How to Write Emails That Turn Subscribers Into Buyers

Your sales email can be perfectly written and still not sell. If it reads like an inventory list of what's included in your offer, people will skim it, shrug it off, and move on–even when your offer is genuinely good. 

In this episode, we'll dig into the real reason this happens: buyers don’t get excited about modules, coaching calls, and workbooks. They get excited when they can picture a better version of themselves and believe it’s possible for them.

We'll walk through how buying decisions actually happen, starting with emotion and identity, then with logic.  You’ll learn how to flip the order so your copywriting builds desire first and then uses the specifics to make that decision feel safe. 

Transcript

How to Write Emails That Turn Subscribers Into Buyers
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Speaker: [00:00:00] Let me tell you about an offer I was working on with a client. Just so you know, they were fine with me sharing this. Anyway, she'd spent weeks putting together an offer that I was genuinely excited for them about. Then I read the email. She wrote, "Here's what's included: six modules, four live coaching calls, a workbook, bonus templates.

Enrollment closes on Friday." Technically, it was a hundred percent accurate. It was clear and checked all the boxes. But I knew almost immediately that nobody was gonna get excited about that email. It did not make me wanna click the button to buy or even to learn more, because facts don't sell.

Features don't sell. They were trying to sell the offer instead of the outcome. People buy when they can picture a better future for themselves. That's the difference between describing an offer and describing the outcome. You want someone to say, "Oh, this is exactly what I need." There's a difference between writing emails and writing an inventory list.

So today I wanna show you that difference, because you don't need to be pushy to write emails that sell, you just need to start helping people see why it matters. When you write a sales email, that could be an invitation email, launch, whatever it is you wanna call it, you're not writing a syllabus.

When I did my very first launch years ago, I had a social media course. This is what I got wrong. I really worked hard and thought it was all about the things that you get when you buy. That launch did not go well. I sold four. But I get that the syllabus version feels safe and feels honest

Speaker 2: it's easy for us to stay so focused on what we're selling that we forget about the outcome

Speaker: But here's what's actually happening on the other side of that email. Your reader is not making the logical decision. She or he is not sitting there going, "Hmm, six modules or five? They're making an identity decision. They're quietly asking these kind of questions: [00:02:00] Is it for someone like me? Would doing this make me the kind of person I'm trying to become?

And your feature list doesn't answer that, not even a little, because their decision is emotional, not rational. We think that people buy with their heads. We think that they're weighing the pros and the cons, the features, and looking at the math. So we write emails packed with logic, the modules, the hours, the deliverables, and we wait for them to do the math and decide, "Yes, that's for me."

But that's not how it works. People buy with their heart first. They decide with emotion. They say things like, "I want that. I want to be that. I'm so tired of feeling stuck." And then they go looking for reasons to back up the decision that they've already made.

Emotion opens the door. Logic just lets them walk through it and feel good about it. Have you ever done that? For me, it was Coach bags. When I was in college, my older sister had a gorgeous Coach bag, and I wanted one. So when I graduated, and I got my first job, it was one of my first purchases. I knew they were expensive, but at the time, they offered a lifetime warranty.

What could be better? So I saw myself with the bag, and the warranty clinched the deal for me. Did I care that I would be eating boxed macaroni and cheese for a month to afford it? No. I wanted the bag, and it fit who I wanted to be. So here's why it matters for your email. The transformation part, who the reader becomes, and the picture you paint of that transformation is the emotion.

That's the engine behind the email. Your buyer already wants the change. Leading with emotion just means you're finally talking about the thing that they care about the most instead of burying it under a features list. So here's the order. The transformation, who they become, that's the heart, the decision, and the engine.

That's what makes them want it. And the doubt defusing, the will this work for me question, [00:04:00] that's the head decision, and that clears the path, so they can say yes without feeling guilty or reckless. But you want to lead with the heart and back it up with the head. So do it backwards. All head, no heart, and you get the email that's very correct, like my client, and very ignored.

So today, I've got four moves, four shifts that turn a description-filled email into a persuasive one. Three of them build the wanting, and the fourth, is where you actually ask for the sale too, because you can write the most beautiful email in the world, and if you don't invite the yes, nothing happens.

Speaker 3: If you've heard me talk about the trail to the sale, this is exactly what's happening. They're walking through the middle path of that trail, and here's the questions that they're asking. Number one: Is this for me? At this point, you wanna paint a picture of who they'll become with this offer and meet them where they are right now.

Number two: What is this? That's the point where you can give them the nuts and bolts of the offer. Number three: Can I trust this? That's where you diffuse doubts. And number four: Am I ready? This is the ask. One clear action and an honest reason to move now instead of later. 

Speaker: Four questions. None of them are actually about the modules and the price. They're all about wanting, belonging, safety, and courage. Your job is to walk them through those four feelings until yes is a natural answer. That's why the email that just lists everything falls flat.

It answers what's in the box and leaves the real question, every heart question, sitting there unanswered. So today, I'm gonna use a made-up example the whole way through, so it's not abstract. We're gonna call this person Dana. Dana's a business coach. She's launching a small group program for her consultants who want to land better clients

we'll write Dana's email together as we go. So let's get into it

Shift number one, answer is this for me with the transformation. This one answers the biggest [00:06:00] question your reader's got, "Is this for someone like me?" And you don't wanna answer that by describing your offer. You answer it in two ways, and they work together.

First, paint a picture of who they become after they buy. Second, meet them in the exact spot they are right now. So let's take those one at a time. First, the transformation. Don't describe the course, the product, or the event.

There's an old saying that nobody wants a drill, they want the hole. Nobody wants your offer, they want the outcome. Nobody wants an accountant, they want financial success and clarity. So the question your email has to answer first is, "Who will my reader be on the other side of this?"

And then paint a picture they can step into. Here's Dana's version. She went with a head version, right? "Join my eight-week group coaching program for consultants." Okay. True, boring, doesn't move anyone. Now, here's the transformation version. "Imagine it's three months from now. You're on a discovery call with a potential client, and they ask what it's like to work with you.

Instead of giving a long explanation you explain your process in a way that just clicks. Okay. Same program, totally different email.

The first one, the one that said, "Join my eight-week coaching program," that one fell flat. The other one lands a reader in a picture of who they will become.

The second half of that is meeting them where they are. So you've given them a vision. Next, you need to determine where they are right at this moment and address it.

Because here's what a lot of us do. We write to someone vague and kind of a f-floaty audience, right? For example, you might say, "Are you a business owner who wants to grow?" Your reader reads that and feels nothing, because it might be true, but they're not seeing themselves in that description.

They're in the middle of something. They always are. They're at a plateau, they're working hard, and the needle's just not moving. Or there's some friction that they can't ignore anymore, or something that's been nagging them for months. Your job is to [00:08:00] f-learn about your ideal customer well enough to describe that real moment so precisely that they go,

Wait, how do you know that about me? Here's what they're actually deciding when you nail that moment for them. Is this for someone like me? That's the question they've got, and they'll never ask it out loud.

When you describe an actual, say, Tuesday morning, you answer it for them. They read it and they think, "Yeah, that's me."

Okay. So back to Dana. The first draft would be, if you want to grow your consulting business, da, da, da, versus a specific moment that you can write for them. It might sound like this: You're booked, you're busy, and you're quietly exhausted because half your clients don't pay what you're worth, and you've started to wonder if this is just how it's gonna be.

See what the second version does? Describing a real day beats an abstract benefit every single time. When you describe what their actual Tuesday looks like, they trust that you really understand the problem, which means they start to lean in and trust you and think that you might have the answer.

So when you put the two halves together, the transformation says, "Here's who you could be,"

and describing them right where they are says, "I see where you are at this moment." Put them side by side and your reader thinks, "Yes, this is for me."

Painting who they become right up against where they are right now is how you'll stand out. And a quick note on doing this well, get specific about the feeling and the situation. Okay, shift number two. What is this?

I know. I just spent the last few minutes saying you don't wanna lead with a what. Notice the order though. Your reader ask, "What is this?" first in their head, but you should answer it second. Here's why. If you open with the format and the price and the module list before they want it, you've lost them.

You're back to sending them the syllabus. But if you build what they want first, the transformation and where they're at, -- then tell them what it is, now they're leaning in and listening. Now the details feel like good [00:10:00] news instead of a spec sheet. So somewhere in here, you do have to tell them about your offer.

Nobody hands over a credit card just on a gut feeling. But keep it lean, maybe one paragraph. Just what it is, what's included, and that's it.

Here's my example for our fictitious Dana. "So here's what I got for you. A small group coaching program for consultants. Six weeks capped at 12 of us. You get real eyes on your business, not generic theory." That's it. That's the whole what is this? Short, clear, and it lands softly because they already want it before Dana has said a word about the format.

The mistake almost everybody makes isn't leaving out the what, it's leading with it and letting it eat the entire email. Build the wanting first, then tell them what it is Okay, shift number three, answer, can I trust this? This one's the heavier lift. It answers the question sitting under everything.

Can I trust this decision? Can I trust this person? Can I trust who's sending me this email? So you have to diffuse the doubt before you ever present the invitation. Here's what's happening inside their head. They're interested now because moves one and two did their job, but they've also got a whole bunch of doubts sitting in the back of their head,

and those doubts will keep nagging at them, and they're the questions they're probably not gonna say out loud. Things like, will this actually work for me? What happens if I do it and I don't get the results? Can I trust the process? Can I trust them?

What am I really risking here? Is it worth it? If you don't answer those questions, the doubts don't go away. They just quietly win, and your reader closes the email telling themselves, "Uh, maybe later," but later never comes. So you need to get ahead of them in the email even before they ask. For Dina, that might sound like, "Maybe you're thinking I've done a program before and nothing has changed.

I hear that, which is [00:12:00] exactly why this one's built around your actual client list, not generic theory. You'll leave every call with something you can use that week." So in that paragraph, we just answered the will this work for me question without waiting to be asked. But, and I need you to hear this part because this is where people can get themselves into a trap. Don't invent objections they didn't have. If you write, "You're probably worried this is a total scam," then you just planted a doubt that wasn't there before.

So answer the obvious questions that they're actually feeling, not every doubt in the universe, the real and obvious ones. Clients often have more questions before they buy, and you want to make it easy for them to ask those two. But start here with the most relevant and skip the other ones for now

and that will depend on who the customer is and what the program is and other things like the price. Okay, shift number four, answer am I ready?

Shift number one, you show them who they become. Shift number two, you told them what it is. Shift number three, you quieted the doubts that are in their head, and now you need to ask them. Because here's where so many good e-emails fall off the trail. They get all the way to the ask part, and then they go, "Anyway, the link's below if you want it." No, no, don't do that. You did all this work, now ask for the sale. Two things make the ask work. First, one clear action.

Not a bunch, not could you book a call or check the page or reply to this. One thing. Here's a link. Come join us. Make saying yes really easy, the easiest thing on the page. Second, give them a real reason to do it now

Because even if it's fully persuasive, they will say, "Well, I'll think about that, and I'll get to it later." But later never comes. So tell them why they should act right now. The real reason, not fake pressure. People can smell manufactured scarcity from a mile away, and it undoes all [00:14:00] the trust you just built in the first three shifts.

Enrollment actually closes Friday. The group actually fills at 12. The bonus call actually happens next week, and you can't rewind it. Whatever is true, say it plainly, but include it. For Dana, she might say, "We start Monday, and I cap the group at 12, so everybody gets real feedback. Two spots left. If that dream client version of your business is calling you, here's the door." One action, one honest reason. That's a close that doesn't feel pushy because you earned it in the first three shifts. Okay, let me show you Dana's whole email now, start to finish. All four shifts, in one email.

Listen to the questions getting answered in this email one by one. Now let me add, you may not want to do all of these in one email. You may want to spread them out among a series, and I'll talk about that in a minute. But for the sake of th-this conversation, let's do it in one email.

Okay, here's the whole email. " Imagine it's three months from now. A dream client just landed in your inbox, the kind you used to only hope for, and you named your fee without flinching, and they said yes. Right now, though, you're booked, you're busy, and you're quietly exhausted because half your clients don't pay you what you're worth, and you've started to wonder if this is just how it's gonna be.

If that's you, keep reading. Here's what I've got: a small group coaching program for consultants. Six weeks, capped at 12 of us, so you get real eyes on your business and not just generic theory. But maybe you're thinking, 'I've done a program before and nothing changed.' I hear you. This one's different because we work from your actual client list.

You'll leave every single call with somebody you already put to use that week. Not someday, that week. We start Monday. Two spots are left. If that dream client version of your business is calling, here's the link."

Okay, did you catch the questions that I answered in there?

The buyer's four questions [00:16:00] answered in the order that really works, because a good sales email just answers four questions already running through their head one at a time.

Now, because some of you are looking at a big launch, not a single email, and you're thinking, "Do I really need to cram all four questions into one email?" No, you don't have to. For a bigger launch, you can stretch out these four questions across a whole sequence, and honestly, you probably should.

There's only one rule that you need: keep them in order. Your early emails do the, "Is this for me?" work, the transformation, their real moment. The middle emails handle, "What is this?" and, "Can I trust this?" Those are the details, the objections, the doubts.

And your final email says, " Yep, this is the deadline. Here's the last call." Same four questions, same order, just stretched out among multiple emails. These four questions live right on the trail to the sale. This little email is walking your reader right down the middle of that trail. Okay, so here's my ask. If you've been writing emails that just describe your offer and wondering why they're not landing, I made something for you.

It's a swipeable worksheet that walks you through all four shifts for your next email. Fill in the blanks and you've got a draft

So grab it at myweeklymarketing.com/165. Thank you so much for joining me today.

If you found this episode valuable, please subscribe on your podcast platform of choice. Thanks so much for joining me today. I'll see you next time. Bye for now