Josh Earl

Make More Sales with Email Courses

Can Bonuses Actually Hurt Sales?

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I spent the first half of 2017 on a massive project:

Launching The Complete Software Developer's Career Guide, written by my business partner, John.

Overall the launch went great—we hit #2 on all of Amazon for non-fiction (actually it was #1, since we only lost out to a John Grisham novel that was *ahem* completely fictional) and even made the #6 spot on the Wall Street Journal's electronic non-fiction list.

Still, there are things about the launch that didn't go as planned.

One place I really missed the mark was with our paid email promotions.

I invested about $15,000 buying email blasts and sponsorships to other sites' lists.

The results were mediocre—about half the clicks I was anticipating, across the board.

Now there were several factors to this.

For example on one list, I didn't realize who the audience actually was until late in the game. (I might have passed on this one altogether if I'd realized this critical bit of info.)

However one of the most important issues was this:

I overcomplicated the offer.

The “offer” in this case was pretty outstanding.

For the launch, we priced an 800-page career-and-life-changing book that retails at $9.99 on Amazon all the way down to $0.99.

That's, like, what you'd pay for a pack of gum.

And I should have focused all of my copy on selling the value of the book to make it clear what an incredible steal this was.

Instead I got distracted.

The conventional wisdom on book launches like this is to give away a bunch of bonuses worth 10X the price of the book to get more people to buy.

So in my copy I talked about how book buyers would also get $175 worth of bonus video courses and tools, and I spelled out in detail what all the bonuses were.

Normally this is probably a good idea.

When you're selling at a higher price, bonuses help the customer to rationalize the purchase.

In hindsight, with the $0.99 price point, bringing the bonuses into the picture just gummed up what would have been a simple and compelling message.

Instead of just hammering home all the valuable lessons in the book and how we were practically giving it all away…

I got sucked into trying to sell 8 or 9 different things at once.

$0.99 is an impulse buy.

And all the bonus talk was like me jumping in front of them and waving my arms while they were reaching for the pack of gum.

Lesson learned.

The case against testing headlines

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Recently I shared the results of an interesting study.

A group of researchers looked at hundreds of A/B tests for ecommerce stores, and basically validated what experienced copywriters have said for generations:

Don't waste your time fiddling with cosmetics.

Test big things like your guarantee or adding customer testimonials.

In response, reader Karl points out that the study has a glaring omission:

They forgot to test headlines.

Now I can forgive them on this one.

These tests focused on ecommerce stores, which usually have product names vs. real headlines.

(By the way, testing product names is also a good idea.)

That raises a broader question though that I want to tackle today:

Is it even worth testing headlines in the first place?

I'll go out on a limb here and say that the way many people test headlines, they're wasting their time.

What?

Heresy!

Allow me to explain:

When I started working with John at Simple Programmer, his main lead magnet was an email course about how to start a programming blog.

Most of the signups for this lead magnet came from a popup on his site.

The blogging lead magnet converted at just under 1%.

I got excited when I saw that, because I knew a decent popup can do 2-3X better.

I figured I'd run a few A/B tests and score a quick win.

Nothing doing.

I must've run a dozen different tests with different headlines, and no matter what I tried, I couldn't seem to move the needle on that turkey.

A headline has two basic purposes:

1. To “flag down” the people who are most likely to be interested in your offer.

2. To get them to read whatever comes next.

The problem with most headline tests is that you're usually just expressing the same idea with slightly different words.

In my case, the idea boiled down to:

“Blogging will help you get a better software development job.”

If you're just shuffling words around and the core idea stays the same, that means the group of people that you're “flagging down” will stay pretty constant—and so will your results.

Instead of testing headlines, I aim to test different “appeals” or benefits.

For example, I could have pitched the same blogging lead magnet by saying:

“Blogging will help you learn new technologies and programming languages faster and more efficiently.”

Or:

“Blogging will help you earn more respect at work.”

In other words, test concepts, not phrasing.

Ask yourself:

What is a radically different way of looking at my offer that might reach a broader segment of my audience?

That's where you're likely to find those elusive 200-500% response bumps.

