Email Copywriting

100 Days of Subject Lines: A Cornucopia of Email Marketing Delights

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"Steal These Subject Lines" written in marker on notebook paper

What’s a subject line that works to get people to sign up for a webinar?

What are the best subject lines to sell high-ticket coaching?

What’s a good subject line I can use to invite people to my nephew’s bar mitzvah?

There’s rarely one clear-cut winner that works in every situation, but I can usually share a handful of suggestions based on my experience.

But since entrepreneurs and other copywriters are constantly asking me that question…

I came up with an easy way to share some of the best subject lines I’ve written… and some of the best I’ve read from other top marketers.

Sharing My Top “Subject Line of the Day” Candidates

… as Youtube Shorts.

I’ve committed to uploading a video every day for the next 100 days… so this is going to become a valuable resource over time.

This has been the most popular one so far:

I want to point out another one I think deserves special attention.

Everyone’s heard of “fear of missing out,” right? This subject line example flips FOMO on its head and addresses the lesser-known “fear of holding on too long.”

Check it out:

Get a bunch of email marketing ideas, inspiration and insights in a flurry of 1-minute videos.

If you take my suggestions, you’ll have more than 3 months worth of subject lines — and that’s if you email your list daily. If you’re mailing weekly, that’s 2 YEARS of subject line templates.

Email less than once a week… shame on you.

I encourage you to subscribe to my channel to decrease the chance that you’ll miss any of these copywriting nuggets.

Full disclosure: I may not share any good bar mitzvah subject lines in the first 100 days.

This will also be a great opportunity for you to see every shirt I have in my wardrobe. You know, if you’re into that sort of thing.

**Update: Here are all the subject lines in swipeable format**

I decided to do 101 videos — and a few of them highlighted 2 or 3 subject lines.

Several people have shown me their open rates shooting through the roof…

FB post saying: "Donnie Bryant you a genius. 52% open rate from a simple subject line."
Facebook comment saying, "My open rates are at 48% and above due to you"

… and one brother told me he’s ADDICTED now.

But I know it takes a long time to watch 101 videos — and it’s impossible to quickly scan through and see if one fits for the email you’re sending out today.

So I’ma hook y’all up…

Here are all 101 subject lines from my Subject Line of the Day series:

