9.2 - 7 more tips for writing great emails
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9.2 - 7 more tips for writing great emails

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1/ The BuWERS writing method

How many times have you tried to write but the inspiration just isn’t coming?

You’re stuck staring at a blinking cursor with a blank screen.

Here’s how to combat that in 5 steps:

1/ Bullets (Bu)

  • Don’t write in complete sentences. Instead use bullet points.
  • Come up with 3 (or so) subtopics for the topic you’re writing about, with each subtopic a bullet point of its own
  • Braindump everything you can think of under each subtopic, using sub-bullet points
  • Don’t care about sentence structure, grammar, or perfect English. Nobody is going to see these points anyway, so no one is going to laugh at you. Just dump everything. The more “English” mistakes you make, the better → shows you’re focusing on content only.

It should look something like this:

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Main topic - Subtopic 1 - Sub-bullet - Sub-bullet - Subtopic 2 - Sub-bullet - Subtopic 3 - Sub-bullet - Sub-bullet - Sub-bullet

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E.g.

How to get high email open rates - Subject line - mini skirt technique - contrast

- Non-subject line - give subscribers right expectations

- Deliverability - Choose ESP with good mailing reputation - Avoid spam words - don’t use too many images

2/ Write (W)

Once you have all the bullets and sub-bullets, it’s time to elaborate every single one of them. Write WITHOUT EDITING. You CAN’T hit backspace/delete. Just write like flowing water. You can only go forward. There is no going back.

3/ Edit (E)

  • When you’re done writing, organize and edit what you’ve written into clear and coherent sentences that make sense.
  • Correct spelling mistakes.

4/ Review (R)

  • Review your writing again from start to finish. Make sure the language and flow sounds natural and coherent. Edit and organize one more time.
  • After that, read your writing out loud to make sure the language and flow sounds natural (yes again). Edit and organize one final time.

5/ Subject (S)

  • Finally, come up with a subject line for the email (you do this last because as you’re writing the body, you’ll get inspiration).

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2/ Talk about THEM THEM THEM

Humans are selfish. We only care about ourselves.

We want to have fun. We want to enjoy life. We want to eat. We want to look great.

We want to have lots of money.

We want to look good in the eyes of others.

There’s a saying that goes: “We buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like” 🙃😅

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Now it’s time to switch your narcissistic mindset, and put the focus on THEM THEM THEM inside all your emails.

How can this email benefit them? Why should they read your article?

What’s the benefit (WIIFM) if they view your videos or buy your course?

Don’t just say: “Click here to take part in my survey”.

Instead say: “I want to cater better to your needs, please tell me your preferences”.

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3/ Use short sentences & paragraphs

Many of my emails deliberately start with a short sentence.

No more than 10 words.

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People don’t read. They scan.

This applies to emails, blog posts, lead capture pages, articles, books, and everything they read.

If, upon opening your email, they were greeted by this:

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What do you think their reaction will be?

If it were me…

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You want to make it easy for your subscribers to scan and digest your email.

Short sentences and paragraphs do the trick.

This is especially true for the opening sentence of an email.

I put extra effort in making sure the first sentence is ultra short.

When they see a short sentence, their brain instantly thinks: “Ha! This looks easy. I can glance through the first sentence in 2 seconds…”

Then their eyes continue down the next sentence, which is also short…

and down to the next, and to the next…

and before they know it, they’ve scanned the entire email.

It’s like a “snowball effect”… you want to make the first step for the reader so easy that they can’t help but continue to the next step, and the next step, and the next.

For the most part, I suggest making a sentence into a separate paragraph by itself.

To introduce variety, you can occasionally fit 2 sentences into a paragraph. Like what I’m doing here now with this paragraph.

Be sure to also use a bigger font size (h2 or h3) for your paragraph sub-headline. This helps scanners get an idea of what the main sections of your content are, and if they’re more interested in a specific point than another, they can easily explore further.

Last but not least… sprinkle bullet points in your emails for even better readability. Everyone loves these!

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4/ Ask questions to engage

People want to feel appreciated and taken care of. They want to know the host (you) care about them.

A great way to let subscribers know that you care about them is to ask them questions.

In my email mistakes challenge, I encourage folks to ask questions in their very first email.

3 reasons for asking questions:

1/ To show that you care about them.

2/ Depending on the questions asked, you get to know your subscribers better (e.g. Which specific area do you need help with email marketing? What is your #1 problem with trying to teach your child math? What are you hoping to achieve when you sign up to our newsletter?)

3/ To let inbox providers know that there is ongoing communication between you and the subscriber — this will increase the chance that your future emails land in their inbox.

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5/ Use P.S.

When people scan, the postscript (P.S.) is almost always read. It’s like a 2nd headline.

That is why I often use a P.S in my emails.

So what do you cover in this P.S section? Summarize the gist of the email and put another call-to-action (CTA) of what you want the reader to do. Always tie the P.S back to the goal of the email.

If you want them to check out your training video, remind them again of the benefits of what they’ll learn when they check out your video.

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E.g.

If you want to know how to correctly do these simple 5-minute exercises that can reduce your weight by 10lbs next month, click here to watch the workout video.

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I cover more about P.S in this add-on.

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6/ Big enough text to be easily read

Make sure the text size you use in your email is big enough to be comfortably read, especially on mobile phones which have smaller screens.

16 px is a good size, not too big and not too small.

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E.g. Here’s how it looks on my mobile:
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And this is how the same email looks on desktop:

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Also use a common and popular font type to make sure your emails render nice on the different devices.

Some common ones are: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana.

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7/ Mobile responsive / friendly

Mobile responsive means your email body content dynamically adjusts to the viewing screen of your subscriber, regardless of whatever device they are on.

This not only makes reading your email easier, it also makes your email look nice.