7 Questions For Copywriting Client Interviews

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Whenever I start a new marketing project, whether it's a consulting gig, a project for a client in my freelance days, or sponsorship or affiliate deals for Simple Programmer, step 1a is:

Conducting an interview.

Preferably with the founder of the business, or else someone who has day-to-day contact with customers.

I used to get very nervous about interviewing.

Since I worked as a journalist for several years, I had to overcome that fear.

I got an urgent email from a subscriber named Saumil who was staring into the teeth of his first copywriting interview:

Question – I am writing an ‘About page'. I want to know what services are being offered. I want to understand their business and services.

What questions should I be asking them to know that? Or what do you ask your clients to know their services?

My #1 takeaway from conducting hundreds of interviews as a reporter was:

It pays to prepare.

Sometimes an interview subject would call me back at an unexpected time when I didn't have my mental “game face” on.

Almost invariably these interviews were an awkward, frustrating disaster—full of single-word answers and uncomfortable pauses.

The interviews that went well were the ones where I set aside a dedicated block of time to prepare.

I'd spend 30-60 minutes or more to do some background reading on the topic and formulate a list of 20+ questions, sequenced in a logical order to ensure that I got the info I needed—and just as important, to keep the conversation flowing smoothly.

Because a well-conducted interview doesn't feel like an interview at all—it feels more like a coffee-shop chat with a good friend.

That's always how you get the most colorful quotes as a journalist, and no coincidence, it's also how you get the most useful insights as a marketer.

Here are some of the questions I gave Saumil that I regularly use for marketing projects:

– What EXACTLY is your product or service? How would you describe it to a stranger who has never met you?

– What is the major benefit? What are some of the important secondary benefits?

– What specifically does a prospect get when he or she signs up?

– How is your product/service different from your competition?

– Who is your target audience? What problems are they trying to solve that relate to your product? What is their age range? Income level? What other distinctive qualities do they have?

– What keywords and keyword phrases do you envision using in your copy?

– What objections might a prospective customer raise? How would you overcome those objections in a face-to-face meeting?

Afterward I heard back from Saumil:

Josh – You.Are.A.LIFE-SAVER.

Your email came at the right time. I was about to have a discussion and didn't know what to ask.

LOL – just took your questions and I am happy to say that it went well.

Last tip here:

Look at your questions as a guide, not a straightjacket.

Don't be afraid to go “off script” and follow the conversation when it's going in a productive direction.

And when you hit the end of that particular rabbit trail, the questions are there to show you the way.

 

P.S. Interviewing is an extremely valuable skill no matter what your profession.

And a good interview is a collaborative dance between the participants—nothing like the hostile, combative faceoffs you see on TV.

If you'd like to develop your skills in this area, check out Creative Interviewing by Ken Meztler.

Don’t Know What to Say in Your Copy? Ask This One-Word Question

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In my early days as a newspaper reporter, I had the “5 W's” drilled into me.

You know:

Who?

What?

When?

Where?

Why?

(Some people add on “How?” for good measure.)

Every time I hit a marketing challenge and I'm not sure where to start, I go back to the 5 W's—especially the first one.

Leading up to the best-selling launch of my business partner's second book, I was lining up a podcast interview when the host hit me with this:

“So I'm getting ready for my interview with John later today. Is there any message or point you want an audience to know about the book?”

For a second I froze like a deer in the headlights.

I *hate* questions like this.

I mean, the book is 800 pages and packed with career insights that apply to just about any software developer who's ever typed a line of code.

How am I supposed to pick just one main message?

Then my reporter instincts took over, and I fired back:

“Who is your main audience?”

Turns out the podcast listeners are a particular breed of developers who create automated tests for software applications.

Instantly I knew exactly what the message should be:

1. John actually broke into development from testing (twice!), so telling that story would give him instant street cred with the audience.

2. The most important parts of John's book are 100% transferrable to people in quality assurance/testing.

3. The book will also give testers an appreciation for life “on the other side of the fence,” so to speak. They'll understand developers better, which means they can train them to work better with the testing process—and that'll make the testing team's life easier.

See how this works?

The pitch almost writes itself.

And it all flows from that one critical word:

“Who?”

How “Pitching” Your Blog Posts To Your Email Subscribers Can Get You More Readers

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My business partner John is a one-man content creation juggernaught.

To give you an idea, this guy:

– Wrote a 3,000-word blog post every week for 7 years

– Created 55 video courses on different programming topics in less than 2 years

– Cranked out 2 500+ page books

– Now records 2-3 YouTube videos every single DAY

The upside to that kind of productivity is he's grown a huge audience.

The downside is that Simple Programmer is pretty much an avalanche of free content.

One of the things I like to do with the emails I write is to dig through the piles of content, find the gems that got the most traction on their own—and give them a second life.

Now a lot of people who have a blog will use their email list to send traffic to their posts.

The typical approach is to summarize what the blog post is about and close with a “click here to read more” call to action.

Better than nothing, sure.

Also dry, boring, uninspiring.

The way I tackle this is to use entertainment to hook the reader in and “sell” them on the benefits of the free content that lies behind the link.

(Yes, you do have to *sell* your blog posts and other content these days—you're competing for the reader's attention against a million different distractions.)

For example:

I recently sent an email to pitch a free video series about how to solve the tricky “code puzzle” interview questions that developers love to hate.

I opened the email with an example question that would make most developers immediately break out in a cold sweat.

Then I showed why the usual way of preparing for these interviews is completely useless.

And how John developed an approach that let him “read the seams on the fastball” no matter what the interviewers threw his way…

Which he spells out in the videos.

That email got some of the highest clickthroughs I've ever seen on this list.

And it's so much more fun to read than a ho-hum summary of the contents of the videos.

Bonus tip:

When you write a blog post, instead of starting with the usual 3-paragraphs summarizing what you're about to write, jump right into an entertaining story or example like I'm describing.

This type of writing can be just as engaging in a blog post as it is in an email.

Then when it's time to send your email, you can just copy and paste the first part of your blog post, ending with a cliffhanger that all but forces the reader to click through…

Do You ‘Need’ A Different Sales Funnel For Each Product?

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I'll be the first to admit it—

The way I run the email list for Simple Programmer is WAY more complex than most businesses need.

Multiple email courses, behavior-based automated triggers, segmentation…

Most people would do much better to take a simple approach.

Just how simple?

That's what subscriber Javier is pondering:

If you have two products, do you have to create two lead magnets and two email courses?

Or you can create a lead magnet with one course and just go into another course when the previous course is ending?

Imagine that you have a product about photo editing and another about how to use lighting for better photos… The pain point of each course is different.

In this case I think that the best option is create two lead magnet (can be email courses) and two squeeze pages and sending traffic to those squeeze pages.

Just because you have two different products that solve two different pain points does NOT mean you automatically need to have two different lead magnets or email courses.

And just to muddy the waters further:

Just because you only have one product doesn't mean you should only have one lead magnet or email course.

Sometimes you will do better with two, or even three or four.

The way to know how many email courses to create is to take one step back and think about who is the ideal customer “avatar” for each product.

In Javier's case, he has a product about photo editing and one about lighting in photography.

For a moment, let's assume that both are 101-level courses, and the ideal customer is a relatively new “shutterbug,” a hobbyist photographer who is just learning the ropes.

In this case, you can do just fine with a single email course as your main lead magnet.

Pick whichever topic brings you more traffic—either lighting tricks or photo editing, create an email course around that to sell your first product, then as soon as they finish that, you can start sending them emails about the other product.

Both products are likely to be relevant, because most amateur photographers have a similar level of skill and knowledge.

Now let's throw in a curve ball here:

Say Javier is still selling Lighting 101, but his photo editing course is aimed at professional photographers who are retouching studio portraits.

This is where things can get more complicated.

Here you probably *do* need multiple sales funnels, because you're talking to divergent audiences with different problems and different skill levels.

Pro photogs may be insulted by the basic Lighting 101 content, and the Photo Editing 401 content will sail over the heads of the shutterbugs.

A good “rule of thumb” is:

One email course and sales funnel per customer avatar.

One customer, one funnel.

Multiple customers, multiple funnels.

Don't make it more complex than it needs to be.

Confessions of a Compulsive ‘Word Hoarder’

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In college I had this problem whenever I went to write a paper.

The professors would always assign some arbitrary length—”10 pages, double spaced.”

Invariably I'd be working on my draft, and around 8 pages in I'd slam into a wall.

I'd covered all my points, said everything I wanted to say.

Where on earth was I going to dig up another 2 pages?

My problem (which wasn't a problem at all, really) is that I wrote “tight.”

Not a lot of excess words.

I tended to convey in a paragraph what other students would drag out for a full page.

And I'd avoid “rabbit trailing” onto ideas that were only tangentially related to the main point of my paper.

Both good things.

Over the years though I developed a real fear of “not having enough to say.”

This fear rears it's ugly head in a clingy attachment to words, just because I've already typed them on the page.

When I'm writing often I don't want to delete ANYTHING.

What if I need that later?

This is a BAD place to be when you're writing anything—ESPECIALLY emails and sales copy.

You want your writing to have clarity, focus and flow.

And that only comes through ruthlessly eliminating stray words and side trips.

The way that I pacify my inner “word hoarder” while also streamlining my copy is to keep a “cuts” file.

Here's how it works:

Lately I'm working on a long-form landing page for an Amazon book launch.

I have 3-4 different headlines written, and I'll probably create at least a few more.

My main document is starting to get really messy—to the point where it's hard to see what I'm even working on.

So I keep a second document that I might call “Book Launch Page – Cuts.”

Instead of deleting headline ideas, blocks of text, juicy phrases I'm attached to…

I just cut/paste them into this cuts doc.

That way I'm not “losing” any of my hard work, and my inner hoarder can shut up and stop shrieking so I can keep moving.

Of course the dirty little secret is I'll never look at this document again.

It's kinda like putting stuff you want to get rid of in a box, taping the lid shut, waiting six months so you forget what's in it—and then pitching the whole thing in the dumpster.

That's the strategy here.

And it works just fine for me.

Just please—don't tell my inner word hoarder, K?

5 Tips for Writing Emails When You’re Short on Time

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Subscriber Chad recently took the plunge and signed up for CopyHour (excellent decision—I'm sure he will not regret it).

However…

He now finds himself in a time crunch:

Josh —

Loving CopyHour.

But, my daily email efforts are a mess now.

I’ve got ideas whirling and I’m off message and letting too many typos slip by me and who knows if I’m adding value to my list.

All of this while the day job is wide open.

Keeping the side-gig going and my daily emails meaningful to readers while also trying to learn something new isn’t easy.

Any suggestions?

Ever drop back to 2-3 emails per week during trying seasons?

I hit this too from time to time.

Lately I've been traveling a lot more than usual, and that always knocks me out of my normal routine.

Here are a few “survival tips” that help me through busy periods:

– Stick to your schedule, but work on writing faster. Set a specific time of day and length of time that you're going to write and stick to it. Working to a timer like this will help you stay focused so you get done sooner.

– “Hack” your emails by getting double duty from your personal correspondence. Ever notice how many of my emails are replies to questions I get (like this one)? I get a lot of questions every week, and since I'm going to reply to them anyway, I take a few extra minutes and answer in the form of an email to this list.

– Speaking of questions, answering questions is the fastest and easiest way I know of to write emails. It eliminates all the hmmming and hawing over what to write about today.

– Lower your expectations a bit. If you typically write 500 words, it's fine to do some quick 200-word emails for a while.

– Finally, you can always recycle emails. Only a quarter of your list will read any given message, so why not pull out something you wrote 6 months ago and send it again? I do this every so often. Since I've been writing daily for more than a year and a half now, I have hundreds of emails in my “back catalog.” Hardly anyone ever notices. (Although a few of you do bust me from time to time…)

If you're still relatively new to writing emails though, don't give yourself an “easy out” every time life gets a little busy.

Treat recycling as your last option.

Fight tooth and nail to stick to your schedule.

Getting good at writing emails is all about consistency and building good habits.

It does get easier, I promise.

Away From Pain Or Toward Pleasure: Which Is Better?

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One of the most frustrating things when you're learning a new topic is all the conflicting information and advice you hear.

Occasionally the conflict arises because the information is just BAD.

Based on myths, junk science, political agendas, what have you.

