Make them at the heart of all your emails. This means understanding their problems, wants and needs.

If you don’t know, stop writing further emails and go back to the audience research phase. Make sure you nail this part. If not, email marketing is going to be useless for you.

Remember, it’s always about them. It’s not about you. It’s not about what you’re going “to do” to them.

When I was in elementary school…

My teacher asked: “what do you want to be when you grow up?”

“Policeman”

“Fireman”

“Superman”

“Doctor”

… and different answers kept coming in.

Even when we were kids, we were asked what we’d like to become.

What about your business? What would you like your business to become? Why are you in business?

Surely, it must be more than just mahhhney?

Same thing with your emails. Why are you writing emails?

Whether your emails are selling your offer, or asking subscribers to consume new content, or asking them for feedback...

Every email must have a goal.

So don't write another email until you know its goal. Don’t write emails for the sake of writing emails. You don’t get paid for writing emails. You get paid for writing STRATEGIC emails that “naturally leads” to your paid offer.

You want your content to “tie in nicely” with your goal. It has to be the next logical step your subscribers take.

This is where many people do it wrongly. They write the email first, then they decide on the goal.

This leads to content and goal mismatch. The content doesn’t naturally lead to the goal.

No sales.

Everyone is already providing value. They’re already providing tips & tricks to help solve some of their subscribers’ problems.

What makes your emails different from them? Why should someone read your emails over theirs?

The answer is to also provide entertainment in your emails -- which 99% don’t do.

Write in a personal, casual, and fun tone, like you would when talking to a friend.

Write specifically to that 1 friend, as if you’re talking face-to-face and one-on-one.

You wouldn’t be formal with your friend, so don’t be formal with your subscribers.

Of course it depends on the industry you’re in. But even for the most “serious” industry -- for example you run a headhunter business that supplies high level executives to Fortune 500 companies -- I’d argue using a little humor can go a long way.

Business is run by humans, and humans like humor, no matter if you’re a CEO of a large corporation or the chairman of publicly-traded company.

We want to open emails from friends, but not necessarily from businesses.

You want to push this “personal, casual, and fune” vibe when subscribers read your emails.

If you’re thinking “I’m not a comedian or I can’t crack jokes or I’m an introvert”, don’t worry. To entertain your subscribers, you don’t need both. You just need to be willing to learn how to write emails that are fun to read (read: not boring).

There is a methodological approach anyone (even if they’re an introvert like me) can learn if they put their heart and mind to it. That’s why we have this chapter.

Coin 1 or 2 funny slangs. You can use these not only in your emails, but in your sales copy, profile, social media copy, etc. Basically anywhere you want to build a personal brand.

Not captions below the pic, but ON the pic itself.

Why do you need stories?

Same reason. Because most are not using stories in their emails. They’re either just selling all the time (everyone hates that), or educating their subscribers in a VERY BORING, “factual - you need to do X to get Y” kind of way.

Boring = don’t stand out. People forget you. They ignore you and don’t read your emails.

Stories = stand out. Folks eagerly await your emails. Engage with you. Eventually like and trust you → sales.

You need a good way to introduce freshness and suspense, so that people keep coming back and wanting to read your emails. You achieve this by telling stories.

We are social creatures. We like to interact with one another. Like it or not, we are busybodies.

Think back to your school days…

When your teacher is explaining some theories or concepts, you yawn and daydream.

But when he starts telling a story: “The other day, this boy came to me and...”

The entire movie industry is built based on stories.

—

Will he finally defy all odds and become the hero?

Will the villain finally be caught or will he continue to evade the law and kill more people?

Is the company going to go bankrupt or will the owner come out of adversity and turn things around?

Will the ghost keep haunting Dalton?

Will Georgie be back alive?

—

Stories hook people in like drugs.

Answer: use everyday events, then tie them to whatever you’re selling.

You do need to be a little creative when tying events to your business. It might seem hard if you’ve never done this before. But once you get the hang of it, it’ll be fast.

Pay more attention to the events/stories happening around you.

It doesn’t even have to be your own events.

It could be other people’s stories as you saw them through your eyes (you were in a cafe or walking down the street and unintentionally overheard a conversation) or heard them from your friends.

Immediately write down your ideas when they come. So that you have a repository of ideas to choose from when writing your next email.