  1. A tour of my $200k office
  2. Is THIS the missing piece of your [BLANK]
  3. The Rise & Fall of [BLANK]
  4. Since you didn’t watch the video
  5. Steal these Subject Lines
  6. [Name], here’s your private invitation
  7. 5.99… SERIOUSLY, [NAME]
  8. Real estate ISN’T the best investment right now
  9. Have you given up on this, [NAME]
  10. Getting revenge in marriage
  11. Your advisor would NEVER show you this chart
  12. 3,000-year old tonic melts 33 lbs in 28 days
  13. A six-figure shortcut for rookies
  14. The “more sex” shortcut for horny husbands
  15. I made a grown man cry on Christmas Eve
  16. … and they left the cocaine
  17. Are you on Facebook, [NAME]?
  18. Know, Like & Trust is a LIE
  19. The $7 Biden Survival Blueprint
  20. 3 Email Secrets from My $17M Year
  21. My #1 Rule: Don’t Buy Options
  22. [NAME], did you mean to miss this?
  23. Homeless folks need Netflix, too
  24. Another Pawnshop Christmas
  25. The Truth About [Well-Known Person]
  26. The Stupidity of Going Vegan
  27. Copy-Paste JPMorgan’s 99.52% Winning Trades
  28. Cooking video goes BAD
  29. It took lots of wine to make this happen
  30. Grant Cardone is an idiot
  31. This is why your cold emails get ignored
  32. He earns $500 a Day from YouTube
  33. don’t EVER do this
  34. The most dangerous idea in finance right now
  35.  A Nice Guy’s Guide to Manipulating Others
  36. Breaking: 4 shampoo brands cause Alzheimer’s
  37. Thank God for Russian hackers
  38. 10X More Valuable Than the Internet?
  39. Final hours to save 27%
  40. Get Drunk and Make 4X Your Money
  41.  Reverse Engineering a ??? Real Estate Biz
  42. If I could only buy one book this year
  43. Top 10 Stocks for 2022
  44. Do Not Take Vitamin D (unless…)
  45. The Almost-Perfect Sales Call Script
  46. 10 Reasons to Stop Picking Stocks
  47. Oops! (I can’t believe I let this happen)
  48. Urgent: Don’t file your taxes just yet
  49. 5 Reasons Your Man Is Tired of You
  50. Email Copy Secrets that Are Better than Sex
  51. Do you make these mistakes with cold calling?
  52. [NAME], You’ve Been Upgraded
  53.  Thank You, [NAME]
  54. “You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out, Kid”
  55. Time Flies When You’re Having Rum
  56. This family has 6 billionaires. Here’s how they did it
  57. Are you coming, [NAME]? // See you tonight, [NAME]
  58. Scam of the century, Paris 1925
  59. How the richest get richer every single day
  60. Nearly Triple Your Profits… Automatically
  61. “The Best Strategy I’ve Ever Seen”
  62. Your First Profits from Stock Options
  63. Airline CEO confesses… the end is near
  64. Being broke on Mother’s Day sucks
  65. Freedom First. Safety third
  66. Tired? Stop overdosing on coffee
  67.  [Name] Get Your Free Book Today // Should I Give Your Copy to Someone Else? // Where Should I Send This? ($0 Shipping)
  68. The 1 Reason Why I Make 300 Times More Money Than Most Kindle Publishers (Just This 1 Thing)
  69. The “top secret” Google-military play
  70. Dept. of Energy calls this a game-changer
  71. Bill Gates Wants to Nuke the World
  72. Sell These Stocks By 9:30am ET Monday // Sell These Stocks Right Now // Dump These Stocks ASAP
  73. Almost anyone can “cash in” on real estate now
  74. WARNING: This New Tech Could Be Hidden on Your Phone
  75. The noise. It’s not going away
  76. Free Ticket for [NAME]
  77. Ooh, you’re expensive [NAME]
  78. Why So Many Women Cheat on their Husbands
  79. You’re Taking Viagra and Don’t Even Know It
  80. “Bazooka Jay” breaks all the rules
  81. Leaked Game of Thrones Episode Reveals Controversial Marketing Truth
  82. This is SO screwed up, [NAME]
  83. The Lies that Hold You Back
  84. Death by Lottery Win
  85. The George Costanza School of Client Attraction // Clark Kent Guide to Sneakily Strong Copy
  86. 1000s of companies are BEGGING for this tech
  87. President’s Secret to Protecting his Prostate
  88. 10 Commandments of [BLANK] // 7 Deadly Sins of [BLANK]
  89. They’re Spying on Your Children
  90. Alert: West Nile Virus Reported
  91. My Life As a Psychopath
  92. How Often Should You Email Your List
  93. My boldest prediction yet // 7 Shocking Predictions for [Event]
  94. How to murder your perfectionism
  95. 5 tips to get over your fear of writing
  96. I Sent This to the Vatican 10 Minutes Ago
  97. Bitcoin isn’t the bubble. It’s the pin!
  98. This should change in your marriage every 90 days
  99. You have $20 in your account
  100. Why most people are constantly REBUILDING their business
  101. Burning dollars in Facebook’s fireplace

Swipe in good health!

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.

(Almost) Unlimited Ideas for Story-Based Emails

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I shared this video training in the Email Copywriting Corner, but it makes sense to put it here, too…

Especially if making more money with email marketing is one of your new year’s resolutions.

You may be particularly interested in the 7 types of stories you should be sending to your email list:

Genesis stories: people want to know the story behind why you started something
Idealist stories: illustrate your personal & business values/philosophies with a story
Iron Fist stories: Tales of battle, struggle and victory (or lessons from losses) — either of yours or your customers’
Catalyst stories: Moments, decisions, interventions that caused critical change
Journalist stories: commentary on trending topics or news or little-known truth behind well-known stories
Adventurous stories: Crazy, funny stuff going on in your life
Status stories: Elevate your authority with big name clients, famous friends, recognition, accomplishments.