More often though, the problem is that a particular piece of advice works SPECTACULARLY for 70% of people…

And not at ALL for the other 30%.

This is how you get fitness and diet programs where some people get completely jacked and shredded, while other people don't see any results.

It's not that the program doesn't work, it's that it was the wrong program for YOU.

This is true in marketing too.

Take the issue of using a negative (fear and agitation) approach vs. a positive (benefits and “sell the dream”) approach.

Reader Ant recently asked me why I often choose negative angles for my email courses, ala “5 Learning Mistakes Software Developers Make”…

And in the next breath I'm telling how a positive spin works better in other niches, like runners?

Am I contradicting myself here?

The key to resolving this kind of conflicting advice is to give up on trying to find the “right” answer.

Because usually both are “right”… when applied in the right situation.

You look for the core principles that lie behind both approaches—and then you're able to select the right tool for your specific situation.

In this case, the core principle is understanding what most motivates the people in your market.

Some markets are inherently optimistic, enthusiastic, starry eyed, driven to achieve…

In these situations, a positive, upbeat, “look what we can achieve together” angle may work better.

Runners fall in this camp from what I've seen. They're motivated by a desire to improve their performance and the dream of leaving their running buddies in the dust.

Other people are so mired in their daily pain and frustration that they won't believe the bold, sunny promises you're making.

The “positive vibes” are so far from their current emotional state that they just reject your message out of hand.

You may have to work just to get them to believe that a solution is even *possible*.

In these jaded markets a negative approach will win the day.

“Away from pain”?

Or “toward pleasure”?

Both can work.

To find out which is right for YOU, start by getting in step with your audience's dominant mood and motivations.

How to Capture Attention with a Winning ‘Sales Argument’

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I just wrapped up a product launch at Simple Programmer.

This project had a couple of unique twists to it.

For one thing, I was NOT the one writing most of the copy.

Instead I was “copy chiefing” a software developer and (relatively) new copywriter named Dan.

Then there was the topic of the course itself.

Mostly what we talk about at Simple Programmer is “soft skills” stuff, all the non-technical skills that are still critical for success. Things like communication, attitude and mindset, planning your career, and so on.

This course, though, dealt with a “hard skill”—namely learning to program in JavaScript.

That presented a unique challenge:

How do we get an audience of programmers who aren't thinking about learning JavaScript to sit up and at least *consider* the idea?

The answer lay in constructing the right “sales argument.”

The sales argument is a logical chain of ideas that leads, step by step, to your product.

As you make each point, you bring in enough proof to get your reader to agree with what you're saying before moving on to the next link in the chain.

In this case, the audience we were talking to mainly consisted of developers who are satisfied with their current choice of programming language—for the sake of simplicity let's say they are all PHP developers.

So how do you get a contented PHP developer to consider learning JavaScript?

The first step in the sales argument is:

Change happens fast in technology.

And we gave several examples where developers were caught flat-footed when their language of choice suddenly fell out of favor. Uh, oh.

Next:

Demand for traditional “backend” languages like PHP seems to be slowing.

More proof, leading them to wonder, “Is there a trend away from my ‘bread and butter' technology?”

Then:

Momentum is shifting from these old-school languages to JavaScript.

Still more proof that shows how developers and companies are switching to JavaScript in record numbers.

Finally:

By learning JavaScript today, you're hedging your bets in case the job market shifts dramatically.

NOW the reader is ready to hear about all the high-paying job opportunities in JavaScript, and how learning JavaScript doesn't have to be a long and painful process.

The sales argument sets the stage for your reader to consider the benefits of your product or service.

Do it right, and you can get them from “meh, don't care” to “huh, maybe I SHOULD buy this after all…”

 

P.S. Not every single piece of copy needs an elaborate sales argument.

Typically this is a tool you reach for when your audience's “state of awareness” of what you sell is low.

This “state of awareness” idea is one of the most critical concepts in marketing.

When you understand it, you develop an “internal compass” that guides you to write copy that makes sales.

The BEST way I know to get this pounded into your muscle memory is CopyHour.

I don't run CopyHour—but I've taken it myself.

Twice, actually. It is THAT valuable.

Enrollment is open now at:

https://joshuaearl.com/copyhour