I don’t know about you, but I get frustrated when my inbox is loaded with “junk” emails adding no value to my day.

I’m not talking about those SPAM emails trying to hock me Mexican Viagra at $0.79c a pop…

(What a bargain!)

No, I’m talking about emails from sources relevant to my interests, who I’ve handed my email address over to at some point in time.

And, for my troubles, they’ve used that as an excuse to fill my inbox with an endless supply of apparently pointless emails.

At least I know what the guy who sent me the Mexican Viagra email was talking about!

I’m sure you’re in the same boat.

But let’s stop and ask ourselves a question…

Do you think the senders of these emails intend to fill our inboxes with apparently pointless messages?

Or is it a case of their value not being communicated properly?

Do you ever wonder if your emails are seen in the same light?

Well, today I’m going to show you how to avoid falling into this trap.

And we’re going to look at a case study of exactly WHAT NOT TO DO.

This case study is courtesy of the American Marketing Association (AMA), whose emails are so bad I refuse to unsubscribe from them.

That might sound weird, but one thing you should know about me is that I get kicks from reading bad email copy from so-called “experts”.

I get to shake my head and laugh, and secretly feel a bit better about myself.

It’s one of my life’s little twisted pleasures.

Story Click – How to Achieve That Moment of Clarity

So, one of the first things you need to do with EVERY EMAIL is achieve “Story Click”.

Story Click is that moment of clarity where the reader finally understands what’s going on, and where things are going.

It’s that point in a movie where you start to willingly get sucked in because the plot has become clear and you know who’s who…

It’s that part of the book where it starts to “gets good” because things have become clear.

You’re now willingly following the writer into their world, on the journey they’ve laid out just for you.

In everything you write, you need to achieve Story Click with your reader as soon as possible – or you’ll lose people in droves.

The main thing to notice about the email from the AMA is this lack of Story Click.

A lack of clarity.

It’s outstanding.

The email asks me to sign up for membership.

Yet, if you were to show this message to a cold reader, how could they understand what the sender is talking about until the second last paragraph, where the purpose is finally revealed?

Let’s take a look at the actual email, so you can see what I’m talking about…

AMA-email

What baffles is this email probably went through several rounds of corporate approval, yet no one looked at it with “customer logic”.

The people behind sending this only looked at it through the lens of “company logic” …

… and if you look at it from the point of view of the company, I’m sure it all makes perfect sense.

Once you have Story Click, you can go back and piece the intended meaning together.

But this email never gets that far.

It never considered how the reader would “see” this email.

It asks way too much of the reader to stick with it to that point.

And your emails you should never ASK… at least not until you GIVE.

When people read their emails, they’re wondering what they can get. But all most marketers do is ask them for something: attention, time, and money.

Remember: your emails can’t have too much “assumed knowledge”.

This is where the sender thinks the reader is “in the know”.

When in reality, they don’t haven’t a clue.

Now, all of this said, the email isn’t the worst in the world.

When you pull the email apart and look at its component pieces, it’s doing a lot of things marketers would call “right”:

  • Subject line with the objective of getting the email opened
  • Curiosity in the subject line
  • Comes from a “real person”
  • Organization referenced in the envelope
  • Letter style email that’s personal
  • Light HTML touch
  • References a relevant event for why I am receiving this email early on
  • Includes a single call to action
  • Offers an incentive (actually 2 of them, there’s an iPad offer right after the CTA)
  • Gives specific numbers
  • Short personal email that gets to the point and moves the reader out of the inbox and onto a webpage

But here’s the biggest takeaway from this lesson:

Without clarity, all of this is useless.

Remember: Before hitting the send button, get out of your own head and put yourself in the reader’s seat.

Ask yourself:

“How are they going to perceive what I am about to send?”

“Will it makes sense to them?”

“At what point will they get to Story Click?”

Your readers will thank you for it.

THE AMAZING 60-SECOND SALES HOOK THAT CREATES
AN INSTANT BOND WITH YOUR BEST PROSPECTS

PLUS: Get fill-in-the-blank templates that instantly establish “Know, Like, and Trust”

THE AMAZING 60-SECOND SALES HOOK THAT CREATES
AN INSTANT BOND WITH YOUR BEST PROSPECTS
PLUS: Get fill-in-the-blank templates that instantly establish “Know, Like, and Trust”
THE AMAZING 60-SECOND SALES HOOK THAT CREATES
AN INSTANT BOND WITH YOUR BEST PROSPECTS
PLUS: Get fill-in-the-blank templates that instantly establish “Know, Like, and Trust”
 
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