You’ll have to forgive me. I was really trying to be clever with this bootleg rhyming thing.

Until recently, this training was only available to Inbox X-Factor members. I’m giving you access now to help you kick 2021’s b.u.t.t.

Enjoy!

The Evils of “Salesmanship in Print”

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“Salesmanship in print” is an outdated description of copywriting.

And not because everything is digital now…

If you saw my interview on John Forde’s Copywriter’s Roundtable, you know where I’m going with this.

I decreed that copywriting needs a new definition for this new decade.

Think about it…

Why do we constantly have to justify our use of the word “salespeople?”

Because the word conjures images of the sleazy guy hawking barely-functional cars off the New Jersey turnpike…

Or the fast-talking pitchman pressuring Grandma Sarah to buy penny stocks with her Social Security check.

Those negative associations can be tough to overcome.

The other risk is that a copywriter-in-training may assume those are characteristics to aspire to.

High pressure.

Deception.

Exploiting grandmothers.

Which is the opposite of how a copywriter (or any other human being) should act.

When we stop saying “salesmanship in print,” we can avoid some of that blowback.

So…

How should we define copywriting today?

“Showmanship in print.”

Showmanship adds storytelling, demonstration and drama to the mix.

You know, stuff that people enjoy.

Moving forward, showmanship will be more and more essential for grabbing attention, building interest, inflaming desire and producing action.

I’ll this cover this topic in future newsletters, so stay tuned.

But you may want to go deeper, sooner.

Today I’m opening Inbox X-Factor, which is designed to

  1. make it as easy as possible to send more emails to your list (and spend less time doing it), and
  2. showcase effective tactics and strategies that are working RIGHT NOW to help you make more money from each email.

I’ve had more conversations than I can count with entrepreneurs and marketers who struggle to email their lists as often as they know they should.

Many really aren’t sure how to make money with email.

In short, Inbox X-Factor gives you access to:

  • Timely email ideas and inspiration, so you never run out of reasons to email your list
  • Unique subject line templates and examples
  • In-depth training to help you unlock the money-making power of email. Studies show email produces 40X ROI. These lessons will help you get there.

And more.

For this week only, you can become one of first members of Inbox X-Factor for $47/month.

On Sunday July 5, the price goes up to $97/month.

If you have a list and an offer (or clients who have them)…

I believe Inbox X-Factor can help you making MORE money with email in LESS time — starting today.

Have a productive day,

Email Copywriting Masterclass Tonight

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Email Copywriting

I wanted to let you know about the free Email Copywriting Masterclass I’m giving with Conrad Deas, one of the most creative, engaging and prolific writers I know.

Conrad and I will be on Facebook Live TONIGHT (June 22) at 8:00pm Eastern, barring any unforeseen technical difficulties.

We’ll be coming to you live from the Hilton Chicago Indian Lakes Resort, where Conrad is speaking at Hal Elrod’s Miracle Morning Mastery event.

You must request access to the Email Copywriting Corner FB group in order to see it live and participate.

During the broadcast, we will reveal:

  – specific ways to generate tons of great ideas

  – 5 proven psychological principles guaranteed to get and keep your readers attention 

  – painful mistakes many people make that suck the life out of their emails and sabotage their customer relationships

  – battle-tested formulas we use to construct compelling emails more easily than you may think possible, and

  – our best tips for getting readers to take action after reading your emails.

We’re going to try to answer viewer questions, too. But you have to be live during the broadcast!

Again, request to join the Email Copywriting Corner on Facebook to get access.

Whether you’re a copywriter an entrepreneur who wants to connect better with your customers (and sell more stuff, without being pushy, greasy or sleazy), you’re not going to want to miss this.

Hope to see you tonight!

**Update** We’ve just made the recording of most of this masterclass available to the public. Enjoy!