy sends an email, my wife opens it and I end up spending money. Every time Ulta Beauty sends an email, she opens it. More money changes hands.

So what’s the difference?

The only reason anyone opens a letter is that he believes there’s something in it for him. That was true of snail mail a century ago and it’s true of email today.

My wife opens emails from Old Navy knowing full well that there will be a sales pitch. But she also knows there’s a good chance she’ll get a good deal on products she likes. She’s getting a deal: coupons, lowered prices, preferred customer discounts and/or a chance to see what’s hot and new.

That’s valuable to her.

(Keep in mind that not everyone feels like my wife does about Old Navy. Most people don’t open 100% of their emails.)

If you want to get people to open your emails, that’s where you start.

Develop a reputation for delivering value to the people you’re reaching out to.

Remember, value is defined by the reader. If your Dad sent you a birthday card, you’d open it right away. I couldn’t care less about it; he’s not my dad. There’s nothing for me inside that envelope.

That’s Why the Email’s From Line Is More Important Than the Subject Line

When you send messages that matter, your list will read them even if your subject lines aren’t that interesting.

If you’re known for sending fluff or irrelevant sales pitches, the From field will get your email trashed no matter how great your Subject is.

It all falls apart when it becomes apparent to your reader that you only send emails when you need something. 

No one likes to be on the receiving end of that kind of treatment.

Telling good stories is a powerful way to add value to your email marketing. And you really only need 3 ingredients to tell good stories.

Discover what they are in this video: