How to write a personality-filled email that your people wanna read

In today’s busy and crowded market – the best place to have intimate conversations with your audience is through email.

It’s true – sometimes I’m sharing things to my email list that I haven’t even mentioned to people IRL. And not in a #TMI way, but in a, I’m just a vulnerable business owner sharing about my wins and losses in order to serve, connect, and inspire kinda way. 

And this mentality can truly take your business to new heights in the online world.

That’s because your email list can quickly become the lifeblood of your company – *when* you write consistently engaging and valuable emails. 

But how the heck do you do it? 

I’ve got you! 

In this blog post, I’m breaking down the not-so-basic basics on the structure of a personality-filled email that your people wanna read.

I’ve broken this down in the exact order of how my emails take form, too. 

Ready to start woo-ing your list, building stronger connections, and growing your readership?

Here we go! 

STEP ONE: The reason. What’s the reason for the email – a sales message? A new offer? A big announcement? Or maybe it’s a connection email – a lesson learned, a top 10 roundup, a book recommendation, or a thoughtful insight. Whatever it is – there needs to be a reason for the email, and it needs to be valuable for them to read. I stand by this motto for every email – especially in launch emails. (For sales emails specifically, I encourage you to ask yourself – if my reader doesn’t take action on this offer – will they still find value in it?)

Other possibilities for your ‘reason’ might include – sharing a new live podcast, explaining a valuable tip you discovered after hiring/firing a contractor, or exposing a vulnerable message regarding your recent launch struggles.

Got your reason for the email?

Great. Write it down, and let’s move on. 

STEP TWO: The Story. Here’s the fun part. It’s when we connect your reason to a story. Don’t get scared of the word Story here, instead, just look at it as a “story snippet.” Story snippets are short paragraphs that engage and connect with your reader, and that seamlessly leads into the value of the email. Yes, every email can and should have some level of a story. 

Here’s why: I received this email from a man selling a Spanish course. It read:

That was the entire sales email. Did it inspire me to click? Nope!

Now, they could have very simply shared a story relating to language learning, and that would have pulled me into the email so much better.

For example, he could have written about the time he said the wrong Spanish word at a formal dinner party while traveling Spain. He could have shed light on how embarrassing that moment was and the funny remarks from everyone around the dinner table. This would have led to the reason for the email, offering his program – that part you’ve already established above in “the reason” – which could have looked like this, “I created this course so you don’t have any embarrassing moments on your Spanish learning journey like I did.” Boom! A story that leads to the reason. 

What kind of story can I share, you ask? Almost literally anything. The point of the story is to connect with your reader, and then use that story as a segway into talking about your offer/reason.

Maybe it’s a personal experience that you’re having in your business.
Maybe it’s an experience from one of your clients.
Maybe it was about something you saw on TV, or something random that with your kids teacher. 

It can even be a random moment like this one, when I got a tractor stuck in the edge of the lake… whoops!

The key, though, is that you have to be SEARCHING for these stories in your day-to-day life. They don’t just appear when you sit down to write. And when something half interesting happens I always suggest writing it down in something like Evernote or your Notes app, so you have a running tab of story bank ideas.

Pssst – I have a whole lesson called Story Selling Swipes + Secrets inside The Email Closer if you’d like to learn how to weave stories in (and how to find these stories in the first place!)

Need some prompts on connecting your story to your lesson?

It can be as simple as the following:

• Why am I telling you all this? Here’s why… 
• Here’s what this reminds me of…
• And that’s the funny thing about (story topic). It (makes you realize/gets you thinking about…)
  

STEP THREE: Short First Line. This one goes back to the fundamentals of copywriting – making your words easy to consume! When I open up emails that immediately start with big chunks of text – they get the big ol’ delete almost immediately. 

Therefore, make sure your email opens up with a punchy and SHORT first line. Lazy man tip: just hit ‘enter’ after your first line to break it up!

Here’s my same tractor story as above, but without step three:

STEP FOUR: CTA. At this point, you’ve got the main email written out: You’ve got the short first line to pull your reader in. You’ve got the story snippet that your reader relates with, which makes them want to keep reading. And then you’ve connected it to your reason for the email. Now, let’s mosey back down to the bottom and add in your CTA’s (Call to Action).

Every email needs one. I suggest 2-3 per email. Note: these are all the same URL, just sprinkled in multiple times. That’s because we only ever want ONE call to action. Because if you’re telling your reader to 1) Click a link, 2) Go read a blog post, 3) Think about something thought-provoking, and 4) Hit reply and tell you all about it ALL in one email… you’ll confuse the heck outta them, and they likely won’t take action on ANY. So just one CTA 🙂

Looking for binge-able and non-sleazy CTA’s? 50 of my fav (and highest converting ones) are neatly stashed away for you in The Email Closer.

STEP FIVE: PS. Have you ever opened an email and just scrolled to the PS first to see what it’s all about? I catch myself doing it every so often, and then scrolling back up to the top of the email if I feel like it’s of interest to me!… Which tells us just how important the ‘PS’ is.

Use the precious real estate of your ‘PS’ to reiterate the reason + CTA in your email.

Example:

STEP SIX: Subject Line. Last and most importantly, comes the subject line! This bad boy happens at the end because you need the meat from your body copy to create it.

Remember, the job of your subject line is to *just* get the email opened. It’s not to sell anything. Here’s some tips on crafting an attention-grabbing subject line:

>>>Use Curiosity

Before and after:
– This is what I said VS
– Did I really just say that?

Before and after:
– 5 ways to stay happy VS.
– Happiness is inside this email

>>>Write it like how you’d write to a friend

Before and after:
– Would You Like To Book A Strategy Session With Me? VS
– strategy session?

>>>Write it about your reader

Before and after:
– There are 3 types of Instagrammers VS.
– What kind of Instagrammer are you?

Want more subject lines swipes? Hop on over to The Email Closer…

A healthy email list gives you a leg up on every other entrepreneur out there. Personally, my beautiful group of subscribers is my main power source that allows me to create, serve, connect, and sell.

And these relationships have happened SOLELY through sharing personality-driven and highly valuable emails. Consistently.

Any hesitations with your email game? 

Let me know in the comments!