How to Write Great Emails

On Monday I was at a Mastermind meeting in the offices of Ryan Deiss and Perry Belcher, and Ryan made an admission.

“Our sales are mostly email based.” Then he corrected himself, “No, wait, what am I saying. Our sales are 100% email based.”

That goes for most of the top website business owners. Most people’s businesses depend on the ability to write great emails that persuade readers to take action and buy a product, or join a list, or take action of some kind.

I even use emails to get folks to enter a giveaway contest, like I did here:

=> http://www.Facebook.com/metabolicresistancetraining

Other emails, like my personal note last week, moved many readers to tears.

I wasn’t trying to make anyone cry…but words can be so powerful.

Words can change people’s lives.

Simple emails can inspire strangers to do great things.

It’s amazing if you think about it.

And it’s a darn good incentive to get good at writing emails.

Being able to write great, persuasive emails can make-or-break your chances at online success.

Fortunately, EVERYONE can get good at this.

After all, surely you’ve sent a friend or family member an email that has persuaded them to do something.

Perhaps you’ve even sent an email that saved your relationship with someone…or got you a job…or inspired a family member.

Writing that type of email in your business is hardly any different.

So if you’re struggling and you tend to write ineffective, ‘corporate’
style emails to your readers, just use these tips and you’ll dramatically improve your email writing with practice.

1) Stop writing those corporate-style emails and start writing to a friend.

2) Narrow your list of 90 or 900 or 9000 readers to just one.

3) Know your readers…know your best reader…the one you connect with the most.

4) Write to that reader like you are writing to a friend.

5) Identify 10 of the most important lessons you want to teach that friend, and then create short 500 word emails that teach that lesson via story format.

It’s that simple.

Your readers will thank you for it, and this approach will be much, much easier than writing formal memo’s.

Oh, and there’s one more thing.

As I mentioned, you’ll have to practice. And you’ll need to model the masters.

To model the masters, sign up for the following email newsletters:
– Joel Marions
– Matt Furey’s
– Bedros Keuilian
– Ryan Deiss
– Internetindependence.com
– Sovereignman.com

Now about that practicing…

I am approaching the so called 10,000 hour mark for mastery.

I have a spreadsheet that I started keeping back in January of 2004. Every line contains…

– headline of email sent
– date sent
– number sent
– number of opens
– number of sales

It is now at 3643 entries. One for every email I’ve sent in the past 7.5 years.

That spreadsheet is worth well over 1 Million dollars to me because of all the lessons that are in it.

Start your own. Start tracking. Start testing. Start practicing.

Bottom line:

To get good at writing emails, do these things:

1) Write to a friend
2) Study the masters
3) Practice, track your responses, and test new methods

Bonus tip 1: Read Dan Kennedy’s “Ultimate Sales Letter” – sure it was written for long copy salesletters, but many of the principles hold true for email as well

Bonus tip 2:  The headline is really, really important. If you don’t have a good headline, you won’t get a lot of people to open the email. If no one opens the email, it doesn’t matter how good the copy is. You’ll quickly notice the masters are just as good at writing headlines as they are at persuading you in their emails.

Bonus tip 3: If you ever get a chance to see one of the masters speak at a seminar, don’t miss it. If you’re in the fitness industry, you’ll want to attend Bedros’ event in Las Vegas this month.

See you there,

Craig Ballantyne

We don’t always win. But if we fight the good fight, we stay strong, and we keep moving towards our goals. Never quit.