The 2 biggest myths about people buying from emails

I’m seeing too many business owners who want all the BENEFITS of having a mailing list that buys from them repeatedly…

… but when it comes to the work, the contribution, the sheer grit it takes to nurture relationships to the point where people will buy from a mere email…

… they aren’t interested, willing, or able.

So, let’s talk myths here.

Myth #1 – “I’ll just buy a mailing list.”

If I talk to another person who tells me they are working on an eBook/ecourse/group program but oh, they just can’t get it together to send a newsletter regularly… I will scream.

Just who do they think will buy their thing?

When I ask them, they say, “oh, I will buy a list. Or something.”

Please, no.

Here’s the deal, lovelies: there is a difference between selling to cold leads who don’t know you, and selling to people who have been ravenously devouring your content for the past year.

Even if you have the best copy in the world.

Copy isn’t magic.

Relationships are.

Suckers buy from stranger’s copy that promises them the moon… often from a state of desperation.

More sophisticated people buy from people they know, who often cultivate that relationship, over time, with good ideas (read: your newsletter).

The whole reason to send a newsletter regularly is to cultivate relationships with people. If you want to get fancy, call it content marketing. But it’s nothing more than this: if you give people on your mailing list useful ideas for free on a regular basis, it increases the likelihood that some of them will buy from you down the line (if you know how to write powerfully about it).

The idea that you are a good enough copywriter to sell cold leads is fanciful at best. I’m a great copywriter, and even I don’t touch projects like that with a 10-foot stick. I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather go to a party where people love and want to talk with me, then walk into a room full of strangers shouting, “hey! Who wants to buy this?!”

Myth #2 – “I don’t want to send too many emails”

If I had a nickel for every business owner who told me this, I would have a lot of nickels. Who among us WANTS to bombard people with ham-fisted sales messages? Raise your hand. No one? Oh. Well. So, NOW what?

The thing about email marketing – that I’ve learned in my years of writing promo emails for myself, my private copywriting clients, and through teaching business owners how to do it for their businesses – is that if you do it right, your readers are actually grateful to hear from you.

I’ve ghostwritten emails for my clients that have gotten personal thank you notes in reply.

I’ve written emails that have sold programs costing several thousand dollars. And multiple people bought.

And on more than one occasion, I’ve written sales emails that evoked a simple “this is exactly what I needed today. Thank you.” Which for me, is as good as making money.

The thing I think a lot of well meaning folks miss is how isolated so many people are in our culture right now.

So, while they are focused on worrying about “sending too many emails”… there are actually people out there who are really hurting, or having trouble, or feeling so so so fed up, frustrated, and alone.

I’ll be the first to admit that it’s weird to write an email and send it into the void.

But there’s a way to do it in which everyone wins. You win, because you are expressing yourself fully. They win, because they see you, expressing yourself fully – and they experience you, reaching out to help them get different results than they have now.

Yes, there is business to be had there, too.

But really, it’s about connection.

Connecting with another human being, helping her feel something, and inspiring her with a new possibility for her life.

And giving her an action step, that she can take in the moment to forward her dream for her life.

There are many well meaning folk out there who talk a good game about loving people, and connecting with people, and wanting to help… but when it comes to committing to sending a regular newsletter or showing up as you really are in a promotional email to get readers to DO something… they demure.

Look, I get it. Being seen is scary ass stuff. Because what if you aren’t good enough? What if a lot of people unsubscribe? What if no one buys? What if you totally bomb and look like you don’t know what you’re doing?

But maybe those are the wrong questions to be asking.

Maybe, instead we can ask:

  • How can I express the problem that my clients have, simply, emotionally, and powerfully… like I would if we were face to face in person
  • How can I acknowledge that their current situation is unworkable, without resorting to “struggle and overwhelm” language?
  • How can I talk about the feelings and frustrations of my ideal client without being emotionally manipulative, disrespectful, or uncompassionate?
  • Why would someone want buy my offer? How would I explain it if they were someone I really cared about, sitting right in front of me, face to face? How can I express it more simply and more powerfully… so that I don’t lose them in the weeds of the details?

This is the power of knowing how to write copy. It’s about connection. It’s about knowing what’s going on with your people. And it’s about getting out of your own way – realizing you don’t need to be perfect for your copy to work… and letting yourself learn one thing with every email you send, every teleseminar you do, every sales conversation you have.

I’ll see you on the road.

 

Special thanks to Jinterwas (flickr.com) for the image “can you keep a secret”

Stella Orange is a copywriter who helps people put their work into words. For eight years, she wrote email campaigns that resulted in more than a million dollars in sales for her clients. In that time, Stella also taught popular marketing writing workshops to business owners on both sides of the Atlantic -- and a few in Australia and New Zealand. In 2017, Stella cofounded a creative and consulting shop offering a complete and slightly unorthodox line of business advising and marketing services. She continues to write copy and advise clients on customer delight, how to resonate with more sophisticated, discerning clientele in your marketing, and just who, exactly, your ideal clients are. Stella is the founder of Show Up And Write, a weekly writing group and writes a letter every two weeks or so (here’s the sign-up). She lives with the Philosopher and their two kiddos in Buffalo, New York, a fifteen-minute bike ride to the Canadian border.

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